Grateful Dead 5/4/80 Set 1 Analysis & Setlist - Grateful Shows

Episode 1

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Published on:

25th Feb 2026

Phil Bombs | Grateful Dead · Baltimore Civic Center · May 4, 1980 | Set 1 · S1E01

🎸 MAY 1980 · GRATEFUL DEAD ·BALTIMORE > MAINE

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📍 YOU ARE HERE: Show 1 of 6

Grateful Dead · Baltimore Civic Center, MD · May 4, 1980 · Set 1

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Next: Baltimore Civic Center Set 2

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🗺 NAVIGATE THIS TOUR

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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 - Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, MD, May 4, 1980

Set 1

  1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo>
  2. Franklin's Tower >
  3. Feel Like A Stranger
  4. Althea
  5. El Paso
  6. Easy To Love You
  7. Brown Eyed Women
  8. It's All Over Now
  9. Don't Ease Me In
  10. The Promised Land═══

═══🎙 CONCERT ANALYSIS

On May 4, 1980 the Grateful Dead appeared at the Baltimore Civic Center in Maryland as they hit the East Coast for their first full-fledged tour of the eighties. Spoiler alert: it's not all rainbows and unicorns.

The boys slog through plenty of grit and grime in this first set. Highlights include a rather harrowing All Over Now and the opening Half Step>Franklin's Tower.

How about some El Paso-isms straight from the mouth of our narrator:

"The El Paso trots into town, or the venue, whichever you prefer. We sincerely appreciate these tales of the wicked, wild West, filled with wild, wicked Western characters. The denizens of El Paso spit in the face of the 'strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet' crowd. However, certain protocols do apply.

Handsome or ugly, a friend or a foe, please refrain from stealing other men's women. It’s bound to lead to duels, bullets, dust, horses drinking from leaky, rusty buckets, tumbleweed, and tumbling dice, not the ideal scenario for potential friendship."

You can probably tell where this one is headed.═══

📚 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.