Grateful Dead 5/11/80 Set 1 Analysis & Setlist - Grateful Shows

Episode 11

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Published on:

25th Mar 2026

The Cumberland Mind | Grateful Dead · Cumberland County Civic Center · May 11, 1980 | Set 1 · S1E11

🎸 MAY 1980 EAST COAST · GRATEFUL DEAD · 1980

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📍 YOU ARE HERE: Show 6 of 6

Grateful Dead · Cumberland County Civic Center, ME · May 11, 1980 · Set 1

Previous: Hartford Civic Center Set 2

Next: Cumberland County Civic Center Set 2

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🗺 NAVIGATE THIS TOUR

🎯 New to the show? Start at the very beginning!

S1E01 → Baltimore May 4, 1980

📋 Tourbook 1 Index (all 6 shows in order):

Tour Playlist

Grateful Shows covers Grateful Dead touring history - on tour at a time.

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🎸 OFFICIAL SETLIST:

Grateful Dead - Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME, May 11, 1980

Set 1

  1. Alabama Getaway>
  2. The Promised Land
  3. They Love Each Other
  4. Cassidy
  5. Loser
  6. It's All Over Now
  7. Easy To Love You
  8. Big Railroad Blues
  9. Looks Like Rain
  10. Don't Ease Me In
  11. The Music Never Stopped

═══🎙 CONCERT ANALYSIS

The final night for us with the Grateful Dead at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Maine, in May 1980. And on Mother's Day no less. Oh the Grateful Dead give Mom plenty to worry about, but don't tell your sons or daughters, they are too busy having fun. The Grateful Dead never fail to play great in Maine, it is an open secret, so how does this show measure up to those who have come before it, or after?

How about a little discourse on the state of the show inside the state of Maine, inside a decidedly southern Alabama Getaway:

Sailors could call it the perfect storm, keeping away both curiosity seekers and mama’s boys. Seriously, Mom is not letting you travel five or eight or whatever hours it takes to get all the way to friggin’ MAINE to see the Grateful Dead on her day. You can go next week. Unfortunately, Mom has no clue that there’s nothing like a show with a salt-and-pepper mix of hardcore tour heads and Black Bear locals. And that, you can only get in Maine. As usual, Jerry rips it up, full of grit and fuzz, like a used sweater. The man has no chill, only a desire to give fans exactly what they want: the chance to become lost in the vast wilderness of the spiritual.

Check it out.


📚 LINKS & RESOURCES

🔗 Follow along with music on: Relisten

🔗 Navigate The Series

🗺 NAVIGATE THIS TOUR

🎯 New to the show? Start at the very beginning!

S1E01 → Baltimore May 4, 1980

📋 Tourbook 1 Index (all 6 shows in order):

Tour Playlist

Grateful Shows covers Grateful Dead touring history - on tour at a time.


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🗺 EXPLORE OTHER TOURS

Shall we go - to other tours? Why not. So far here's what we've got:

🎸 Grateful Dead May 1980 East Coast Tour— Complete Playlist:

GRATEFUL DEAD MAY 1980 EAST COAST

Gritty, underrated Grateful Dead. From Baltimore to Maine, heady times in a downtrodden America's election year.

── WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE ──────────────

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Grateful Shows
Poetic Meditations on the Grateful Dead...and Life
Grateful Shows is a tour-by-tour deep dive meditative analysis on selected Grateful Dead live concerts.

Each season covers one tour in depth-six shows, fully experienced, with setlist analysis, historical facts, philosophical and fictional rumblings. Companion ebooks go even deeper.

Season 2: March 1986 -The Grateful Dead welcome spring with six shows at two of the East Coast’s most renowned venues: the Hampton Coliseum and the Philadelphia Spectrum. Packed with energy and featuring a number of bust-outs, the tour was unforgettable, including the legendary “Box of Rain” in Hampton. However, a closer look suggests this might not have been either the highlight or the best show of the tour. Make sure to check out all six shows!

🎸 Grateful Dead live history · concert documentation · music history podcast
🗺 One tour at a time · six shows per season · VW bus not included

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J.Y. Pod

J.Y. Pod is the author and narrator of Grateful Shows. Let him guide you into a dreamland blending fact, fiction, and the distilled memories of countless deadheads into the world known as Grateful Shows.