2/2/69: labor temple, minneapolis, MN. w/ blackwood apology.
a few weeks prior to recording the tracks that would grace the seminal live dead LP, the boys play a short, but very happening set at the grand opening of the minneapolis labor temple. the band had begun their midwest tour with a couple shows at the kinetic playground in chicago, starting a long, strange tradition of touring the midwest in the dead of winter. a reporter for the minneapolis tribune who was in attendance wrote, "after a long delay for setting up their nearly 100 pieces of equipment, the grateful dead came on with a sound like the end of a bad trip. it was a horrendously penetrating hum from an amplifier gone mad. but when they got the amplifier squared away, they showed that they can play as well as make noise." sounds fairly typical for a bear-era show to me.
the tape begins with schoolgirl already underway. pigger is in fine form and his harp playing melds perfectly with jerry's swampy, mixolydian blues riffs. hilarious stage banter ensues. garcia: "come on man, we come all the way across the country & leave the comfort and beauty of california and come all the way out here in the cold miserable [midwest] and what do we get? what do we get? people who can't dig it! too weird!" weir adds, "it was sheer hell," while lesh intrudes to exclaim, "this is the first dance concert in your city in eleven years! why don't you all take advantage of it?" some familiar tuning-with a competing louie louie bass line-rises out of the fray and the boys launch headlong into dark star. the 16-minute take is charged and beautiful, with lush feedback and spirited diversions from the main theme. from here, there's twenty more sharp minutes of st. stephen > the eleven > death don't have no mercy, with some unfortunate tape cuts. despite the blemishes, the classic 1969 sequence is satisfying throughout.
the psychedelic mayhem continues with a blazing cryptical suite. the transition into the other one is explosive; it hits you like a truckful of bricks, but it's a welcomed assault. the dramatic flow of ideas between garcia and the drummers spurs and nudges the septet toward oblivion. the interplay and speedy changes in direction are extraordinary, and the cryptical reprise that follows is equally rewarding. the show concludes with turn on your lovelight. it's a deep pocketed version with classic mckernan raps, intricate grooves, and rich, circular double drumming.
it might seem weird to refer to a grateful dead show-especially one from 1969-as concise, but that's a word that springs to mind when listening to this tape. here we have a good portion of the dead's 1969 repertoire performed in less than ninety minutes, and there's hardly a note wasted during the set. in a review from the minneapolis star the following day, the reporter, johan mathiesen, waxed lyrical about the band's sound and approach. midway through the piece he did a fine job summing up the grateful dead's shtick in one sentence: "the dead play a style of music that could best be described as seemingly about to fall apart at any moment, yet the group is so tight that regardless of how far afield they may wander, they all come together at exactly the right moments." this opening night at the labor temple exemplifies this sentiment in spades.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-02-02.sbd.cotsman.9758.sbeok.shnf
