8-6-71: hollywood palladium, los angeles, CA. w/ the new riders of the purple sage.

one of the best-known audience tapes from the early seventies, this rob bertrando field recording is really something. the tape, produced with a sony 770 portable 7-inch reel deck and two battery-powered ECM-22 condenser mikes, is close to perfect with soundboard quality instrument separation and a good balance of crowd noise. bertrando was one of the original grateful dead tapers who, along with relix-founders les kippel and jerry moore, worked their cunning magic in the days when recording shows demanded coming up with wily methods for getting one’s gear into concert venues. this is long before tapers’ sections were the norm at dead shows, and stories abound about the band’s sound and road crews putting the stops to every recording operation they witnessed. cords were cut, tape decks smashed, and tapes were often confiscated. it’s amazing that bootlegs like this palladium gig ever got made in the first place.

the show roars out of the gate with a fiery bertha, and the high-octane atmosphere continues throughout the performance. stellar takes on new and old tunes litter the first set, including a tight mr. charlie, a blistering cumberland blues, a fine brokedown palace with competent harmonies, and a damn pretty run through loser. the highlight of the opening frame is the tremendous hard to handle. a featured track on the fallout from the phil zone compilation, this hard to handle has long been considered in grateful dead circles as one of the best they ever played. the solo section on this evening is absolutely ablaze with power; the raw energy of this rendition is palpable, and the reflection back from the frenzied palladium audience perfectly captures the symbiotic relationship between the band and the crowd in a way that is elemental to the grateful dead’s live affect.

the second set opens with one of the last pre-vacation period takes on saint stephen. the stand alone version is full of swagger and doesn’t disappoint. a respectable truckin’ is next, replete with some downright acrobatic guitar work from garcia. from here, a quick drum solo bridges the way to the jewel of set 2—a fabulous, opulently textured other one. it’s a classic '71 version, filled with dark, ruminating jams and crackling verve—exactly what we’ve come to expect when listening to performances during this peak transitional period. me & my uncle appears midway through the song, a combination that would occur a number of times during the fall and winter tours. tonight’s take has a little something extra in the chamber and the segue is nearly perfect. after the cowboy weir interval, a free-form jam ensues and advances-with great instrumental fervor-to the final verse. the show concludes with a few rockers, a superb morning dew, and a 24-minute lovelight finale, packed with some beautiful blues-soaked riffs from jerry and plenty of righteous mckernan rap.

many early field recordings suffered greatly from being made too close to the stage. that certainly wasn’t the case with this tape. almost every note from each instrument is audible and the inflection of the band’s voices are evenly modulated. the quality of the sound recording and the sheer intensity of the performance makes this a show for the ages. warning: repeated listenings are conducive to a condition of heightened jubilance.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-08-06.aud.bertrando.yerys.129.sbeok.shnf

as an added bonus, here's a link to bertrando tape of the previous evening's performance, which ain't no slouch either. the sound quality on this recording is almost as good and well worth checking out. https://archive.org/details/gd71-08-05.aud.cotsman.9768.sbeok.shnf/gd71-08-05d1t02.shn

and i'd be remiss if i didn't include a link to the opening set by nrps, featuring jerry on pedal steel. it is the perfect compliment to the dead's performance and gives you a nice window into what a night with the grateful dead felt like in 1971. https://archive.org/details/nrps1971-08-06aud.shnf/nrps1971-08-06d2t01.shn