4/3/70 Field House, Univ of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

At the time that I went to this it was one of my favorite shows. Subsequent listenings were a
little bit of a let down but the memories are great.  I was in school in northern Ohio (Hiram
College, right near Kent State - but that's another very sad story...) and a friend called me up and
told me that the Dead were playing Cincinnati the next night w/ Kesey and the Pranksters &
Wavy Gravy & the Hog Farm!!!!!

The next morning I begged and pleaded and borrowed a car and dragged a friend who had never
even heard the Dead along for the 8 hour drive to Cincinnati. We arrived at the Field house way
early and hung around.  Eventually the whole crew mentioned above straggled in and we got to
hang out with them all briefly before the Dead set up for their sound check.  The sound check
itself was very interesting, since they did "It's a Mans' world" into a very jazzy 5/4 instrumental
jam that I never heard before or since.

Trivia: the opening act: the Lemon Pipers of "Green Tambourine" fame - lame!

Anyway to make a longer story shorter, the Pranksters were there but Kesey was very low-key,
Babbs was more involved and the Hog farm was really out there.  Mostly though, the Dead did
their regular thing w/o too much shannagins.  There's no question though, that the other folks
being there lent an atmosphere that made things more intense.  The Allmans were also around
early but left to play at another club in town.  There was talk about the Dead going to jam with
the Allmans but I don't know if it  ever materialized. Afterwards there was also some hanging
out w/ the whole crew briefly but we had to get back to Hiram and left.  Needless to say we were
really beaming.

The show had some cool things including some of the early concert versions of some of the stuff
from Workingman's Dead that wasn't released for a few more weeks.  My memory tells me that
the peak was Dancin' in the Streets but you'll have to let me know what you think, I'd be very
interested in your comments.