Photos of arenas the GD played in the 1980's

.

Maybe not an arena, but one of the largest I ever saw The GD play.

Arenas? I thought they were space ships. 

The Mothership, Hampton, VA

Pembroke Pines ?

Cedar Rapids

(5 seasons)

Halloween '85

Salt Palace

Rich Stadium 

1980 Olympic Arena / Lake Placid, NY

Igloo

A couple in Oaktown...

The "Igloo" s/b called the "Salt Palace."

Scope

I always thought this was the smallest GD show I ever attended (12/1/81 Hara Arena Dayton Ohio) but Wikipedia says it held 5500, & I'd seen a few theater shows at much smaller places.  It did seem the crowd was really small, there was empty space in front of the soundboard, & was so sparse I was able to walk right up to the front rail during Brent's short Mac the Knife.  It was on a Monday night & the weather was really bad, ice storm, that kept the crowd down:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara_Arena

Diego

Roanoke '87

Here is an interesting website with a bunch of pics:

https://didyouhearwhatijustheard.tumblr.com/

the Keil in St Lou

Very old building - demolished in 1992

lots of great Dead shows there, I heard.

Spectrum,

Salt Palace

Igloo

Summit

are also gone.

Morgantown  WVA  - 1983 - night after Hampton, VA

UC Davis Rec Hall

Cap Center - Largo,MD

cool thread idea.

 spaceships. totally

Atlanta Omni

tacoma

denver

long beach

augusta, me

...

Snowed so hard that the roof caved in.......

https://goo.gl/images/MVHoz3

Niagra Falls Civic Center.  Dead Heads actually walked on top and were partying!  Until the cops sweeped across; what a sight to see.The falls were still frozen that April.

New Haven Coliseum

http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/12/veterans-memorial-coliseum-new-haven.html

Veterans Stadium. 

At JFK Stadium. 

Veterans Stadium in the immediate background and the Spectrum in the far background. 

Great thread...glad the new haven pic is there...after  i read the post above mentioning dead heads on the roof of a building, it reminded me of my first show...new haven 5-11-81...heads were sneaking in show via roof...scattering like rats, all along the catwalks, (ratwalks?).. ahead of cops and security as it was noticed...

Great show, Satisfaction encore....

I knew my spaceship had landed

Jfk, spectrum, the vet

Reunion Arena. 

Dallas, Texas. 1988

Metropolitan Sports Center / Met Center

Bloomington, Minnesota. 

Riverfront/ Cincy

we caught them there in 89 - good show  -ha ha

L.A. Sports arena in foreground, L.A. Coliseum in backGround

Mac Court Eugene 1981 

In that Phila picture they're still building the subway extension & station (upper left of picture)

My gang and I all got closed out of that 89 Cincinnati show.   I think that was the first concert there since The Who stampede.   The Grateful Dead was a tough ticket! The only show I ever got denied!

We did get into that wonderful Louisville show the next night!

Alfond Arena, Orono , Maine

More More!  so many memories. So many roads.  Thx all!

now that's a weird one above-  what was the date?

>> now that's a weird one above-  what was the date?

4/19/83, place only holds like 5000

Can't forget the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. New December 1983 & 1984. Also January 1987.

Berkeley Community Theater (BCT). 

Oct-Nov. 1984, March 1985, April 1986

Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium October 1983, March-April 1984, April 1985

Someone please post a picture of Madison Square Garden....39 years ago today I saw my first Grateful Dead show and it was at The Garden. 

I'd post one myself but do not know how

Hophead, thanks for the lovely Bay Area spots - how 'bout the Greek Theatre? Even though these are not arenas, there were sure some lovely shows there.

And could someone post one of Autzen? 

Madison Square Garden

I guess I took some liberties with the OP's definition of arena. BCT & Marin Vets are theaters. I was trying to locate an old photo of the Centennial Coliseum in Reno but could only locate the renovated Reno-Sparks Convention Center. 

Stanley Theatre Pittsburgh, two shows at the end of the 1979 and two more in March 1981. A really nice small theatre for the era.  Not my pic  

Stanley Theatre Pittsburgh, two shows at the end of the 1979 and two more in March 1981. A really nice small theatre for the era.  Not my pic  

Arena's only folks----pleeze

here's one of those classic shots of the gahden in NY

too many shows to list

(I didn't see any of them )

Gone 

(but now rebuilt)

The Stanley Theatre doesn’t qualify as an arena. It’s an 80s venue. 

Palace - Auburn Hills MI

The Mecca - Milwaukee WI

Rosemont Horizon - Chgo IL

Springfield Civic Center

Blast from the past. Was 1979, but close enough...

