Grateful Dead

Stay warm brother. Winter doesn't seem to want to let go of it's grips yet up here in the Great lakes region, but we were spared any serious snowfall this year. You guys get it pretty bad up there. I don't have all of the "Download Series" releases, but do have Vol. 5. Highly recomended. Lots of energy, a few rarities and a monster 2nd set. Vol. 7 I don't have yet, should probably get it. Vol. 9 is good. Two shows for the price of one, and the first night (4/2/89) in particular has some nice highlights. The Shakedown Street is worth the price of admission alone. For Vol. 11, from Pine Knob, is from two show run I attended. Between the odd song placements in the second set (for the era), the Birdsong and the Scarlet>Fire, it's really good. If you get this one, I suggest listening to the Drums>Space>Wheel with headphones on or between a set of speakers. I think this is a show where Mickey was karate kicking the Beam. I wish they would have included the "Victim" that preceded Scarlet>Fire. It could have been the jam in between Victim and Scarlet where Micket went crazy kicking the beam. A good way to test how much a set of speakers can handle. I've only recently gotten over my fears of purchasing digital downloads, so will eventually get the rest. There's still a few holes in my collection, but I'm slowly catching up. I did regrettably miss out on the one Road Trips Full Show download of 11/5-6/79, that has since been pulled. Wouldn't mind getting that one.

Check your PM.

Good summing up of 30 Trips. I am definitely going to give those November 1980 shows you mentioned another listen. After March 14th 1990, of course.

Thanks so much for your responses everyone. Not that my decision has been made even a little bit easier, lol. Spacebrother, a special shout out to you for your enthusiasm... I appreciate the time it must have taken to give me both your lengthy responses. BTW, I know you lobby a lot for '80s and '90s releases. A few in the Download Series fit that description (#s 5, 7, 9, 11). I don't have any of those yet. Are there any that you're especially keen on? Cheers everybody. Lots of snow here in New England. Hops everyone is staying warm & dry...

It's actually the '81 show with the big second set patch. The '83 show is all soundboard. Lots of alternate source patches on the '70 show as well. The '82 selection is a solid "B+" recording of an "A-" show in my opinion. The source tape isn't quite as crispy as, say the '82 Greek run, but still pretty good. After my ears adjusted to the fidelity of the Manor Downs recording, I found it to be an enjoyable listen. I find that with the E'72 box, from the time it first came out, there is so much music there that too this day I still haven't spent a lot of time on any one particular show. All great perfromances and recordings, yet an overload of information. I tend to pull that set out on the anniversary dates, so by the next day or so, I'm already onto the next show. This set certainly deserves an "in-depth" analysis. Some people here have broken down ceratin aspects, like the various Dark Stars and Other Ones. I don't you'll find much, if any dissatisfaction with this set, except for maybe some of the mixing decisions where some thought it felt rushed. The only "off" thing I can recall from the set is that 4/11/72 Newcastle, Jerry's guitar sounds a little more distorted than the two Wembly shows that preceded it and the rest of the shows afterwards. Something like a blown tube sound, that seemed to be fixed by the next show. The slight muddiness of his guitar tone doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of listening to it though. There will always be an occasional glitch when an entire tour is released, even during their best tours. Speaking of anniversaries, March 14th is tomorrow. Time to break out 3/14/90 Cap Center from Spring '90 (TOO). If you don't have these two boxes yet and have the spare money, you won't be disappointed. Like E'72 and May '77, every show is epic.

