GRATEFUL DEAD / 1965–1995

The First. The Last. The Best.

Find a song’s first, last and best live versions, or look up any show.

GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT

September 18, 1988

The Grateful Dead played Madison Square Garden in New York, NY on Sunday, September 18, 1988.

Setlist

Set 1: Feel Like A Stranger > Franklin's Tower, Good Time Blues, Big Railroad Blues, Stuck Inside Of Mobile, Stagger Lee, Promised Land

Set 2: Not Fade Away > Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain > Man Smart-Woman Smarter, Drums, The Other One > Wharf Rat > Throwin' Stones > Not Fade Away

Encore: Black Muddy River

None of the First, Last or Best versions on this site come from this show.

Full recording: Internet Archive.

More shows at Madison Square Garden

1/8/79, 9/4/79, 9/5/79, 9/6/79, 3/9/81, 3/10/81, 9/20/82, 9/21/82, 10/11/83, 10/12/83, 9/15/87, 9/16/87, 9/18/87, 9/19/87, 9/20/87, 9/14/88, 9/15/88, 9/16/88, 9/19/88, 9/20/88, 9/22/88, 9/23/88, 9/24/88, 9/14/90, 9/15/90, 9/16/90, 9/18/90, 9/19/90, 9/20/90, 9/8/91, 9/9/91, 9/10/91, 9/12/91, 9/13/91, 9/14/91, 9/16/91, 9/17/91, 9/18/91, 9/16/93, 9/17/93, 9/18/93, 9/20/93, 9/22/93, 10/14/94, 10/15/94, 10/18/94, 10/19/94

Previous show: September 16, 1988 · Next show: September 19, 1988

READY WHEN YOU AREChoose a tape. Your player will appear here.
Buy me a beer 🍺

About the picks

A NOTE FROM THE TAPE ROOM

What this site is

Pick a song and hear three tapes: its first known performance, its last, and the fan favorite.

Which songs are here

Over 100 songs fans love most, plus classic live sequences. It isn’t every song the Grateful Dead played. If one you love is missing, request it and it can be added. The list starts from Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Grateful Dead Songs playlist, and only performances by the original Grateful Dead are included.

First, Last, and Best

First and Last are the earliest and latest concerts where the song appears in The SetList Program. Early histories can be incomplete or disputed, so these are documented dates, not a guarantee of the true debut or final performance. A few entries rely on other references, such as JerryBase, Dead.net and a Dead Essays article, and each links to its source. A few entries have no verified date and are marked.

Best is the highest-voted version on that song’s HeadyVersion ranking. The card shows the vote count and the date we checked. It’s one community’s opinion, not the final word, and votes change over time, so this is a snapshot. If versions tie, the card says so and shows the first one listed. The live sequences use HeadyVersion’s separate sequence rankings.

Sorting

A–Z is alphabetical. Rolling Stone Top 101 follows that playlist’s order; its numbers are playlist positions, not fan votes, and songs and sequences that aren’t on that playlist come after them. Debut Date lists songs by when they were first played, earliest first.

The tapes

Audio streams from the Internet Archive. Some shows have no surviving tape, and some recordings are missing tracks, mislabeled, or temporarily unavailable. “No matched tape” means we couldn’t find a usable recording for that date. Play sequence plays a whole sequence from the same show, with a brief gap between files.

Spot a mistake?

Dates and tape matches can be wrong. Every song page has a “Report a mistake” link at the bottom, and corrections get made.

Each Best card shows the date its votes were checked. Independent fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stone, The SetList Program, HeadyVersion, or Internet Archive. All names belong to their owners.

Add to Home Screen

KEEP IT CLOSE

Open it like an app.

First Last Best isn’t in an app store. It’s a website, but you can put it on your phone’s home screen and open it with one tap, with its own icon.

iPhone or iPad (Safari)

  1. Open firstlastbest.com in Safari.
  2. Tap the Share button (a square with an arrow pointing up).
  3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
  4. Tap Add.

Android (Chrome)

  1. Open firstlastbest.com in Chrome.
  2. Tap the menu (the three dots, top right).
  3. Tap Add to Home screen (or Install app).
  4. Tap Add.

On a computer

Bookmark it: press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on a Mac).