In the past several months, the NIU Convocation Center hosted a number of major acts, including John Mayer, the Goo Goo Dolls and Blue Man Group.

But just under 30 years ago, the Chick Evans Field House hosted one of the biggest names in music history. The Grateful Dead graced the stage in front of a near-capacity crowd of 5,000 on Oct. 29, 1977.

The show, available for listening on www.archive.org/audio, is one of the highlights of the 1977 touring year for a band that set the stage for every live act thereafter.

The show garnered much attention across the NIU campus in October of 1977, as students and residents resorted to sleeping outside for a night just for the chance to get tickets to the show.

After going on hiatus for more than a year, the band announced it would be interested in playing a few colleges to help promote a new album.

When tickets went on sale, it was primarily NIU students who were able to grab them.

According to the winter 2004 issue of Northern Now, a NIU-sponsored magazine, the Student Association concert committee put together the concert in less than a month.

“What we intend to do at this point is to inform everybody at the same time where the locations for the ticket sales will be, so we don’t get lines for three, four or five days. Technically, we don’t want even one-day lines, but if people want to make that effort, it’s OK,” said concert committee member Jim Dombek in the Oct. 24, 1977 edition of the Northern Star, just a week before the show.

The Star article specified that tickets were scheduled to go on sale Oct. 27, only two days prior to the concert.

A DJ at WDEK announced on Wednesday, Oct. 26 where tickets would go on sale: outside of Huskie Stadium. Lines started to form immediately.

As the line grew to more than 200, tickets went on sale for $8 or $9, and the majority of tickets were sold that day. According to the Star article, the show cost NIU upwards of $42,000, which at the time was the most money NIU had ever forked out for a musical act to come to campus.

When showtime came, NIU stepped back and let the Grateful Dead take over.

From the opener of “Might As Well,” the band was red hot from the start. According to various people in attendance, lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was “on fire.” Other highlights of the first set included a spectacular version of “Looks Like Rain” followed by “Loser.”

Two of the more well-known Dead songs, “Eyes of the World” and “Friend of the Devil,” were played in the second set. Deadheads everywhere have identified these as two of the best versions of these songs ever played.

The band ended the main set by segueing six songs together without pause or interlude between.

The encore featured a five-minute version of the classic Bobby Weir tune “One More Saturday Night.” Deadheads throughout Chick Evans gave the revolutionary band a standing ovation as it said goodbye to NIU.

“Together, the lit-up crowd and the Dead made the concert the biggest and most exciting concert ever in this expanding corn town,” said Star reporter G. Alexander in his article for the Oct. 31, 1977 issue.

Not only was the show planned, coordinated and performed in about a month, fans of the band have said through various online mediums that this performance is one of the best of 1977 and possibly one of the best of its career.