By the fall of 1987, the Grateful Dead were riding an unlikely second wave of mainstream visibility, partly off the momentum of *In the Dark* — released just months earlier that summer — and the surprise MTV and radio presence of "Touch of Grey." The arena circuit had become their natural habitat, and Long Beach Arena, a reliable Southern California stop in those years, suited the band's mid-to-late-'80s profile well: a big room that could hold the energy of a crowd that had grown considerably younger and more diverse since the arena era took hold. Brent Mydland was firmly established as the band's keyboardist by now, having shed any lingering awkwardness from his 1979 debut, and his gospel-inflected Hammond work and increasingly confident lead vocals gave the band a muscular, slightly harder-edged sound compared to the Keith Godchaux years. Garcia's playing in this period had its peaks and valleys, but on a good night in '87, the interplay between him and Mydland could be genuinely inspired. Long Beach Arena sat in that category of reliable SoCal venues — not mythologized the way, say, a Greek Theatre or Frost Amphitheatre show might be, but beloved by West Coast heads for the reliable energy of the hometown-adjacent crowd. Southern California audiences in this era were loud and engaged, and the band responded in kind more nights than not. What we have from this show points to an interesting stretch of the setlist. "Deal" is one of Jerry's great workhorses — a Robert Hunter barn-burner that opens up into a showcase for Garcia's lead guitar when the band is cooking, with a rhythmic momentum that Weir and the drummers lock into beautifully.
It's not a song that lends itself to transcendence, exactly, but a scorching "Deal" is one of the most purely fun things the Dead could deliver. "Throwing Stones" is a different creature entirely — one of Weir and John Barlow's more explicitly political compositions, with its churning, anthemic build and the inevitable plunge into "Not Fade Away" that typically followed. The "> " notation here confirms that transition, and a crowd deep into a Long Beach Arena night would have lit up for the familiar Bo Diddley beat. Recording quality for November 1987 shows varies depending on the source, but circulating tapes from this run tend to be decent — check the lineage notes before diving in. Either way, this is a snapshot of the Dead at the height of their late commercial peak, and that's worth hearing on its own terms. Press play and let Long Beach take you somewhere.