Grateful Ithaca
Among the 2,314 or so shows the Grateful Dead played between 1965 and 1995, according to Deadbase, few loom larger in their legend than a springtime 1977 gig at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It looms so large, in fact, that the city has declared the gig's thirtieth anniversary to be Grateful Dead Day, proclaiming that,
"Whereas, on May 8th, 1977 the Grateful Dead performed in Barton Hall on the campus of Cornell University in the city of Ithaca New York, a concert that is widely acknowledged and regarded as a defining and transcendent occasion and example of the art of contemporary musical improvisation, collaboration, musicianship, and performance,[...]"
The show itself is indeed fairly spectacular both in terms of performance and, you know, vibe. Moreover, a finely recorded and widely disseminated tape would be responsible for countless converts in ensuing years. Viral marketing? The Dead invented it. And today you can listen to the whole glorious shebang right here.