Smallest/largest GD shows you saw: which was better?

The worst & largest indoor arena I let myself see the Grateful Dead in was the Carrier Dome, 9/24/82 in Syracuse, NY.

I taped the tour and someone broke into my car & stole my masters. Bad vibe. The fun part was leaving the Dome as whirlwind would pat you on the butt out.

9/14/82 UVA Gym was intimate and they band was on fire. Great version of Big Rail Road Blues. Check that one out.

Patrick Gymnasium University of Vermont 1983 was the smallest and not sure the Largest was but if I were to compare that to Spac 83 or Alpine 82 or Calaveras 87 or any of The 89 Stadium shows I saw,  I liked them better than U of V for vibe and set list as well as playing . There were also large stadium shows through the years that were way worse w vibe set list sound and playing than U of V . 

Tough question to answer in a black & white kind of way. 

The smallest I saw was around 6,000, and the largest was over 100k.

The huge venues didn't have that "intimacy" factor, but they had something different. There was a certain something when the band had 100,000 people moving in unison.

If you're really interested, check out a bunch of shows from Summer, 1987, where the venues were all over the place in size. I'm giving rough estimates of venue capacities here:

Alpine Valley (outdoor) 30,000

Kingswood Ontario: outdoor, 10,000?

Silver Stadium, Rochester: Minor league ball park, 15,000?

Foxboro: Stadium, 80,000

Pittsburgh Civic Arena: indoor, 15,000

Roanoke CC: Indoor, 6,000

JFK Stadium: 114,000

Giants Stadium: 80,000

My favorite venues were Alpine and Hampton, in that 15,000-30,000 range, but there's no doubt that they always brought the heat to Rich Stadium, Buffalo, and other bigger places.

Carrier Dome was the largest indoor arena and didn't like any of the shows I saw there. Thanks Bluelight for helping me remember 

Largest for me was Watkins Glen 600,000

I always had a good time at shows whether an arena or stadium, but the theaters were where the magic really happened for me.

Boston Music Hall, Capitol NJ,  Academy of Music (later The Palladium), Beacon, Radio City 

Red Rocks was pretty magical as well.

9/14/82 The Uni of Va. Memorial Gymnasium is a 2,500 seat multi-purpose arena in Charlottesville, Virginia

10/31/83 The Marin County Civic Center sat 2000.

Auzten stadium vs the Hult Center in Eugene....    never liked the stadium shows, loved the intimacy of the Hult (under 5k).   

 The Warfield was probably the best sounding smallish place

how big was the harden theater? Prob 1000

El Camino ball park 1967 no clue maybe 200

and I saw them get off the helicopter at Altamont,  that was a pretty big crowd

What do you mean? Between runs of shows on a Tour, or in between Tours?

Largest - Watkins Glen - 600,000. Lotsa fun, certainly not my fav.

Smallest - Boston Tea Party 1969 - 300. Also first show, def. not my fav.

I guess the best lies somewhere in between.

Maybe 2000 - 10,000?

Slacker, we were with friends, having fun between shows. Go to the beach or the river, talk about yesterday's show, get ready for the next show, find/make food, talk to folks.

Well, you have to remember that you could camp in most lots, at least until 1990. But I don't think it mattered where you stayed - the lot, hotels, with friends - you generally did whatever, just as Judit alluded to.

No, only runs in CA  for New Years.

Alpine 88 we were in that lot for 6 nights. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to do around there.

Sometimes, but there usually wasn't much time. We saw some stuff in DC, and in Summer would always try to find local swimming holes. There was a memorable experience getting sushi in Milwaukee, which was a total trip.

i went to the statue of liberty.

I went to the rainbow gathering after the 86 Buffalo show.

Mecca in Milwaukee in 1989 was the smallest.

Buckeye Lake, Foxboro, 3 Rivers, Buffalo among the biggest.

Oh, I loved them all. Good show or bad.

Ain't no place I'd rather be!

The Zenith, Paris, FR (10/27/90)

Capacity: 6,293

Hell in a Bucket Sugaree New Minglewood Blues Jack-a-Roe Black-Throated Wind Ramble on Rose Masterpiece Bird Song Promised Land .