St. Paul Civic Center 

St. Paul, Minnesota

Dane County Coliseum, Madison ... (now the Alliant Energy Center) (shit....this was the '70's ...oh well, enjoy :)

http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com

Great thread. Knickerbocker Arena Albany, NY

Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA (the Igloo)

Add Syracuse War Memorial, Syracuse Cartier Dome, Rochester War Memorial, Broome

County Arena, Barton Hall, Niagara Convention Center, Buffalo War Memorial. 

UIC Pavillion too

All these snaps generate tour memories!

The one that kicked off this thread - Richmond Coliseum, makes me think of this tale:

Traveled to Richmond with a car load of heads from college in Northeastern Ohio and after the epic show on the first night (11/1/85) I bumped into two of my besties from home who'd similarly descended on Richmond from URI in Rhode Island and U of Delaware in Newark.   One of them had a room at the Econo-lodge, one exit South of arena and we all barreled down there to discover that nearby, adjacent rooms were under construction.   Through some kinda tour magic, we managed to collectively intoxicate the Motel Manager just enough to convince him to unlock the doors to two of these rooms and allow us to crash and party!   

On the second night - (11/2/85) many of the folks in our collective crew were without tickets... 

The Richmond Coliseum had 2 distinct rotundas you could circumnavigate: one on the ground floor and a narrower one up a flight of stairs that looked down on the main one.

Just before the show started, I was up on the elevated walkway, and could see dozens of my friends outside loitering outside the arena with signs or fingers up seeking tix to this sold out gig. When I next I looked down at the lower level I noticed several middle-aged ushers in bright red, polyester blazers physically pushing a long-haired head out the door below me right by the same set of doors my pals were assembled in front of....  From out of nowhere, several savvy heads inside the hall followed the crew of blazered ushers and pushed them out the door..... Total chaos took over the scene and at least 100 heads crashed through the doors and into the hall, right at the very moment that Jerry sang, "Test me, test me... Why don't you arrest me!"

We all had a blast in that overcrowded hall with an incredible Morning Dew out of Space!

When we got back to the Econo-Lodge, the motel manager had a tie-dye on over his shirt and tie and was snorting lines in our bathroom!

Good call on the NY venues Howard. I saw shows at Rochester, Niagara Falls and Syracuse, (well, if it was the "Cartier" Dome it 

would have been nicer). Missed Broome County and Syracuse War Memorial.

Another one-off venue not shown is the Sun Dome in Tampa, where they played on the fall '85 tour. (Not a "dome" but an arena

that was small enough that the soundboard had to be at the back of the floor). Fun show.

I thought at first the third venue pictured in the thread was the Carrier Dome, but that's the HHH Metrodome in Minn.

That view of Patrick Gym could have been taken from my daughter’s dorm room.

This one’s self explanatory:

10-20-84 Carrier is a schmoker

Whoops, just realized, no credit for the Knickerbocker. First show there was 1990. It was a smoker though!

P'burgh Civic Arena pic made think of Sgt. Schultz.

Don't tell me this land ain't got no heart.

Good Ol' Grateful Dead!

Richfield Coliseum in Ohio. Saw the band there a bunch of times... but this shot reminds me of the "Blizzard of 93" show. 

The only time I went to Richfield was for Vince's first shows. It was bittersweet as I was glad to see that the Dead would continue to tour, but seriously bummed over Brent's death. Both good shows though.

Following up on Treble's story about Richmond 85..........

We were staying on an upper floor of the hotel right next to the arena. For fun, we had a couple of powerful slide projectors and several trays of some very trippy colorful  "liquid light"  slides with us. (We might have been coming from a pre-show engagement with the local hippy band, The Jello Boys.) When the show ended, we "painted" the other hotels around us with giant, bright, ever-changing psychedelic projections. Ten stories tall. It looked friggin awesome! (Nowadays, people do this as regular art, but 30+ years ago it was visually surprising to see a light show cover an entire Raddison.)  The effect was so striking, that we repeated this stunt every so often on tour for the next several years.

We also had a portable red ruby laser -- which was rather new and unique back then. Most people weren't familiar with lasers and didn't know what they looked like or what they did. From the upper floor of our hotel in Richmond, our laser made a fuzzy dot the size of a basketball on the ground below. No one could see where this apparition originated (no one really looked up), and if they could, no one would probably guess it was a human-operated light source. Well, after the show let out, we would pick out one dosed out person and have this fuzzy red ball follow him/her around the parking lot. (I remember a 7-11 across the street). The red ball would when he stopped. And continue alongside when the person started walking again. Eventually, we had Heads chasing this mysterious red round thing up and down the sidewalks like a kitten chases a laser pointer today.

Cheap thrills.

Who remembers being forced out the door of the Carrier Dome by the mad, lysergic wind?

You do!