New Year's Eve 1987 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena — this is the Dead at full arena-rock altitude, riding the commercial and cultural wave that "Touch of Grey" had unleashed earlier that year. *In the Dark*, the band's first studio album in seven years, had turned them into MTV stars and brought a whole new generation of fans flooding into shows like this one. Brent Mydland was firmly established by now, his muscular Hammond work and raw, gospel-tinged voice giving the band a harder edge than the Keith Godchaux years, and Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Hart, and Kreutzmann were locked into the kind of professional road-tested chemistry that comes from playing together across decades. This was a big night — New Year's Eve always was for the Dead — with the Bay Area faithful packed in and the energy of a crowd that knew it was in for something special. The Oakland Coliseum Arena was home turf, as close to a hometown stage as the Dead had outside of San Francisco proper. The room could be cavernous and loud, but on the right night the band rose to fill it completely, and New Year's Eve reliably brought out their best. There was always the countdown, always the moment Garcia would usher in the new year mid-song with that unmistakable melodic authority, and always the sense that the community gathered in that room was participating in something beyond just a concert.
The lone song we have documented from this show in our database is "Bird Song," and that's a piece worth lingering on. Written by Garcia and Robert Hunter in memory of Janis Joplin, "Bird Song" is one of those vehicles that rewards patience — it opens gently, almost tentatively, before Garcia begins to stretch it outward, his lead lines climbing and drifting in that searching, conversational way that is unmistakably his. In the late '80s the song appeared with some regularity and often served as a showcase for extended improvisation; a strong version will find Garcia in dialogue with Lesh's bass, the two of them trading melodic statements while Brent's fills add color without cluttering the space. Listen for the way the song breathes, the way it can seem to dissolve at the edges before finding its footing again. For a New Year's show in Oakland, the recording quality on circulating sources is generally solid — this was a well-taped era — so strap in, turn it up, and let Garcia take you somewhere.