Friday, February 7, 2020

2/1/70: the warehouse, new orleans, LA. w/fleetwood mac

heralded as “bread for the dead,” this show was essentially the dead’s bust fund benefit for themselves. after some wacky tape-opening chatter, the stage announcer says: “and here’s the group that made this afternoon all possible…” (lesh: “the new orleans police department!”), and they launch into a torrid version of beat it on down the line. china cat sunflower > i know you rider is next up; the mix is guitar-heavy and messy, but it levels out just before the customary three-part a capella vocal harmony. a few new ones from the soon-to-be-released workingman’s dead follow—black peter and cumberland blues. both songs are well played and sound remarkably tight despite the fact that they’d just been folded into the band’s repertoire. the middle portion of the show is pretty standard without any real standouts. good lovin’ cuts just as the jam is heading back into pig’s vocals and dire wolf is still in its catchy folk tune phase.

the boys really dig in for back half of the performance. the cryptical suite is superb and typical of the era. the opening verse segues into an extremely long (11 minute) drum break, followed by a seething take on the other one. a reel flip neatly cuts the vocals, resulting in a mostly instrumental version. the ensemble playing is absolutely fierce, and garcia sounds like he’s about to blow up. fleetwood mac’s peter green joins the band on guitar as they drop into 39-minutes of turn on your lovelight to close out the show. green’s presence is felt immediately as he bends and blends notes on his ’59 honey-burst les paul, deftly navigating the tempo changes that make the song such a delight. his contribution clearly inspires the band and the evening’s take is a very long, jammed out version that surely stands out as one of the most colorful lovelights of the year. https://archive.org/details/gd1970-02-01.126275.sbd.lee-smith.flac16