Nice thread..I still listen to their music almost every day, but nothing is like a Grateful Dead show. I always laugh at these people that say "I've been to 284 shows" How the hell does anyone remember?? I'm guessing I've been to 200, but who knows, could be 150 could be 250. Your Berdoo show of 2/26/77 is generally considered one of the all time best dead shows ever, as are most of the 1977 shows. First Terrapin, first Estimated Prophet. FWIW, I thought Furthur was the best post Garcia lineup. John Kandlezik was a far better fit than Warren Haynes or Trey Anastasio, 14 years in Dark Star Orchestra is certainly paying dues. Too bad Weir is such an asshole in real life.
Here's a
link. You can listen to almost all of their shows for free. (If you're smart and have real player, you can download these shows to your hard drive as well. Look for any show that's been mixed by Charlie Miller. The quality is very good. The guy works miracles.)
https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead
Here's some other good shows: 1/31/70 (1st show after the bust in New Orleans, which was the inspiration for Truckin'), 2/18/71 (1st Bertha), 8/6/71 (Killer Hard to Handle. The crowd goes ape shit when Garcia drops to his knees playing the H2H solo & my first Dead show), 11/25/73 (weirdest China/Rider ever & a pretty good WRS), 10/1/76 (awesome Help/Slip/Franklin & a pretty good preview of what was to come in 1977), 5/8/77 (a lot of people call this the best Dead show ever) 7/8/78 & 7/9/78 (the Dead always played good shows at Red Rocks), 12/7/79 (not a big Brent fan. I didn't think he was a good fit in the band, but a new player in the band always inspired Garcia, at least at first. At any rate, this show has the best China/Rider I've ever heard), 12/31/84 (gotta have a New Years Eve show and this one is as good at they get), 5/10/91-5/12/91 (These 3 shows at Shoreline are epic. Bruce Hornsby is in the band & Garcia really gets off playing with Bruce), 6/17/94 (last time I saw the band with Garcia still alive. Notable for being the day of the OJ Simpson slow speed white Bronco chase.)