11/15/71: austin municipal auditorium.

if I had to pick a show to highlight from the fall ’71 tour, this one is surely more than a worthy candidate. the fall of 1971 showed the thrilling impact of keith godchaux’s arrival on the dead’s ever-morphing sound. just his 16th gig with the band, this performance is certainly one of the strongest of that era. there are two wonderful pieces of improvisation that demonstrate the utter confidence with which the band was playing at this time, one for each set. the first, a stellar dark star suite, confidently prances forward from its unusual first-set location. about 12 minutes into it, with the band deeply ensconced in deep space, cowboy bob slips el paso into the foray. jerry doesn’t miss a beat, and subtly shifts directions away from the rich vein he was previously mining. after departing the wild west, a straight-ahead jam ensues until they launch into a chug-a-lugging casey jones to end a hot 35-minutes of music.

the second set jam comes in a somewhat strange spot—wedged in between not fade away and goin’ down the road, a transition that generally lasts 4 minutes or so. but this one stretches out for an exciting 15 minutes worth. the band goes in and out of several beautiful places, re-mining the aborted mood from dark star, and play without any concern for having to rush into anything. recorded by bob mathews and remastered by david gans, this set of music is what makes listening to the grateful dead such a unique pleasure. https://archive.org/details/gd1971-11-15.sbd.set2.jupille.7735.shnf