By September 1987, the Grateful Dead were a genuine cultural phenomenon in ways they hadn't quite been before — "Touch of Grey" was in heavy rotation on MTV, *In the Dark* had gone platinum, and arenas that had once seemed too large now felt like the natural habitat for a band that had somehow become America's most unlikely mainstream success story. Brent Mydland was firmly settled into the keyboard chair he'd held since 1979, and his muscular, R&B-inflected playing gave this era of the band a brighter, harder edge than the more exploratory textures of the Keith Godchaux years. Jerry's guitar tone in '87 had that characteristic glassy, MIDI-tinged quality — divisive among purists, but undeniably powerful in a big room — and the rhythm section of Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann was locked in as tight as any point in the decade. Madison Square Garden was, and remains, the cathedral of the Dead's East Coast calendar. Playing the Garden meant something — it was a homecoming for the New York faithful, a room where the crowd energy could be almost overwhelming in its intensity, and a venue the band returned to year after year precisely because that relationship with the audience was so electric. The fall '87 run at MSG would have been eagerly anticipated by fans who understood that a band this deep into its commercial peak still had real fire to offer on a given night.
The two songs in our database from this show offer an interesting window into the evening. "Mexicali Blues" — the Bobby Weir and John Barlow country-flavored romp — was a perennial first-set opener or early-slot crowd-pleaser, loose and fun, the kind of song that let the band shake off any opening-night stiffness and signal that the night was going to be relaxed and joyful. "The Wheel," meanwhile, is one of Garcia's most spiritually resonant compositions, and in 1987 it was often used as a flowing segue point, its cyclical melody and open-ended structure inviting the kind of exploratory jamming that rewarded patient listeners. The transition out of "The Wheel" (noted here as a segue) is worth paying close attention to — those moments where the song dissolves into something new are often where the real magic lives. Recording quality for MSG shows from this period varies, but the Garden was a well-documented room with active taping communities, and the odds are reasonable that a listenable source exists. Pull this one up, find a comfortable spot, and let the wheel turn.