Too young for the long, strange trip.

This MeFi thread commemorates the ten-year anniversary of the last concert played by the Grateful Dead. I was never a Deadhead, having come of age too late to know what that scene was all about, but I remember hearing the news of Jerry Garcia's death on MTV one day in 1995.

Last week, Buffalo News rock critic Jeff Miers wrote this review of a CD/DVD package from a concert the Dead gave at Buffalo's Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium) in 1989.

More than just another release from the ample Dead vaults, "Truckin'" celebrates what fans, band members, Dead archivists and historians are calling one of the finest shows the band performed in its last decade together. The release also cements the Dead's long-held love for upstate New York, a relationship that yielded some now-historic - indeed, mythical - shows in cities such as Albany, Ithaca, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo.

"There is no question in my mind that Western New York brought out the best in the Dead," says the band's official audio and visual archivist, David Lemieux, speaking to The News from the Dead's San Francisco office last week.

"There's a few reasons for this. First, cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and so forth were among the first to embrace the Dead, going all the way back to the beginning. The band always preferred playing these cities to the bigger places like New York City, for example. There was just a rich history of connection with people upstate, and in Western New York in particular.

"Second, how well they played, and how often they played in places like Buffalo created a lasting impact on those areas, a fan base that was incredibly large and incredibly loyal. When you watch the "Truckin'' DVD, you can see on all of the band members' faces how pleased they were with the gig."

Dennis McNally, longtime Dead publicist and author of the definitive band biography, "Long Strange Trip," sees other reasons for the undeniable strength of the band's Rich Stadium performance.

"That particular show is one of the high points from the period immediately following Jerry Garcia's collapse and his slipping into a diabetic coma, and subsequent miraculous recovery," McNally says.

"Like any sane person would do, the band members hit their knees - metaphorically, at least, if not literally - and said "Thank you' to whatever it is that they believe in. There was the very real sense that Jerry was glad to be alive, and the other guys were so relieved that he was still there, that they could still do this together, that it wasn't all over. As a result, I think they took it very seriously. There was definitely a feeling of, "Let's be damned good every night.' So, as you can see and hear from the Rich Stadium show, there was an energy and a joy in the performance. They had a song in their hearts."

That joy in the collective musical experience was apparent during the Rich Stadium show, from the opening moments of "Bertha," through a career-high take on "Not Fade Away" and a celebratory encore of "U.S. Blues."

I may have to look into getting this thing.