Would love to have been there having attended Brent's last six shows on Summer tour. Folks I knew on tour told me at MSG that the intro to Crazy Fingers was a Jerry tribute to Brent. Here's a link.
Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the perfect. Grateful Dead live perfection is a multiverse.
Great version of Ollin Arrageed from 12/30/78 too. Probably doesn’t hurt that it oozes into St. Stephen, either. That’s a really good show that I’d welcome as a Dave Pick.
Question on the 30 Trips '80s shows -- are the mid '80s shows (including '86) good shows (sound quality/musicianship)? Any of those shows stand out?
81, 82, and 84 are all standout shows... that have progressively worse sound. 87 and 89 are both good with much better sound (89 was multi-track, I think). I've only heard 85 and 86 once, and I thought they were some of the worst things I've ever heard from the Dead. This is likely not a fair assessment and I need to listen to those again at some point.
I listened to the 9/8/73 "Eyes" as homework. Same vein as the previous night. They were on an "Eyes" roll.
I am just getting to the 80s in the set right now. I think the Austin show is supposed pretty decent....but it's been years since I heard it.
I listened to that last week and was shocked to realize there's no Morning Dew on it. How did that not make the cut!!! Still one of my all time favorite comps but no MD keep it at a 9.999(repeating) out of 10!
My faves are Austin '82, Woostah 10/21/83, Augusta 10/12/84, MSG 9/18/87, and Miami 10/26/89. Worcester probably has the worst sound quality of those 5, but still passable. The '85 show is also good, although not quite as good as those that followed on that tour (which hopefully will come out in a box someday). The '86 and '88 shows are good sounding, and not bad, but not particularly notable musically (the '88 show is easily the better of the two, though), and the '81 show has a great Shakedown->Bertha, but the post-Space is an audience recording.
I’ve said it before and will say it again, but the Bird Song that closes set one of 7-3-88 and the Touch>Hey Pocky Way that opens set 2 are some of the best GD I have heard.
10-17-94 - this is other show I 'almost' went to. I'm happy I got to go to one, and IIRC the monday after the saturday show is when I shared the 'supplies' I'd gotten on saturday with my friends. Good set 1, and great post-drums with Wheel>Watchtower>Dew and they rise to the occasion. Plus Dylan on the encore. The more I listen to 94 the more I'm aware of physical limitations Garcia had to overcome in his playing. Apathy from day-to-day, sure, but no one who's not into it on stage sings like he does in 94.
