12/13/69: swing auditorium, san bernardino, CA.

the dead play the first of a number of shows at the swing, this one with the flying burrito brothers and country joe & the fish sharing the bill. the swing auditorium had a capacity of about 10,000, making it one of the largest indoor venues the dead had headlined up to this point (not to mention it provided the possibility of a big take, which was more than welcomed based on the debt the band had accumulated while recording aoxomoxoa). geographically san bernardino was a bit off the grid, about 60 miles from downtown los angeles (and even more remote from santa monica or the coast). given the notorious history of southern california traffic, this meant two or more hours of driving at any time of the day or night to access the club. these factors made the swing’s location new territory for the grateful dead, far away in many senses from LA proper.

the performance and sound on this evening is quite good, including some beautiful early takes on four tunes from the upcoming workingman’s dead LP. casey jones kicks off the set, and is played and sung with feeling. hard to handle begins a bit sloppy, but eventually tightens up. pig, as usual, drives the ship with his bluesy vocals, constanten uses a sweet rhodes-like keyboard tone, and jerry steps up nicely on the solo. the show really opens up with the black peter; jerry’s voice is filled with an ephemeral quality, so emblematic of the dying protagonist who simply wants “…a little peace to die/and a friend or two/i love at hand.” garcia’s guitar is as affecting as his vocal work, transporting the listener to a stark, beautiful place beyond the subject matter.

the band comes up huge on the remainder of the show. the china > rider is remarkable, high time is sublime, cumberland blues is pure bakersfield—loaded with finger picking and twang, and the closing saint stephen > lovelight is a total gas. culled from bear’s 7-inch master reels, with a damn fine digital transfer from s. clugston, this gig really delivers the goods. https://archive.org/details/gd69-12-13.sbd.clugston.5583.sbeok.shnf/gd69-12-13d1t01.shn