By the fall of 1985, the Grateful Dead were deep into the Brent Mydland era, a period that often gets overshadowed by the glory years of the late '70s but rewards patient listeners with its own distinct character. Brent had been aboard since 1979, and by this point his Hammond organ and piano work had fully integrated into the band's sound — muscular and soulful, with an edge that pushed the rhythm section in ways Keith Godchaux rarely did. Jerry Garcia was playing Gibson guitars almost exclusively now, his tone rounded and warm, and the band was touring steadily through large sheds and outdoor amphitheaters, building the massive fanbase that would define their late-period cultural footprint. The summer and fall of '85 kept the Dead on the road constantly, and shows from this stretch can carry a loose, lived-in energy that reflects a band that had been road-testing these songs for years. Devore Field sits in Devore, California, tucked against the base of the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles in the Inland Empire. It's the same site that would eventually become the Glen Helen Amphitheater and later host major festival events — a wide, sprawling outdoor space capable of swallowing enormous crowds. In the mid-'80s it was a natural fit for a Dead show, drawing from the vast Southern California fanbase that had always been among the most devoted in the country.
The high desert air and mountain backdrop gave outdoor shows here a character all their own. The songs documented from this show offer a tantalizing glimpse into the evening. "Fire on the Mountain" is one of the great partnership songs in the Dead catalog — born from Mickey Hart's "Happiness Is Drumming" rhythm patterns and Robert Hunter's elemental imagery, it has a hypnotic, cycling groove that Garcia's guitar rides with patient, searching elegance. The fact that it appears alongside two instances of "Drums" suggests we're looking at the second set's rhythmic heart, with the full drum duo interlude and then the band dropping back into "Fire on the Mountain" as they return from the percussion space. That sequence — the tribal pulse of Drums giving way to the cyclical, almost trance-inducing forward motion of "Fire" — is one of the Dead's most reliable transcendent passages. The recording quality for this date is worth investigating before you settle in, as mid-'80s Southern California shows vary widely from crisp soundboards to murkier audience tapes. Whatever the source, let the drums carry you in and don't resist when "Fire on the Mountain" catches its groove — that's exactly when this band was at their best.