By the fall of 1988, the Grateful Dead were deep into what had become their most commercially successful period, riding the wave of *In the Dark* and the unlikely MTV hit "Touch of Grey" into arenas across the country. Brent Mydland was fully entrenched as the band's keyboardist — no longer the new guy, but a fiery, soulful presence who had made the role undeniably his own. The band was playing to enormous crowds, and while some longtime fans grumbled about the stadium scale, the music itself could still crackle with the old electricity when the moment called for it. This October run finds them in Houston, Texas, at The Summit — a hockey arena that the Dead visited several times during the arena era, a big shed of a room that could sound cavernous on a bad night but roared beautifully when the crowd brought the heat, which Houston reliably did. The songs we have from this show hint at a night worth investigating. "China Cat Sunflower" is one of those perennial set-openers that the Dead could play in their sleep but occasionally transformed into something transcendent — the real question is always where Garcia takes it harmonically in those final cascading runs before the segue into "I Know You Rider," and whether the band locks into that satisfying groove that made the China>Rider pairing one of the great two-song combinations in rock history. When it works, the transition feels inevitable, Garcia's voice settling into "I Know You Rider" with the ease of a man coming home.
"Queen Jane Approximately" is the curveball here — a Dylan cover the Dead kept in rotation through the late '80s, a song that gave Garcia space to inhabit someone else's melody with his characteristically gentle authority. It sits a little differently than their original material, more introspective, and when the band plays it well it has a lovely, unhurried quality. The database notes on the recording — a few seconds missing from Queen Jane, the tape ID suggesting a collector's source — point toward an audience or circulating tape rather than a polished soundboard, though many Houston recordings from this period are surprisingly listenable. Don't let the incomplete transfer discourage you. What you're really here for is the China>Rider, and if Garcia was feeling it that October night in Houston, you'll know it within the first four bars. Press play and find out.