By the spring of 1987, the Grateful Dead were riding one of the more unlikely cultural waves of their career. *In the Dark* was taking shape in the studio — it would drop that summer and bring "Touch of Grey" into heavy MTV rotation, introducing the band to an entirely new generation of fans. But on stage in March, the Dead were still very much a live animal, playing to the faithful with Brent Mydland firmly established as the band's keyboardist after nearly a decade in the seat. Brent had shed the awkwardness of his early years and was now a genuine force — his Hammond B-3 and synths giving the band a muscularity and occasional gospel heat that contrasted beautifully with Garcia's liquid guitar work. This was the arena-era Dead at a mature, confident moment, not the exploratory wilderness of the mid-70s but not yet the occasionally ragged final years either. The Spectrum in Philadelphia was a classic mid-sized arena that hosted the Dead for years, and Philadelphia crowds had a well-earned reputation for bringing the energy. There's something about the northeast corridor — Philly, New York, Boston — where the rooms seemed to crackle with a particular intensity, the kind of audiences who had grown up with this music and knew exactly when to hold their breath and when to let it go.
The song we have from this show is "Let It Grow," which in 1987 remains one of the more majestic vehicles in the Dead's active repertoire. Built on a hypnotic ascending chord structure, "Let It Grow" rewards a patient band and a patient audience — it tends to bloom in stages, Garcia's lines weaving through Weir's rhythm work until the whole thing lifts off in the outro. When it's cooking, it has an almost orchestral sweep to it. The question with any given performance is whether the band finds that zone where the song stops feeling like a composition and starts feeling like a discovery happening in real time. A strong late-80s version will have Brent punching through the texture at just the right moments, and Weir leaning into the drama of those chord changes. Whether this is a soundboard or audience source will shape how intimately you hear all of that detail, but either way, the spring '87 tour has plenty of well-documented nights worth tracking down — and a "Let It Grow" that earns its keep is always worth cueing up.