Grateful Dead at the Olympic Center — October 17, 1983

On October 17, 1983, the Grateful Dead played their only Lake Placid show, a Monday night at the Olympic Center, the rink where the U.S. hockey team had beaten the Soviets three and a half years earlier. The band drove up the Northway from a weekend at the Hartford Civic Center with $12.50 tickets on sale, and Deadheads promptly renamed the town “Lake Acid.” Jerry Garcia opened with “Sugaree,” and the second set brought back “To Lay Me Down” for the first time since August 1982 before a long run through “Terrapin Station,” “The Wheel” and “Good Lovin’,” with the Beatles’ “Revolution” as the encore. Forty-three years on, the tapes are still in circulation, and it ranks as one of the great nights in North Country concert history.