Since midyear, the Grateful Dead Store has been providing new entries in its "Download Series" on the first Tuesday of each month.

This month's offering, four discs' worth of material, covers the two shows at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena (pre-Mellon) in April 1989.

If you'll recall, the two-night stand, on a Sunday and Monday, touched off plenty of controversy when the police got involved because of what they termed unruly fans. I remember seeing a news report after the Sunday show featuring scenes that somewhat resembled the '68 Democratic convention in Chicago. I hadn't seen any of that personally and hoped it didn't recur the following evening.

It did, according to hopping mad city officials, who vowed that the Grateful Dead would join Run-DMC as bands that would never play in Pittsburgh again. (The proto-rappers had allegedly prompted folks to riot during their appearance the previous year.)

The city's public safety director at the time was Glenn Cannon, who happens to be a fraternity brother of yours truly. I remember seeing him a short time afterward and imploring, "Come on, Glenn, you gotta let the Dead back into town!"

The Dead returned the following summer, and the legend still goes around our circles that my plea to Glenn opened the door. (That show, on July 8, 1990, at Three Rivers Stadium, is chronicled on the DVD "View from the Vault." I couldn't make it that day. I was at Magee-Womens Hospital, waiting for a new arrival to the family.)

Back to April 1989, my companions and I saw no violence on Monday, either, but it sure was crowded. This was the period following the success of "Touch of Grey," when a band known by a relative few suddenly had turned into a national phenomenon. But the overcrowding ended up working to our advantage.

It seems our friend Steve had obtained a "ticket" from another guy by going to his apartment in midday and retrieving it. Turns out the ticket was a stub from the night before, and the debate still rages as to whether the other guy intentionally misled Steve and pocketed Monday's ticket for himself. As we assured Steve that there was no way he was going to get into Monday's show, the crowd started pushing forward, and the ushers apparently said the heck with it and started letting everyone through. Or else we would have had to abandon poor Steve.

Some highlights I remember from the shows, off the top of my head, were the performance of the late Brent Mydland's "Blow Away," which had yet to be released and sounded pretty cool (especially for a Brent Song), and the medley of "Dear Mr. Fantasy" into the "Hey Jude" chorus - wow, Brent was pretty much responsible for those, too. RIP, man.

Anyway, although my preference for Grateful Dead archival recordings usually veers back toward the '60s, it's cool to see the Pittsburgh shows get a legitimate release, and I'll plan to check 'em out 'round payday.