5/18/72: kongressaal-deutsches museum, munich, west germany.

a little over a month removed from the band’s relatively brief beat-club TV performance, comes this monster of a show from the rhineland. the previous site of rallies hosted by der Fuhrer, the munich venue was a high-ceilinged, acoustically challenging space with reflective wood walls and narrow, vertical windows; it was a room built for performances of beethoven’s ninth, not for rock concerts fueled by 15,000 watts of audio power delivered through ron wickersham designed alembic sound systems. the dead had no concerns with these limitations on this night, executing a masterful, three-hour performance that found them playing the crap out of every song in their path.

the first set—in typical 1972 fashion—is a fifteen tune affair with just the right mix of moods and tempos, with garcia, weir, and pigpen alternating on lead vocals. the second set opens with the tour’s first performance of sitting on top of the world, and it doesn’t disappoint. it's great to hear jerry circa 1972 belt this one out with authority, driving the walter vinson penned tune forward at a breathless rockabilly clip. the relatively short (by europe ’72 standards) second set really heats up with the dark star, one of the most adventurous of the year. the boys take the tune’s theme and bend it into an ever-building cacophony of rhythms and harmonic feedback, with billy battering his toms and cymbals like a man possessed. eventually, the jam winds down and musingly drifts into a delicate and melodious version of morning dew. after a very short, transitory drum solo and a first-rate sugar magnolia, the patrons are treated to one of just two double encores of the european tour, with a bittersweet sing me back home, followed by a rockin’ one more saturday night. danke schön.

https://archive.org/details/gd1972-05-18.sbd.miller.79057.sbeok.flac16