Wednesday, July 25, 2018
5/31/69: mcarthur court, eugene, OR. when the dead headlined mac court, the 9000 seat capacity arena was certainly one of the biggest rooms that they had ever played for. the grateful dead were always immensely popular in oregon, partially due to mystical connections by way of ken kesey. in perfect form, kesey and his pals were having some sort of prankster reunion on this weekend, and mr. further, ken babbs and a slew of others were in attendance at this show, appearing on stage in some capacity or other. in between songs and during the customary equipment malfunctions, the crowd is entertained by babbs (who provides an overabundance of demented, mile-a-minute jabber about this and that), the collective grateful dead slide whistle impressionists and, much to jerry’s chagrin, bobby weir’s telling of his yellow dog story. again.the performance is another in a long list of 1969 gems. hard to handle kicks off the set, with some downright nasty slide work from jerome. cold rain and snow is completely unhinged and played at a blistering pace. the next 11 minutes are all about prankster shenanigans and a quick presentation of the highly regarded yellow doggy tale. the weir-sung green green grass of home follows, with a fine pedal-steel imitation by mr. garcia. after this, the boys finally get to stretch out and dive into an unbridled cryptical suite that has just the right amount of bedlam. the segue into a full-speed-ahead sitting on top of the world is handled beautifully. pig marshals the band for the remainder of the first set with an emotional hurts me too, and an outstanding, animated lovelight.the second set opens with a beautiful, lengthy run through he was a friend of mine. this traditional folk tune didn’t have much of a future in the band’s setlist, but performances like this one are an absolute treasure. from here we’re greeted with a dark star that easily rivals any they played all year. if early 1969 was a time for strengthening the dead’s achievements, the rest of that year was a period of using those successes as a springboard into parts unknown. this dark star voyage is an excellent example of the collective growth of the ensemble. fired by the hyperventilating presence of ken babbs and company, it really serves as the perfect aural holograph of the grateful dead. the night concludes with a doin’ that rag > cosmic charlie (cut) pairing and a heartfelt baby blue > we bid you goodnight double encore, a fine ending to a performance abundantly stuffed with surprises.a distressed announcer at the show’s close tells the crowd, ‘‘lots of people snuck in, and they only sold 1500 tickets, and they’re $400 dollars short.” word is that he asked the audience to make a donation at the door when they left. given the splendor of this performance, a few departing bucks at the exit seems quite apropos.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-31.sbd.oleynick.76.sbeok.shnf/gd69-05-31d1t13.shn
Thursday, July 12, 2018
6/10/73: robert f. kennedy memorial stadium, washington, DC.in the summer of 1973, the dead joined the allman brothers for two memorable performances in the 45,000 seat multi-purpose arena, two miles due east of the u.s. capitol building. doug sahm and wet willie opened the festivities on saturday and sunday, respectively. the shows used the dead’s prototype wall of sound with a stereo PA system with JBL speakers inside Alembic cabinets, plus a stereo auxiliary PA. on the second night, the dead played a powerful, lengthy—4 ½ hour—set that included extended takes on birdsong and playing in the band, a lovely eyes of the world > stella blue pairing, and a dark star suite that surely sent many of the psychedelic rangers in attendance into a state of supreme delectation. toward the end of the evening, allman’s guitarist dickey betts joined the band for a few tunes, including a scorching run through the arthur big boy crudup tune, that’s alright mama. president richard nixon chose not to attend either night.
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-06-10.sbd.miller.89640.sbeok.flac16
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
4/16/72: aarhus university, denmark.midway through their european vacation, the dead venture to the tiny college town of stakladen and play one of the most unusual shows of the fabled tour. reviewers often point to the london, frankfurt, or paris dates when highlighting the notable outings of the europe run, and rightly so. for some reason, the aarhus gig often goes unmentioned. looking at the setlist one might assume that this is just another typical grateful dead show from 1972. upon close listening though, it reveals itself as one of the most unique performances of this era. the first set is standard ’72 fare with a solid sugaree, a few robust cowboy tunes, an extremely beautiful early take on black throated wind, and a playing in the band that is just starting to take off. the meat of this show, is found in the set 2 jams. the second frame begins with a smoking good lovin’ with all the necessary pigpen raps. a few tunes later, the weirdness really kicks in. truckin’ is arguably the best of the tour, plump full of brilliant garcia solos. the reprise jam is goddamn remarkable and the train soon becomes completely unhitched before the ensemble somehow finds it within themselves to latch onto the other one theme. this version of the other one contains an atypical structure, with a number of quiet passages and is played largely without drums. me and my uncle provides an excellent bridge before the lads dive back into the other one proper, though lacking the second verse. the end result is nearly forty minutes of unexpected twists and turns, intriguing dead ends, and a satiable helping of inspired improvisation. a rocking not fade away > goin’ down the road feeling bad > not fade away closes out the set in good ol' grateful dead fashion, with the crowd in a frenzy and no room for an encore.recorded by betty cantor-jackson, this one is a winner from top to bottom. unfortunately, the first set on all the archived recordings is a bit muddy and suffers from numerous cuts. i’ve linked the best sounding cassette source here, via uli teute and hanno bunjes. the second set transfer from mr. charlie miller is of much better quality. of course, i’ve been listening to the exceptional jeffery norman remastered version culled from the original 16 track recording. i suggest that you take it out for a spin and see for yourself. i’m guessing you’ll b-line it to the itunes store and download this nordic beauty posthaste. https://archive.org/details/gd72-04-16.sbd.pset1.hanno.19861.sbeok.shnf/gd72-04-16t05.shn https://archive.org/details/gd72-04-16.sbd.miller.18103.sbeok.shnf/gd72-04-16d2t04.shn
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