5-10-72: het concertgebouw, amsterdam. 

slightly over a month into their european vacation, the dead arrived in the netherlands to play a gig at the intimate 2000-seat concertgebouw symphony hall. gifted to the city by a few prominent residents in 1881, the venue boasts unparalleled acoustics and is truly a wonder of neoclassic architecture. the royal concertgebow’s longstanding vision is to use their unique concert hall building and high level of artistic programming to connect people of all ages and to enrich them with a sublime musical experience. in other words, a perfect location for another skull-fuck of an evening on the europe ’72 excursion.

this vastly underrated show is extremely well played from start to finish. virtually every tune is a standout performance. the tape opens bertha, followed by notable versions of me & my uncle, mr. charlie, and a china cat > know you rider with a very long intro passage. the rest of the set is just as brilliant with a fine black throated wind, an early stripped down take on he’s gone without the lyrical coda, a strong and tight tennessee jed with a little extra from jerome on vocals, and a dynamite version of playing in the band, highlighted by an exceptionally intense and melodic jam.

a well-played truckin’ opens the second frame, and the end jam is simply ferocious. after a brief, jazzy drum interlude, the band plunges headlong into arguably the most inspired other one suite of the tour. kruetzmann doesn’t let up for a moment and the opening jam that emerges is exceptional; first we get an extended, dynamic exploration of the theme that, rather than leading to the initial verse, morphs into a long bluesy exploration with some fabulous down and dirty delta tones from garcia’s stratocaster. the blues outing soon loses form and the other one theme returns in anticipation of weir’s singing of the first verse. before long, the band veers off into another extended space that begins with a hesitant, rhythmic feel, but before long drops into a deep abyss. another energetic jam exploring the main theme follows, transitions into the second verse, and then drops into another brief passage before cowboy bob nimbly steers the sextet into me & bobby mcgee. the set’s opening string of tunes culminates with a haunting wharf rat with just the right amount of minor key grooves and impassioned soloing from jerry. the remainder of the set won’t let you down either, with a rare pigpen-led the stranger (two souls in communion), a beautiful take on sing me back home, and a rousing not fade away > goin’ down the road > not fade away reprise.

working my way through the twenty-two dates that make up the 1972 european tour, i’m amazed by the quality of playing and musicianship that took place night after night. what a gas it would have been to tag along with the grateful dead family for this trip. one can only imagine the buzz that bob mathews and betty cantor must have felt as they were producing the 16-track recordings of the concerts, not to mention the elation of the fans who got to take in the shows firsthand.

in a 1973 rolling stone review of the europe '72 album, tom dupree wrote: “i am convinced that god made the grateful dead so that they could be heard in concert.” listening to may 10th in it’s entirety, it would be hard to refute such a claim. it’s a performance i’m happy to return to again and again and again.

https://archive.org/details/gd72-05-10.sbd.kaplan.1582.sbeok.shnf/gd72-05-10d2t02.shn