By the summer of 1985, the Grateful Dead had settled into their arena-era stride — a band that had survived personnel upheaval, the Wall of Sound's financial wreckage, and the wilderness years of the early '80s to emerge as one of rock's most reliable live draws. Brent Mydland was now fully embedded as the band's keyboardist, his soulful voice and Hammond-driven intensity having replaced the gentler presence of Keith Godchaux years earlier. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and the two drummers — Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart — were firing on all cylinders that summer, working through a setlist vocabulary that balanced old favorites with the harder-edged material that defined the mid-decade sound. The Dead were touring heavily through large sheds and outdoor amphitheaters, reaching massive audiences while still finding moments of genuine improvisation within the familiar architecture. Blossom Music Center, nestled in the rolling countryside of Cuyahoga Falls south of Cleveland, was exactly the kind of outdoor amphitheater the Dead had come to call home in this period. Its covered pavilion and sloping lawn gave it an open, summery feel that suited the band's communal energy perfectly — a natural gathering place in the heartland of the Midwest, where the Dead consistently drew passionate and devoted crowds. The songs surfacing from this show span both the band's classic touchstones and their harder-rocking present.
"China Cat Sunflower" going into "I Know You Rider" — one of the Dead's most beloved two-fer segues, dating back to their early communal days — always rewarded close listening in this era for the way Garcia's leads unfurl with a kind of melodic inevitability. "Jack Straw," opening with its crisp Weir-Garcia vocal interplay, was a reliable first-set engine, and a well-played version carries that dusty Highway 61 energy the song was born from. "Dire Wolf" brings a quieter, Garcia-sung tenderness, a fan favorite from the Workingman's Dead era that offered textural relief within the set. And the Beatles cover "Day Tripper" fits the playful side of mid-'80s Dead, the kind of loosened-up number they deployed when the mood called for it. The Drums > Space passage, as always, is the dark heart of the second set — where Kreutzmann and Hart hold the whole enterprise at the edge of silence before Garcia and the band rebuild the world from scratch. If you've been sleeping on summer '85, this one's a fine place to wake up.