By the spring of 1987, the Grateful Dead were riding a remarkable wave. "In the Dark" was still months away from release — it would arrive that July and push "Touch of Grey" into genuine Top 40 territory — but the band was already playing with the confidence and momentum that would define one of their most commercially successful periods. Brent Mydland, now firmly established as the band's keyboardist after joining in 1979, had grown into the role with a muscular, bluesy touch that suited the arena-sized rooms the Dead were increasingly calling home. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and the Hart-Kreutzmann rhythm section were a well-oiled machine, and spring '87 found them in fine form as they moved through the east. The Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts was one of those mid-sized arenas — seating around 14,000 — that became a reliable stop on the Dead's increasingly ambitious touring schedule through the 1980s. Worcester sits in the heart of central Massachusetts, and the New England Dead faithful were always a passionate, demonstrative crowd. The Centrum wasn't Barton Hall, but it was a room with good bones and an audience that knew how to listen and how to move.
The partial setlist preserved in the database sketches a night that leaned on the band's road-tested rock and country-rock repertoire. "New Minglewood Blues" is a classic opener — Chuck Berry-indebted and rollicking, it's the kind of song that tells a room right away whether the band means business. The "Me & My Uncle" into "Mexicali Blues" pairing is Weir's western-outlaw heartland, a sequence so polished by this point that the transitions feel inevitable, though a great performance still finds space to breathe and surprise. "When Push Comes to Shove," a Garcia original that appeared on "In the Dark," was still a relative newcomer to the setlist at this point, which makes its presence here particularly interesting for fans tracing how the band was road-testing material ahead of the album's release. "Black Peter" — one of Garcia's most quietly devastating slow burns — is the emotional pivot point worth seeking out, and "Around & Around" is the kind of Chuck Berry closer that could bring down a convention center ceiling. The tape flip mid-Drums and after "When Push Comes to Shove" signals an audience recording, likely a decent-generation capture from a reliable taper in a room that was generally friendly to taping. Settle in, let Brent's piano carry you through, and appreciate catching the Dead on the verge of their unlikely second act in the spotlight.