The Grateful Dead Took Pieces of the Crystal Ballroom into the Studio

The Grateful Dead’s February 2 and 3, 1968 shows at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom had a second destination beyond the stage. Engineer Dan Healy was recording the Northwest tour, and pieces of those performances would enter the collage of live and studio music on Anthem of the Sun.

The band was sharing the tour with Quicksilver Messenger Service. At the Crystal, its developing repertoire included an early “Dark Star”–“China Cat Sunflower”–“The Eleven” sequence on February 3. The previous night’s rare “Clementine” later surfaced on the So Many Roads box set.

These were performances the band could take apart and use again. Portland’s contribution to Anthem came through that process: a ballroom concert becoming raw material for an album that blurred the boundary between playing live and making a record.

Explore the Crystal Ballroom venue guide.

Sources: Source