By the fall of 1985, the Grateful Dead were well into their arena-era stride, touring behind *In the Dark* still a couple years away but already drawing the large crowds that would define their late-period ascent. Brent Mydland had been in the fold since 1979, and by this point his Hammond-drenched contributions had become thoroughly woven into the band's fabric — his voice a genuine counterpoint to Garcia's weathered tenor, his keys adding a muscular edge that set this era apart from the floating, exploratory mid-seventies sound. The band was tight, professional, and capable of inspired nights even in mid-sized rooms, which is exactly what Rochester's Community War Memorial Auditorium offered. A solid civic hall in upstate New York, the War Memorial was the kind of venue the Dead could fill with room to breathe — not an intimate club, but not a shed either. Rochester audiences had a reputation for showing up ready, and the Northeast fall runs of the eighties tended to deliver focused, energetic performances. The fragments we have from this show sketch an intriguing portrait of an evening with range and variety. "Stella Blue" is one of Garcia's most achingly beautiful vehicles, a song that rewards patience — when he finds the right groove in those final, suspended bars, it can reduce a room to stunned silence.
That it flows directly into something else here makes the segue worth close attention. "High Time" is a rarer pleasure, a tender Workingman's Dead gem that shows up infrequently enough in the eighties that its appearance signals the band in a generous, unhurried mood. The Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'" was a reliable Brent showcase — he owned that kind of full-throttle rock-and-soul number the way few keyboardists could — and its pairing here (twice listed, suggesting a reprise or a linked sequence) points to some real momentum building in the room. "Mexicali Blues" drifts in with its wry Weir swagger, and "Beat It On Down the Line" provides the kind of up-tempo release that sends a crowd home happy. The recording quality for this show is not among the most widely circulated, so your mileage may vary depending on the source in hand — but even a decent audience tape of a night like this rewards the hunt. Listen for how the band navigates the transitions between such tonally different material, and whether Brent's organ work in the Lovin' sequence has the growl it deserves. This one has the feel of a real night.