It’s true, Enthusiasts: the Violent Femmes did indeed open the Dead’s 6/9/91 show at Buckeye Lake in Ohio, playing to a semi-interested crowd for 45 minutes. There’s no recording, but here’s their setlist:

My two favorite things about this:

  1. “Opened for Grateful Dead.” Such a lovely understatement of the day’s events. It’s like a theater critic in 1865 giving a full review of Our American Cousin and then mentioning at the very end of the article that there was a disturbance in the balcony.
  2. “What should we open with?”
    “Country Death Song.”
    “Good choice, Gordon.”

AND the Dead’s show has one of the only mumblemumble renditions of Ruben & Cherise, which at least one bass player whose name I won’t mention has no idea how to play.