I: Cold Rain & Snow, Me & My Uncle, Bertha, Me And Bobby McGee, Next Time You See Me, China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider, Casey Jones II: Sugar Magnolia, Second That Emotion, Truckin', Hard To Handle, Loser, Playin' In The Band, Around & Around, Good Lovin'-> Drums-> Good Lovin', E: Uncle John's Band "Mr. Electrician Man, if you mess with the lights one more time, we gonna hog tie you and throw yo ass out of this place!" - Pigpen (big crowd reaction there). Today's daytime listening. Really fun show, high energy and some interesting stage banter from just about everyone. They were fired up on this night. I'll just C&P this review because it covers it as well as anything. --- 1st Set: They start off with a great CR&S that just gave me the willies. Any show, in my opinion, that starts off with CR&S is going to be a good one. They don’t disappoint with the follow-up song MAMU. Of course, this is a toss-off song but every once in a while, like tonight, they play the flurp out of it. Great stuff and we’re just 20 minutes in. The MABM starts to go to the places they will later take it. This is the beginning of this song. They have lighting problems before Next Time You See Me. NTYSM has Pig on his harmonica slaying the place. He is loud and he is in charge. He threatens to hog-tie the lighting guy. CHINA/RIDER is a funkaliscious treat that moves into the sublime and brings us back out with a finesse that only the Dead can do. 2nd Set: A rip-roaring SUGAR MAGNOLIA starts us off with a blazing SSDD. It’s not that they are transporting us to another realm tonight, it’s that the songs are played with intensity, it feels like they are coming at us. Same with SECOND THAT EMOTION. A Big sound. TRUCKIN is feeling like its’ getting it’s sea legs but the jam at the end is really nice. Seemed like they were going to do the snake coil but the song just kinda ended. HARD TO HANDLE gets a nice treatment in the jam but they are still working up to that killer jam they get later. LOSER has been the most consistent song this year. They introduced it strong and it keeps getting better. The meat of this show is GOOD LOVIN. Billy’s drum solo is wild and longer than usual. The jam coming out is bold and stomps all over the place. Nice 20+ min. version. Great the whole way through. --- I've never heard the Truckin' coda referred to as "the snake coil" but it kinda makes sense. Can't really hear any keyboards in the mix at all but some stories say Pigpen didn't play much this evening as he was looking for his rider, so to speak. It doesn't really matter because Jerry, Bob and Phil are in command here. No deep jams-post drums Good Lovin' is about it- but Jerry is fantastic from first note to last.
51 years ago today 4/18/70 Family Dog at The Great Highway - San Francisco, CA Set 1: I Know You Rider Don't Ease Me In Silver Threads Friend Of The Devil Deep Elem Blues Wake Up Little Susie Candyman Cumberland Blues New Speedway Boogie Me And My Uncle Mama Tried Katie Mae The Rub Roberta Walk Down The Street The Flood
7.1.85, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD Second set starts off with an absolutely smoking Scarlet > Fire, followed by a ridiculous PITB > UJB... Garcia is on fire! Thanks for the recommendation @Crispy Rob
Listening to Dick’s Picks 13... Really great early Brent show. Listening to the “hidden” Scar>Fire from Nov ‘79 into the He’s Gone>Caution>Spanish Jam. Has to be one of my favorite 60 minute sequences in a Dead release ever. Early Brent shows really need to be better represented! Long live Brent!
7/1/85 is one of the best shows of their last two decades. On the top 5 shows thread, I listed it as one of mine.
Been too long. The whole run from 6/24-7/1/85 is really hot, but those two Merriweather Post shows are probably the peak. Soundboards from that tour and the Greek run earlier in June, plus Richmond 11/1/85 and a few other '85 shows, were widely available relatively shortly after the shows (rumor has it thanks to people working as part of the lighting crew, but I don't really know), so a lot of those shows were linchpins of my early tape collection in '86-'87 and are still favorites of mine. I know @LandHorses is a fellow traveler as far as being a huge fan of those shows, although I'm jealous he actually got to experience some of them in person. [Edit: I replied before seeing @LandHorses' post, but I knew that the beacon had been lit...]
Yes, me too. I Looooove DiP31. Also last days I've been totally into Road Trips Wall vol.2. no.3 of Sound release. Can't get enough of it! The band is totally channelling Bitches Brew here. These two releases are like pinnacle of '74 for me. I mean, this stuff is spectacular! SPECTACULAR ! I also think Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack stuff is a bit overrated, some stuff sounds a bit tired in comparison to this summer material. There I've said it! (Maybe it's just about sound of the official release, I don't like those bloated toms. Or maybe I've just overplayed that stuff in the past). Probably it's just me...
Earlybird Theater this morning: 6/9/76 Boston, first set. This is a Road Trips release, but I'm just listening to the Charlie Miller version. The first set could be described as languid. "Big River" and "Promised Land" are taken at their 1974 tempos, but the ballads are all slower and more intricate. There's a new groove in town that wasn't there in 1974. The highlight for me is probably Music Never Stopped. Donna is way stronger and more assured here than she was on the studio version. Keith sounds great in this set, adding a lot of spark. Billy and Mickey do some nice work here. Some of the rhythmic "float" of 1968-70 is back, and no sneakers in the dryer effect. Bobby's playing feels like an equal partner here and not just backup. His chord voicings have grown more interesting. In this set, at least, Jerry doesn't seem quite as sharp as pre-hiatus. Some of his resolutions are awkward and "off", like he's struggling to feel the transitions. Other times, his phrasing is gorgeous. It's the nature of improvisation, I guess.
I've had that 6/16 show for years and the Eyes > Big River from that is amazing -- probably my favorite Eyes ever, actually. Was psyched to see it on that Road Trips.
Yeah, I enjoyed 6/30 and 7/1 much more than I expected to... Incredibly good performances, and I remember Merriweather Post being a really cool venue. I ended up preferring the AUD recordings for both shows. They are a lot of fun, and easy to crank up the volume. I'll check out some shows from the prior week as well.
The Compendium has that story of the "Amy Boards." If I recall it correctly, the lighting crew had VHS tapes made of the shows to evaluate their work that had a soundboard feed, and someone named Amy dubbed those until in '86 someone else in the organization stopped it.
It's a great SBD, yet if you'd like another perspective find the audience recording by Steve Maizner. His tape circulated after the show and for years was the available source, captures the vibe in the hall really well. PS- Steve's recording of 15 May 1977- St. Louis Arena, was also a long-time favorite and the only source of that show as well.
