By the fall of 1981, the Grateful Dead were a well-oiled machine running on the engine of their classic post-hiatus lineup: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Brent Mydland, who had by this point fully settled into the keyboard chair he'd claimed in 1979. The early '80s represented a transitional moment — the band was playing arenas with increasing regularity, and Brent's more muscular, R&B-inflected style was pushing the sound in a harder, more electric direction than the cosmic warmth of the Keith and Donna years. This was a working band at a mature moment, comfortable in their identity and still capable of genuine surprises on any given night. The Sports Palace is a somewhat unusual entry in the Dead's touring history — a large indoor arena in Barcelona, Spain, which places this show within a European run that the Dead undertook in the fall of 1981. The band's European excursions were always special occasions, drawing crowds who brought a particular intensity of enthusiasm to the proceedings. Playing for audiences who had waited years between visits from the band tends to generate a heightened electricity on both sides of the stage, and this era of European touring carried some of that same spirit that made the legendary 1972 run so mythologized. Of the songs we have confirmed from this date, both offer a lot to unpack.
"Let It Grow" — the sprawling, structurally ambitious Weir composition from 1974's "Wake of the Flood" — is the kind of song that reveals itself differently each time out. In the early '80s, Brent's Hammond B3 could give it a cathedral grandeur, and Weir was still finding new corners in those chord changes. A great "Let It Grow" builds patiently and then opens up like a door swinging wide, and this is a song worth tracking across eras. "Mexicali Blues" is something else entirely — a loose, swinging Weir showcase with a winking, storytelling energy, a palate cleanser that the band always seemed to enjoy stretching out or keeping compact depending on the mood of the room. Recording information for this show is limited, but European dates from this period sometimes surface as audience recordings of varying quality — if a decent tape exists, the room sound of a continental arena can be part of the charm. Whatever you're working with here, the combination of an unusual venue, a hungry crowd, and two strong Weir vehicles makes this one worth queuing up.