I think it's a great box and well worth having because of the following... 11/10/67 Shrine Auditorium - Multi-track recording with some source material used for anthem of the Sun 10/20/68 Greek Theater - It's the Greek Theater and with Pigpen. A must have. 10/22/69 Dream Bowl - shows the preceded the famous FW'69 run. If you like Live Dead, you'll like this. 9/24/72 Palace Theater - Great show from a great tour in a great year. Another must have. 9/18/74 Parc Des Expositions - They seemed to really deleiver on the few occasions they played in France. 9/28/75 Golden Gate Park - A little rough around the edges, but a must have none-the-less. 10/27/79 Cape Cod - One of the "all-time" must have shows. The second set is a monster. 11/28/80 Lakeland Civic Center - A great run of shows, including 11/30/80 Fox Theater (one of the very best Dave's Picks and one of the fastest to sell out) and the often requested 11/29/80 Gainesville. I would place this run in the same caliber as 5/7-9/77 for the trifecta. Just awesome. Absolutely must have. 11/21/83 The Centrum - prior to it's release, I never heard this show. Now it's one of my favorites. 11/12/84 Augusta - An absolutely must have show. Right out of the gate, Feel Like A Stranger will have you grinning from ear to ear. Gotta have it. 6/24/85 Riverbend Music Center - A monster second set. The "Comes a Time" and "Wharf Rat" and Cryptical sandwich are very nice. 9/18/87 MSG - One of the all time great Morning Dews. A must have show. 7/3/88 Oxford Plains Speedway - Awesome first set, and awesome second set. This would probably see a lot of time in your CD player. Perfect summertime music. Possibly a definitve Hell In A Bucket. Jerry is just killing it in this show. Absolute must have. 10/26/89 Miami - A multi-track recording of one of the more heavily requested '89 shows. If you like the '89 Warlocks box (10/8-9/89), Nightfall of Diamonds (10/16/89) the two Spring '90 boxes and Without a Net, this is up there with the very best of this era. Every deadhead MUST have this one. A wicked awesome second set. 10/27/90 Le Zénith - Another example of the band playing a great show in France. I've neglected a lot of the Europe '90 fall tour shows, and this one really piqued my interest. I like it. 9/10/91 MSG - One of those shows that should have been released in wide cirulation. Much like the run from the FW '69 box, why they made this limited edition makes no sense. I don't care what someones favorite era is...if they don't have this in their collection, they need to get it. Possibly the biggest "must have" of the entire box. 3/20/92 Copps Coliseum - Probably definitive for a '92 show. I attended this one, so the incentive for me to obtain this was pretty high. It's not to say that the shows from '66, '70, '71, '73, '76-'78, '81, '82, '86 and '93-'95 are in any way bad. They are all great as well. For me, as someone who likes to venture into every era of the Dead, 30 Trips was the perfect release for varieties sake. If you're a big fan of all era's, like I am, you'll love it. If you hate everything they played after the Keith & Donna era, not so much. I would say get it if you can afford it. So much to discover. I was listening to a couple of these shows recently from my buddies USB version of this set, and now I kind of wish I would have went that route over the CD set.

I missed out on FW69, but I did get E72, and I would say its my favourite Dead release. Incredibly, every show is essential. True, there is a uniformity of sound, and a finite number of songs are played, which do crop up again and again. But the actual playing means that they are never boring or mundane. While the first sets are good, the second sets are out of this world-the energy and jamming! There is no other band in so called "rock music" that can improvise as effectively as this. I suppose it depends on whether you like the signature sound of the year or not, so, as AJS says, the best bet is probably to buy a few 72 shows first to see if you like them. Funnily enough, I was never that crazy about the triple album "Europe 72". I liked sides 5 and 6, and the China Cat-Rider, but overall, I was a bit underwhelmed.

In my opinion, this box is uneven; some shows are truly great, while others are just average.The ones I listen to the most: 1967 through 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1984, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993(yes, I actually like the 90s better than the late 80s...) 1971 & 1972 are disappointing, considering other shows from that year. 1982 is kinda' hissy, 1980 kinda' muddy, compared to what's on the Archive, 1983 is a good show, but post-drums is from an audience source. $1200 is a lot of money, you could wait for an auction instead of a Buy It Now, you should be able to get it under $900.

I didn't want to miss out on this box, because it was the first one that was available since I became a dead head. However I was not interested in anything after Keith and Donna. So I bought it and then sold the leftovers, which worked out to be 17 shows. So if you want some but not all that's one way to go about it. I paid about 200 bucks for Dave's Picks Volume 4, William & Mary, September 1976. The audio on here is probably the worst of any non 1974 70s release. I'm not complaining, I bring it to light because I wonder how this came to be, when I consider every other show from this time. Is a magnificent Betty Board. In fact it's not even in stereo. When I hit the mono button nothing changes. Does anyone know what happened with this one?

I bought both of these sets and still listening to shows. My favorite show seems to be the last one I listen to. Yeah I know that's a lot of money. But I do the same thing with Miles and Dylan, just got to have them. Buy what you can live with to the extend to avoid the purchase creating internal issues. Freud said if you suppress your natural desires , they become unnatural. Got back into Vinyl recently and bought DP 8 on vinyl sounds really good.Only issue had damaged disc and took four emails before someone at Brookvale got back to me. Waiting two weeks for replacement disc.