By Matthew Zandler

On a freezing cold, rainy, early November night in 1985, the area around the Richmond Coliseum was bursting with excitement.

For Brian Justice (‘85), Collegiate alumnus, ordained Episcopal Deacon, and current Upper School history and religion teacher, the night was drastically different from the experience of his first Grateful Dead show in the Coliseum a year before.

Photo credit: Chris Stone via Flickr.

In October 1984, Justice was able to walk up to the ticket window and purchase a ticket for the show, just hours before the band took the stage. A year later, the coliseum was jam-packed with Deadheads.

“1985 was crazy,” Justice told me. “It was a much bigger scene and just a real electricity in the air.”

At the time of the concert, Justice was a freshman at the University of Virginia, traveling from Charlottesville to Richmond for the weekend shows. Justice had already seen the Dead the year before and was just beginning his journey as a lifelong fan.

Formed in California in 1965, the Grateful Dead became one of the best known bands in the world. They drew enormous and loyal crowds to hear their mix of genres, including rock, folk, blues, country, and psychedelic music. Their improvisational style created a devoted fan base known as “Deadheads,” who followed the band from city to city and show to show. Despite the passing of lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia in 1995, the band’s legacy continued through groups such as Furthur, Ratdog, and Dead and Company up until the passing of lead vocalist Bob Weir earlier this year.

The two Richmond performances would end up being particularly memorable nights for Justice for a multitude of reasons. 

The Grateful Dead at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California in 1982. Photo credit: Ken Friedman via Flickr user Zoooma.

Over the course of the band’s history, Justice saw the Grateful Dead in concert 50 times. Among those 50 performances, he places the first night of the two-night Richmond run, November 1, 1985, in his top ten shows of all time. Grateful Dead fans, like many other jam-band fans, go to many, many shows, often ranking them. These devoted fans also will rank “best” performances or versions of songs. Justice also saw Garcia’s offshoot project, The Jerry Garcia Band, many times.

The November 1 show came to be known and recognized far beyond Richmond when it was released in 2001 as an album, Dick’s Picks Volume 21, as part of the series of live releases Dick’s Picks, compiled by Grateful Dead archivist Dick Latvala. The performance featured a set list that ranged from Grateful Dead classics to covers of other popular artists from the time period. Justice particularly remembered songs such as “Cold Rain and Snow,” “Brown Eyed-Women,” “High Time,” “He’s Gone,” and covers such as “She Belongs to Me,” and “Gloria.”

Justice’s favorite moments of the concert came, however, from Garcia’s quieter, more thoughtful performances.

“It was a night of some of the most emotional Jerry ballads we saw,” Justice told me, referring to “High Time” and “He’s Gone,” appearing back-to-back that night.

“She Belongs to Me” was another special moment Justice remembered. The song, originally recorded by Bob Dylan, only appeared on Grateful Dead set lists for a brief time in the mid-1980s.

Towards the end of the show, Justice remembered a shift in the energy of the music. 

“Gloria,” an upbeat song written by Van Morrison and first recorded with his band Them in 1964, appeared before the band’s encore, “Keep Your Day Job,” another song which only appeared briefly in Dead shows in the 1980s.

The two shows on Nov. 1 and 2 also brought other Grateful Dead staples, including “Me & My Uncle,” “Brown-Eyed Women,”  “Drums,” “Morning Dew,” and “Samson and Delilah.”

As a longtime fan, Justice remembers the community surrounding the music of the Grateful Dead just as much as the music itself. “As the saying goes, ‘there’s nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, ” Justice said, “and that’s so true. I mean, it’s the music, but the whole scene, the whole community vibe was just amazing.”

A Richmond Times-Dispatch article about gatecrashers from the day following the concert. Image credit: gratfulseconds.com.

Not everything about this show was positive, however. Justice remembered gatecrashers among the large, freezing-cold crowds outside the Coliseum who entered the venue forcefully before the start of this show. Many of these gatecrashers did not have tickets to the event. This chaos caused documented injuries and arrests outside of the venue. Unfortunately, the November 1, 1985 show remains one of the Grateful Dead shows clouded by controversy because of this incident and would lead to the Dead not returning to the Coliseum.

Despite all this, the band’s performance matched the intensity and excitement surrounding that night.

Justice said that his expectations for the November 1 concert were not only met, but exceeded.

He was still learning how the Grateful Dead operated on tour, with constantly changing setlists and never playing the same song the same way twice, but part of what made this night so special was that he knew most, if not all, of the songs. 

“It was one of those nights where the band was on, the sound was great, they were clicking,” Justice told me.

For Justice, the Richmond concert became memorable for many reasons. When I asked him what made the night truly special in his mind, he told me, “Being there in my hometown, first year, you know, first year student at UVA, and then seeing them so many times after that, and just kind of riding that wave… This turned out to be a great show for sentimental reasons, but also for musical reasons; it truly stood out.”

In my preparation for my conversation with Justice, I listened to the November 1 show, and I can fully understand why he remembers this night so vividly. The music, the energy, the atmosphere arguably unmatched by any band since. All of these aspects come together to create a work of art. I cannot even imagine the feeling of what being in person for an event such as this felt like for Justice. This show in particular is a perfect example of what makes the Grateful Dead so amazing, and why I have become a lifelong fan, decades after the original group’s era.