5/14/70: meramec community college, kirkwood, MO. with nrps.

sandwiched in between an east village fundraiser for timothy leary and the renowned fillmore east show featured on the road trips series, the dead and nrps play an evening gig at the 2200 seat on-campus gymnasium, home to the midwest conference meramec archers. the show followed the typical structure for performances during this era—an acoustic set by the dead, followed by the new riders (w/ jerry sitting in on pedal steel), and an electric dead finale. the show was played while the band was recording the workingman’s LP, as evidenced by the tunes and the focus on the singing and harmonies throughout.

the night begins with a relaxed and confident acoustic set, that includes a rollicking don't ease me in, a lovely early take on friend of the devil, and a stirring deep elm blues with a punchy garcia lead and an alluringly thick groove. the entire electric segment of the evening is inspired and contains standout versions of high time, the first-ever live performance of attics of my life, and a very intense new speedway boogie, made possible by the absolutely blazing solo from jerome during the mid-song nobody’s fault jam. the set concludes with 30 minutes of st. stephen > not fade away > turn on your lovelight (with a sizable helping of ensemble jamming), and a quick take on the fred rich gospel tune, cold jordan, for an encore.

recorded by bob mathews, this one is a real top-notch 1970 recording. that said, an official release of this evening would put me (and more than a few others) in hog heaven. according to the former keeper of the vault, dick latvala, only reels 3, 4, and 5 of this concert made it into storage. when he was asked about the many missing/incomplete 1970 grateful dead shows, latvala replied with a sigh "that's how loose things were in the past. i'm sure there were plenty of times when someone says, 'put these in the truck,' and the guy puts them in the back...the truck takes off, and the tapes flew off into the highway. someone picks them up, puts them in storage, dies, and the tapes resurface...."

let’s hope the first two reels of this evening make themselves known so this fine show gets the remastering it justly deserves.

acoustic set:
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-14.sbd-acoustic.clugston.34165.sbeok.shnf

electric:
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-14.136645.s2.sbd.reelmaster.dat.sirmick.flac16/gd1970-05-14s2t14.flac