By the spring of 1990, the Grateful Dead were deep in the Brent Mydland era, and while this period doesn't always get the reverence of '72 or '77, there was something genuinely powerful about the band at this moment. Brent's Hammond B3 and gospel-tinged vocals gave the group a muscular, full-bodied sound, and Jerry Garcia — despite the well-documented health struggles that had nearly taken him down in 1986 — was still capable of summoning some extraordinary guitar work on the right night. The band had been touring heavily through the late '80s and into 1990, riding the wave of mainstream popularity that had made them, improbably, one of the top-grossing live acts in the country. This is the Dead as a true arena band: big rooms, big crowds, and a machine that had been road-tested to a high polish. Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, is not exactly a room that appears in the Dead's mythology the way Madison Square Garden or the Civic Center does, but that's part of the appeal of a show like this. Hamilton sits in the industrial heart of southern Ontario, just outside Toronto, and the coliseum was a standard mid-size hockey arena — the kind of room that swallowed sound and made the band work a little harder to fill the space. Canadian shows from this era tend to draw a slightly different crowd energy, a bit wilder in the best way, and fans who have traded tapes from these nights often note a certain looseness that can be electric.
The two songs we have confirmed from this show tell an interesting story. Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo, the lilting opener from 1972's Europe tour, was a staple first-set opener by this period — when the Dead launched into that rolling, unhurried groove, it was an announcement that the night was underway in the best possible way. Garcia's phrasing on the song's transitions always rewards close listening, and Brent's contributions could lift the song considerably in these years. Loose Lucy, meanwhile, is a joyful relic from the Mars Hotel era, a good-time shuffle that Pigpen's spirit seems to haunt even decades after his passing — when the band commits to it, it swings hard and the crowd tends to eat it up. Listen for the chemistry between Garcia and Mydland throughout this one, and pay attention to how the band navigates tempo and feel across these songs. If a soundboard source surfaces for this date, the mix from this era is typically robust and worth seeking out. This is a night worth spending time with.