I was interested in finding out more information about this show and was able to get some great information from Nils at the Siskiyou student newspaper of the current Southern Oregon University. After much heroic effort on his part, he was able to identify two new pieces of information relating to the concert. Firstly, he forwarded me a scan of the the poster. It was the same poster that has been previously viewed on the Rock Prosopography blog, with one exception. The location on this version was listed on this poster as the Britt Ballroom(below).
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The previous poster images that were available only stated that the location was at the So. Oregon College Gym. There was also speculation that the show may have been at the McNeal Pavillion. The Britt Ballroom was reportedly much smaller.
In addition to the poster scan, Nils was also able to forward me a link to an article about the history of the student newspaper, the Siskiyou.
http://siskiyou.sou.edu/2013/02/22/for-the-record-the-siskiyou-chronicles-86-years-of-history-both-on-and-off-campus/
I directly quote the relevant GD information from that article below:
"On Feb. 4, 1968, the American folk-rock band Grateful Dead performed a concert in the Britt Ballroom on campus, back when the SOU was called Southern Oregon College. The way some student reporters covered the event, in the Feb. 9, 1968 issue of the paper, shows evidence of different standards in comparison with how a similar event might be covered today.
In a column called “Dirty Linen,” authors W.E. Bennett and M.A. Surbeck wrote, “The concert was pulled off with the ease of a ‘Bay of Pigs Invasion.’ No one really knew what was happening. Other than damaged eardrums there were few problems. Perhaps the Administration, by using this concert as an example, will allow other supposedly ‘disruptive’ entertainers to adorn SOC’s weekend billings.”
At least one student reporter was unimpressed and even annoyed at the “disruptive” choice of weekend entertainment on campus. The front page story in the Feb. 16, 1968 issue announced a scheduled campus concert featuring the rhythm-and-blues soul band Fifth Dimension, which performed on campus on Feb. 19. Its author, Tom Carnes, enthusiastically endorses and praises Fifth Dimension but takes a very dim view of the Dead:
“The ‘Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service’ show was poorly attended by SOC students because of many reasons. The primary one was the price of admission. Few students could afford to pay three dollars to watch a bunch of has-been hippies.”
In the same Feb. 1968 issue for which Carnes wrote this front-page story, student reporter Michele LaBounty attempted a balanced commentary in her article “Mixed Emotions on ‘Dead’”:
“There were mixed comments about the quality of the performance and then there were some students who formed opinions without even seeing the show. All was not lost, though, some of the audience (about one-eighth) made contact with the vibrations and thoroughly enjoyed the music and the light show.”
“Then of course there was the strobe light. If anyone bothered to glance over in the corner they witnessed quite a sight. Those dancing seemed to be in a completely different world and loved every minute of it.”
LaBounty concludes by writing, “Not everyone has the same opinion, but I think this campus needs more variety and controversy.”
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I was personally surprised about mostly negative perception of the band from a college newspaper in 1968! It was also funny that $3 was considered too expensive. And finally, about 1/8th of the people checking out the band seemed to be really into it, "making contact with the vibrations". That feels about right, some people just really get the Dead, while most people never do...
