Wednesday, May 3, 2023
4/16/78: civic center, huntington, WV.
1978 was full of messy and brilliant performances. on some nights you got both, on others the pendulum swung to either extreme. the april 16th huntington show was one of those nights where the stars aligned in a bright, notable configuration. in astronomy they call this syzygy. in the world of the grateful dead, the weirism would be to get things “just exactly perfect.” in addition to the luminosity of the playing, this performance is bursting with super-charged energy, especially in the first set. everything’s a little edgy, just the way i like my '78 dead.
the first frame features a solid jack straw opener, a completely locked in cassidy, a sweet, bouncy peggy-o, and a rare first set scarlet begonias > fire on the mountain. the set ender is 19 minutes and feels compact. garcia is very present and the vocals are strong. it’s clear that the band is inspired in their own interplay, while jerry decorates the soundscape with beautiful flourishes and expressive runs. this is especially true of the fire portion of the song pairing. the hart/hunter tune with its catchy rhythmic figure is a perfect foil for garcia’s playful guitar work, as it winds in and out of the andante beats. tonight's take is all this in spades.
the second frame opens with a muscular samson & delilah, with the customary dual drumming lead-in. the ship of fools that follows is rousing and keeps the first set energy rolling. from here, we get to the meat of the backside of the show—a 55-minute sequence of estimated prophet > eyes of the world > drums > space > iko iko, the latter being a rare second set-without a late show-garcia ballad. billy and mickey's rhythm devils dance is satisfying but not particularly deep; there's a nice backbeat behind the steel drums, although the chaos never fully develops. the set ends with an animated sugar magnolia, full of spirited jamming and weir yelps. after a quick break, the band returns for a serviceable u.s. blues encore.
some folks claim 1978 is a lost year for the grateful dead. opiates were surreptitiously creeping into the mix and the playing could be sloppy and inconsistent. some will even go so far as to say the year ain't got no heart. i beg to differ, you just gotta poke around.
https://archive.org/details/gd1978-04-16.148386.betty.dalton.miller.sirmick.fixed.flac16
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