It was drummer Mickey Hart's 40th birthday.

Bassist Phil Lesh donned a sombrero so high and burdensome it strained belief that he could still sing "I Know You Rider" with such feeling (although perhaps a bit quickly as the Southwestern sky threatened rain).

Thousands of people had gathered at The Downs at Santa Fe, and 2,500 roses adorned the stage as the Grateful Dead — that enduring musical machine of rhythm and love — stunned a Santa Fe crowd on Sept. 10, 1983.

The weather was tempestuous. A prolonged desert shower forced the band to pause. Then a rainbow appeared across the property, viewed as something transcendent by the band's loyal disciples.

"There was this glorious revelation. The sun came out, and the Dead came back on," said Don Usner, a Santa Fe writer and photographer who

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