The standard story used to be that Jerry had dragged them into the pits before the coma, then he came roaring out and they were good again, but the blazing guitar one often hears in the mid-80s doesn't bear this out.
Thanks Sniggle for those observations on Norfolk 82. That spring tour was one I saw a lot from. A few of us drove south from upstate NY, passed through Virginia Beach around sunrise, before making it to Duke in NC. Tickets were hard to come by, but since the tickets were gray and black, we used the library photocopier to make copies, then glued together sheets of paper and cut them to size... they got us inside. It was a mellow time in the scene, looking back on it now. Anyway, I did a lot of that tour, Duke, Norfolk, Philly, then back to the upstate and at least one (maybe 2) Nassau shows. I guess I lived by the dictum, Too much of everything is just enough. My favorites from that spring are 4/6 Philly and Cornell. I’ve come to realize that Norfolk is excellent. I never had it on cassette so didn’t etch it as deeply into my mind in the immediate time afterwards. I was always struck by the Eyes from 4/3 which was a rare slowed down version during an era where the tune was usually breakneck speed.
Yeah that's a fantastic show for sure. The jam that comes together near the end of Dark Star from the spacey middle section is epic.
Brent's marimba sound is one of my favorite things about that entire DP release. The second disc is far and away the highlight, IMO. Thanks Brent!
Just because my wife works there doesn't mean I ever want them to win any sort of sporting match in any sport.... goodness no, I'm a Michigan man. Hail!
Listening to 4/20/83 - Providence. My second show; my first three shows (4/15/82; 4/20/83 and 6/18/83) all featured a strong, late second-set Dew. I'm either a saint or a knight or just plain lucky. Someone anoint me or tell me to get over myself.
The Passaic 25 April '77 show is early enough in the tour that, to me, it sounds a bit different from the May stuff. A little less flowing but not for the worse. That Wharf Rat... Meanwhile, which of the June '76 Passaic shows do you prefer out of the first two? If you don't rate 19 June, I may not get much of a kick out of it whenever I get the box. I think that the 17 June show is boring and that the 18 June show is decent but still not exciting (although both sound wonderful.) For all the grief that Brent's synth sounds get, I think the marimba sound - at least the one on 14 October '83 - sounds very accurate. I didn't find it jarring or cheesy.
Convenience and ease often seem not to lead to better music - a bit of grit and resistance when playing an instrument, at least for me, seems to make me play better, hence why my playing is better when I'm on either of my Teles (longer scale) than my Les Paul. I suppose a better way of saying this is that limitation encourages invention.
Yessir. The best musical moment in my now 56 years on this planet. The available tapes don't explain this.
I haven't listened to it in awhile but I remember Jerry's vocals on 'Dew being transcendent. Like hair raising. Edit: Even on tape it's amazing
The tapes are at best 7/10 in terms of reproduction. That show melted universes. And Jerry's vocals on Dew are still echoing through the noble pines of Saratoga Springs to this day. Phil owned that Dew and did things that no mortal should have been able to do.
It's too bad there's not a soundboard but regardless of the sound quality Jerry's vocals shine through.
I can't know why they didn't bring along a recording console. They had a history of starting and ending tours strongly. When I got up that day and wandered down to the kitchen of my frat house, scratching my ass aimlessly and yawning while considering the top slice of cheese in the fridge to be nothing more than the packaging, I had no idea that I'd see the best live show I've ever seen in a matter of 8 hours. 6/18/83 SPAC rearranged everything in terms of how I thought about music.
Nice descriptives I actually had a chance to see the Dead in '86 but my parents decided otherwise lol...
I was there for the Rochester show. The Green Onions>China Cat>Rider and rare Believe It or Not weren’t too shabby either. I was just out of high school and staying with my uncle for the shows. He went with a buddy and we drove there and back together but split up during the show while I hung with my friends, but (although the odds were fairly high), I was glad that they played Me and My Uncle that night. Later, after the show, I left his dead ass by the side of the road. Because that’s what Bobby told me to do. Jerry was wearing a sports coat that June night, getting all ‘80s Clapton.
