Grateful Dead

9.8

Set 1-Minglewood: good 1st solo, nothing special; Brent takes the first run in the 2d solo, then Bob 2 runs, then 2d pretty good, and Jerry takes the final 2 mellow runs; “tea for New York City where the girls know what to do” -Tenn Jed: nothing fancy in the 1st couple of short solos, VG final solo -MM Uncle: good tempo as usual -Big River: Brent takes a really nice keyboards solo, Jerry then a nice run; Jerry stretches out in the final solo -Don’t Ease: weird choice after the cowboy combo; Brent gets the 1st run in the solo, Jerry then takes a nice run; 2 VG runs from Jerry in the next solo -El Paso: more cowboy music?!?!? -Big RR Blues: ok 1st solo; good 2d one; nothing happening in the set thus far -Easy To Love You: good Brent & Jerry solo -It’s All Over Now: pretty good 1st solo; Brent starts the 2d solo on bluesy organ, 2 or 3 really nice runs; then Jerry takes over, precise & deliberate 1st run, then seems to run out of gas, finds his footing, professional run -Althea: 1st non-Brent song of the set I really like; lyric problems before 1st solo; 1st 4 solos very short, shuffles; in the 5th solo, Jerry performs a shuffle in the 1st run, but he’s gearing up, and the 2d run is very nice, high tone, 3d run continues the high tone, 4th run gets a little lower, good solo but that’s about it; “thinking a lot about less and less” verse both before and after solo -Music: a little more bounce in this one, ncie groove; VG jam, short outro Set 2 -China Cat: VG solo; jam picks up speed, Jerry laying some nice licks, building to a fine climax -Rider: Jerry has to prompt Bob on the “the sun gonna shine” verse before the solo; VG solo; excellent jam; the first highlight -Eyes: 3 Jerry songs in a row, making up a bit for the 1st set; not too fast, on the slow side for post-retirement, which is nice; VG 1st solo, excellent 2d solo; excellent version -Lost Sailor: gotta give Bob a chance; fits in well here, nice transition to Sailor -St. of Circumstance: let’s dance! Not much jamming but nicely done -Jam: more of a Space really, same track as Saint -Drums: -Space: short but pretty -Wharf: good solo, outro cut short -Around: nice trip to Berryland -JBG: ok -US Blues: get out of dodge Overall: 1st set looks bad on paper, and it’s certainly nothing special in execution. Decent 1st set, maybe a Good Minus. The meat of the show is the pre-drums portion of Set 2, with a very solid China Cat followed by excellent versions of Rider and Eyes. Sailor and Saint are ok too, but they don’t leave any room for improvisation. Post-drums the band is just trying to finish up. Decent set 1, Good set 2, 7/10 overall.

After some searching, even looking up the Who concert deaths in Cincy just a bit earlier from this show, I can now pass along a few show memories. A crowd drove down from SE Michigan early so we had lots of time hanging out in front of doors prior to the show. When it got crowded the Who show stories/comments began. It was weird but folks talked down the offenders. So it was actually a pretty cool scene. then we got in. We're at the beginning of second section on the floor on the left side. I am right on the aisle. The old guys (now my age) were being VERY intense about people dancing ONLY in the space in front of their seat. That is tough.. But we bounced and smiled and closed our eyes and bounced and loved every note of it. Having just seen the Ann Arbor show I was quite pleased at the very different nature of the Indy show. Want something different? See two (almost) consecutive Dead shows. Be well!!