Grateful Dead 5/10/80 Set 2 Analysis & Setlist - Grateful Shows

Episode 10

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Published on:

19th Mar 2026

The Jerry Whalers | Grateful Dead · Hartford Civic Center · May 10, 1980 | Set 2 · S1E10

🎸 MAY 1980 EAST COAST · GRATEFUL DEAD · 1980

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📍 YOU ARE HERE: Show 5 of 6

Grateful Dead · Hartford Civic Center, Hartford,CT· May 10, 1980 · 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 - Hartford Civic Center, Hartford,CT, May 10, 1980

Set 2

  1. China Cat Sunflower>
  2. I Know You Rider
  3. Feel Like A Stranger
  4. > Comes A Time
  5. Estimated Prophet>
  6. He's Gone>
  7. Uncle John's Band>
  8. Space>
  9. Drums >
  10. Space>
  11. Not Fade Away>
  12. Sugar Magnolia

🎵 Encore:

Alabama Getaway> One More Saturday Night

═══🎙 CONCERT ANALYSIS

Night five of the Grateful Dead's May 1980 tour brings us to the Hartford Civic Center on May 10, 1980, the beginning of a three night Civic Center extravaganza. Hartford has a reputation for hosting some fine shows, and tonight is no exception.

This is it. The big one. Fireworks both on and off the stage as the Grateful Dead play what is most likely the show of the tour with a stggering seven songs before drums, causing much consternation among tapers, yet satiating the Hartford crowd. Some amazing stuff. We thought we knew it all when they played Feel like a Stranger as the third song in the second set:

"With less than half the show left in real time, Bob suggests a long, crazy night is still on the docket. And only a fool would challenge anything time-related with these guys. Time: The Grateful Dead bend it.

Back in the favored second-set position, the Stranger is grooving, and the drummers are in the pocket, compelling us to dance in ways not seen since humans communicated via hieroglyphs on stone.

We voice our thoughts with abstract movements. Hopefully, we aren’t offending anyone with obscene gestures, even if they are known only to a select group of Slavic shepherds. If so, apologies in advance. "

Check it out.


📚 LINKS & RESOURCES

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🔗 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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About the Podcast

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.