By the spring of 1986, the Grateful Dead were well into their arena-rock middle age, a band that had shed some of the exploratory danger of their earlier years but remained capable of transcendent nights when everything clicked. Brent Mydland had been holding down the keyboards chair since 1979, and his muscular, bluesy approach had become central to the band's identity — he could drive a rocker with real authority and add soulful depth to the quieter moments. Jerry Garcia's guitar was still a revelation when he locked in, and the rhythm section of Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir had long since achieved the kind of telepathic rapport that made every night its own animal. The mid-eighties also marked a period of renewed commercial momentum for the band, as a younger wave of fans were finding their way to the phenomenon — arenas were filling up, and the Grateful Dead were becoming, improbably, one of the biggest touring acts in America. The Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine was a mid-sized arena of the type the Dead were calling home regularly by this point — not an iconic room with the mystique of Winterland or the natural amphitheater grandeur of Red Rocks, but a solid, workmanlike Northeast venue where the band played to a committed regional fanbase. New England crowds in the eighties tended to be loud and enthusiastic, and Portland offered the band a legitimate road-stop energy without the overwhelming spectacle of a major market.
The songs we have from this night offer a tantalizing cross-section of the show. "Jack Straw" — one of Weir's great showcases — is always worth hearing for the interplay between his rhythm guitar and Garcia's lead; when they're synced up on the vocal harmonies and Garcia's fills are singing, it's one of the most satisfying moments in any Dead set. "New Minglewood Blues" and "Big Railroad Blues" represent the band's deep love of traditional American blues forms, with Brent often pushing these into something harder-edged than the earlier Pigpen-era versions. "Peggy-O" is one of the quieter jewels of the Garcia songbook, a traditional folk tune he transformed into something genuinely moving — listen for the delicacy of his phrasing in the verses. The presence of "Space" in the database suggests we're looking at second-set material, always fertile ground for the unexpected. If you've got the itch for a solid mid-eighties Dead night with some blues grit, strong Weir material, and the possibility of a Garcia ballad done right, this one's worth the spin.