By the summer of 1988, the Grateful Dead were deep in the arena rock phase of their career, and the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota put them in exactly that setting — a cavernous NHL and NBA facility better known for hockey's North Stars than for psychedelic improvisation. The Dead had been filling rooms like this with regularity throughout the decade, and the 1988 touring cycle found them in strong form. Brent Mydland had been the band's keyboardist for nearly a decade by this point, his bluesy, gospel-inflected Hammond work and surprisingly powerful voice having long since settled into the fabric of the band's sound. Garcia's guitar playing in this era could be uneven night to night, but on a good night in '88 he still had the fire, and the rhythm section of Lesh, Weir, and the Hart-Kreutzmann drum tandem remained one of the great engines in American rock. The one confirmed song we have in the database from this night is "All Along The Watchtower," which by 1988 had become one of the Dead's most dependable second-set vehicles. They'd been playing Dylan's apocalyptic classic since the early '70s, but it hit a particular stride in the mid-to-late '80s when Brent took on a large share of the vocal duties, giving the song a raw, urgent edge that differed notably from Garcia's more measured interpretations.
A well-executed "Watchtower" from this era can be a genuinely thrilling thing — the band tends to stretch it out, letting the tension of the chord changes build before Weir and Brent trade verses and the whole thing resolves into that churning, cyclical groove. It's a crowd-pleaser that also rewards close listening. As for the recording itself, audience tapes from mid-size arenas in this period can vary considerably depending on where the taper was situated — a good spot on the floor or lower bowl could yield surprisingly warm, present sound, while a tape from the upper reaches of a place like the Met Center often sounds cavernous and diffuse. Worth checking whatever source is circulating before committing to a deep listen. Ultimately, this is a show that represents the Dead at a particular crossroads — still capable of transcendent nights, still drawing enormous crowds, still finding new wrinkles in songs they'd played hundreds of times before. Cue up that "Watchtower" and hear what a room full of Minnesota Deadheads got in the summer of '88.