custom route
Build a path from a song, era, lineup, venue, or mood.
Describe what you are chasing, choose the number of stops, and Deadhead High will shape a route from the catalog.
Made by fans. Here for the music.Everyone’s welcome.
Live recordings · 1965–1995 A long, strange listening trip.
Listen to live Grateful Dead shows.
Search by song, date, or venue, then play a recording through Archive or Relisten.
Made by fans. Free to explore. No account needed to listen.
Daily DeadBackstage pass
Today's Daily Dead
Finding today's song...
Featured show loading...
RANDOM SHOW
Need a recommendation?
today's daily dead
Finding today's song...
Featured show loading...
New today
Browse, listen, and keep trackChoose where to start
deadhead library
More listening and research
Internet Archive
Live Grateful Dead recordings, recording details, and streaming audio.
Relisten
A fast way to stream shows by date, tape, and year when you want to listen.
JerryBase
Deep setlist, venue, song, and personnel research for the Dead and Garcia family bands.
Grateful Dead Archive
UCSC's online collection of posters, photos, interviews, fanzines, and ephemera.
David Dodd's Song Notes
David Dodd's Greatest Stories Ever Told essays on lyrics, song history, references, and Dead scholarship.
DeadDisc
Discographies, official releases, guest credits, song listings, and release details.
ways in
Choose where to begin.
Start with a guided path, today’s pick, a show search, or your own listening list.
Pick a path. Press play.
family tree
The map starts with the Grateful Dead, then leaves room for the branches listeners naturally follow: Jerry Garcia Band, Dead & Company, Phil & Friends, RatDog, solo Jerry, and beyond.
learn
Live Dead Guides.
Articles about Grateful Dead shows, songs, musicians, and recordings.
Live Dead Guides
Latest article
First shows
What Grateful Dead Show Should You Listen to First?
If you want one practical starting point, try Barton Hall on May 8, 1977. The recording is clear and the second set is easy to follow—but one famous night cannot sum up a band that kept changing for 30 years.
Deadhead High Editorial · 12 minute read
Lineups and eras
15 minute read
How the Grateful Dead Changed
Hear how changes behind the drums, at the keyboards, and onstage reshaped the band’s songs, improvisation, and concert sound.
Recording sources
15 minute read
Audience Tape, Soundboard, Matrix, or Official Release?
Why two recordings of the same night can feel completely different—and when to choose an audience tape, soundboard, matrix, or official release.
Concert structure
14 minute read
How a Grateful Dead Concert Worked
How first sets, second-set journeys, Drums, Space, ballads, closers, and encores gave a Dead show its familiar shape without making it predictable.
Improvisation
15 minute read
How Grateful Dead Jams Worked
How a song could stay a song, turn into a bridge, or open into a group improvisation with no obvious map.
Songs in motion
16 minute read
How Grateful Dead Songs Changed Live
Hear familiar songs change tempo, groove, endings, partners, and purpose as the years pass.
Famous pairings
17 minute read
How Famous Grateful Dead Song Pairings Came to Be
Some pairings were composed, some became habits, and others were discovered onstage. The arrow on a setlist does not tell the whole story.
Human ideas, deep research, visible sources. Read our editorial standards.
the main attraction
Listening Paths.
Choose a listening path to see its shows, read the notes, and start a recording.
Every path needs a reason.
listening paths
Pick a route through the live catalog.
Choose shows grouped by era, song, venue, or theme. Each path includes listening links and notes about the shows.
random picker
The Wheel.
Pick a show.
Select a category or spin for a show from the catalog.
Results use catalog data, setlists, eras, and selected show tags.
song history
Song Tracker.
Type a song to see its first performance, last performance, and every show in between.
One song. The whole arc.
daily ritual
Daily Dead.
Song of the Day, a featured show, and first and last performances where that song appears.
Song of the Day, featured show, and known performances.
research queue
Show Research.
Draft show notes from the research assistant, ready for source review before they become public guide copy.
Drafts first. Guide copy after review.
daily trivia
Test Your Head.
A quick way to pick up context before choosing a show.
Know more. Hear more.
visuals
Lights.
Full-screen visual modes for listening: space, liquid color, stars, mandalas, and sunshine.
Visual modes for listening
show check-in
The show list.
Search by date, venue, city, year, era, song, or tag. Check-ins and notes stay synced across the whole site.
Search dates, venues, songs, and listening links.
Use one search for dates, venues, cities, states, songs, tags, eras, and plain-language filters. Anything you check here also checks off inside Paths, Daily, Wheel, and My Dead.
my dead
Your listening history.
Shows listened, shows attended, favorites, ratings, notes, and badges.
Save listening history, notes, and badges.
about
Deadhead High.
A fan-built guide for finding, listening to, and tracking Grateful Dead shows.
Catalog tools for live shows
Deadhead High helps listeners search the live catalog, follow guided paths, and keep a record of shows they have heard.
The site points to Archive and Relisten for playback. It does not host audio.
Show availability and listening links come from Archive and Relisten. Setlist data is sourced from gdshowsdb, an MIT-licensed project by Jeff Smith.
deadhead high blog
Coming soon.
West Virginia Jed will share personal show reflections, launch notes, and what it feels like to use Deadhead High in the wild. Scarbot Begonias will handle feature notes, updates, and technical field reports.
West Virginia Jed
Coming soon: show reflections.
West Virginia Jed shares personal show reflections, launch notes, listening-life notes, and what Deadhead High feels like from the inside.
Coming soon
Scarbot Begonias
Coming soon: field notes.
Scarbot Begonias shares site updates, feature notes, technical issues, fixes, and practical notes about what changed.
Coming soon