China Cat Sunflower I Know You Rider Saint of Circumstance Crazy Fingers Playin' in the Band drums Playin' Reprise Stella Blue Throwin' Stones Not Fade Away One More Saturday Night

Alan Kirby Field House--Lafayette College

Portland,  ME seemed like,  not very Big,  but Binghamton NY might  have been the smallest,  and  Oklahoma Zoo Amphiteatre might have been the most intimate.

Capacity is different than Intimacy.

Starlight Theatre in KC was also "small" in #'s but they could stuff people in there,  making it seem Bigger compared to Oklahoma Zoo.

Smallest was probably the Capitol Theatre Passaic followed by the Stanley Theater in Jersey City. Not sure what capacity was at William & Mary Gymnasium. Did see Jerry at the Bottom Line which was easily the smallest venue I ever saw any Dead related show. 

> was Europe more travel time than leisure in town & country time? <

kinda? it went by quick.

i ate baguettes and nutella.

I'll have to go with the KC Starlight or OK Zoo or maybe the 5 Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids as the smallest.

The largest would have to be Rich Stadium or Soldier. Probably Rich is larger.

Warfield 1980- smallest I guess-   missed them at fillmore west - wish I would have seen them there

Vegas 91-95...I think about 38,000

Ok if you want to count the largest venue then the good old Polo Fields in GG Park-- first time seeing them ..5-7-69

(but I think there were only a couple thousand stoned hippies there at the most - east end on the track- flatbed truck)

Smallest: UVM Patrick Gymnasium, Stanley Theatre Pittsburgh, Boston Music Hall, Santa Fe Downs (seemed small) and honorable mention to Furthur at the Sherman Theatre in Stroudsburg, PA. And once saw Paul McCartney & Wings at the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Broadway, Garcia at Calderone, Good Skates, The Chance! in Poughkeepsie. 

Largest: Giants Stadium, Carrier Dome cavernous and hollow, MSG, Englishtown. 

Smallest was  Capitol Theatre in NJ 76 and 78. Shows were just OK. 

Biggest was Englishtown. Well, you know. 

There was no real cause and effect with size of venue. Lightning struck when the muse descended. 

The smallest I saw was the second night of the Fox Theatre shows in Atlanta on the 1985 Fall Tour.  The place has a listed seating capacity of 4665 seats, although there were more people than that inside the show.

I also caught the first Phil Lesh & Friends show at the Berkeley Community Theatre in 1994, which was a Grateful Dead show minus the drummers.  The listed capacity there is 3491 seats.

I suppose the final JFK Stadium show on the 1989 Summer Tour was my biggest Grateful Dead show.  Foxboro that tour was also a big crowd, as was Buffalo's Rich Stadium in 1986, and the Autzen Stadium shows in Eugene in 1993 and 1994.

Each Grateful Dead show I saw (about 160) was unique.   Big venue or small, the band could be on or off, the crowd could be amped or flat, and my own perception could be engaged or distracted.  I enjoyed the little venues.  It was cool to be up close to the performers and feeling lucky to have gotten in.  The big venues could rock too.  I have great memories from JFK and Autzen.  Bigger than a drive-in movie, for real.

Becon probably smallest Englishtown largest.i had a good spot for sound at Englishtown.

agree w Stu, above...portland, maine seemed very small...id imagine the true capacity would be larger than if i had to guess....

giants stadium, Foxboro, Buffalo, prob biggest i saw...on a side note------all were assumed to have 2x the capacity in parking lot...Giants was over 80,000 for a show, so police estimates were close to 200,000 in lot...and soooo many snuck in...had to be 100,000 inside, easy...last few years at Giants were just crazy....well, all Giants stadium were nuts, guess it just seemed to get nutsier toward the end....

Smallest. Probably Santa Rosa or Freeborn Hall is Davis, CA. New Riders at that one, too. I'd say maybe 1K people at each.
Biggest. Probably their set at US fest.
Can't say whether one was better than the other, but I preferred the smaller venue shows.

Cumberland county Civic Center has a capacity of 6,700 for concerts.

Largest was Watkins Glen

Smallest crowd was action house or the Thursday night show at 46th street brooklyn

Largest: Watkins Glen... 600,000 give or take a few.

Smallest: Beacon Theater... 2,894