By May 1990, the Grateful Dead were deep into what would prove to be one of their final sustained periods of creative activity. Brent Mydland had been behind the keyboards for over a decade at this point, his bluesy, full-throated style giving the band a raw emotional edge that distinguished this era from the airier Keith Godchaux years. The spring 1990 tour found the Dead playing arenas and outdoor amphitheaters up and down the country, a well-oiled machine that could still surprise you on any given night. Tragically, this show lands just months before Brent's death in July — which lends these late-era Brent recordings a particular poignancy for longtime fans who know what's coming. Cal State Dominguez Hills, tucked into the South Bay suburb of Carson just south of Los Angeles, was not a typical Dead venue in the mold of Shoreline or the Spectrum. Campus shows like this one carried a more intimate, communal atmosphere than the big sheds — the kind of setting where the band could feel the crowd in a different way, and where the crowd, in turn, felt like they were in on something special. Southern California Dead heads were devoted and vocal, and a campus outdoor setting in early May would have brought real warmth to the proceedings.
The songs we have from this show offer a compelling little window into what was on offer. "The Race Is On," the George Jones country shuffle that the Dead adopted as a late-period Brent showcase, is a sly, rollicking number that let Mydland stretch out vocally and gave the whole band a chance to play loose and swinging. "Uncle John's Band" into "Crazy Fingers" is a pairing worth sitting with — the former one of the Dead's most beloved openers and closers, a song that invites the audience in and practically requires a moment of collective breath; the latter a Garcia gem from Blues for Allah, harmonically knotty and cosmically beautiful, one of those tunes that rewards patient listening as Garcia finds his way through its circular, shimmering structure. A "Crazy Fingers" that really opens up is something to treasure. Recording information for this specific show is limited, but Southern California shows from this period often circulated in respectable audience recordings from dedicated tapers who knew how to work a crowd. Whatever the source, this is a document of the Dead doing what they did in the final months of the band's Brent era — and that alone makes it worth your time.