Grateful Dead

I know I saw one. 12-9-90 they closed the first set with Valley Road. Excellent and at the time exciting to hear something new. Agree with Rockthing that Mandolin Wind would have fit nicely in the era.
Cheers all!
Oh, and wasn't Jerry on some of Bruce's albums? Can't think of the name of it but on the Muzac at work I would hear one of Bruce's that starts something like "35(?) weeks ago today" and I would just stop under a speaker to hear the guitar solo that, if it wasn't Jerry, it sounded just like him raining triplets.
Edit: Looked it up, it's called Across The River. Watching the video I didn't see Jerry but that sound! Yep the credits say Jerry! Bruce said it was probably only the second time Jerry hit the top 10 charts, Touch of Grey being the other. What about Truckin' Bruce?

Picasso Moon seemed to sort of disappear from the repertoire. It would have sounded great to hear an evolution of this tune with Brent laying into the B3 instead of the synth sound similar to the studio version. CC Rider is never one of my favorite tunes, but that transition from CC Rider to It Takes a Train to Cry is sublime perfection. Totally did not see that coming. Top marks to both songs for that.

High Time and Black Throated Wind back to back? What was going on here? This is like a dream come true.

Again, Deal. What can I say. This tune is money. Somebody point me to one that /isn’t/ good. This one held my attention yet again.

Help/Slip/Franklins: Help is very cool. The Slipknot! goes into some unusual, very un-Slipknot-like territory during the jam. If I were to pick up midway through I don’t think I’d guess I was listening to Slipknot!. I’m always one for a big jam, but this is one time that Franklins Tower sort of overstays its welcome. I was actually glad to hear Looks Like Rain for once. Those glissando licks that Jerry’s playing are brilliant. I guess they’re the water falling from the sky. I think I like this song better around 90, 91. The Without A Net version that I haven’t heard in ages comes to mind, but this one is a real standout. The ending builds up nicely without becoming melodramatic.

Bobby’s doin’ all his little whammy bar harmonics tricks during Terrapin, and all through the show. These little accents are right on. It’s a great use of texture and controlled overdrive. He’s weaving in all sorts of little licks and fills, almost more of a Stones approach without actually playing things they would play. What’s with that little electronic hand clap around 12 min?! lol. That must’ve been Mickey. Here comes the MIDI… and more “hand claps” as this one totally spaces out before Drums. Definitely like that. Jury’s out on the hand claps, but I think Jerry must have been giving Micky a sly look over his glasses, and Mickey was probably grinnin’ like the Cheshire cat that ate the canary. Then there’s a little samba groove that pops up out of nowhere. So adventurous, and playful. Despite Brent being gone less than a year, Bruce Hornsby brought in such a positive vibe… and also refuses to let that samba idea go away even as the drummers switch to hand percussion… or perhaps because of it. It sounds like Jerry may have left, or started to leave the stage, but then came back. I think that melody is a quotation from an actual composition, but the title isn’t coming to me. So much things to say. So much things to say right now.

I was lying down sort of half dozing off by the time I got to Space last night, but I was impressed by how involved everyone was in it. It wasn’t just a couple minutes of aimless noodling before the climactic rave ups. They were really working out the improv and investing some ear time to this Space. I wish I’d been as invested in taking notes about it. Some more eloquent thoughts wafted through my inner monolog that have been lost this morning as I relisten to the Healy SBD.

Not much to say about the rest of the second set. Solid, I suppose is the best way to describe it. The crowd seemed relieved to hear the GDTRFB riff emerge from a pretty long space, which I personally had thoroughly enjoyed. We’re definitely in Beam solo territory here with Drums, though, so Space probably felt more like 20 minutes than 10, which might seem like an eternity when you’re standing on the floor rather than sitting in a comfy chair at home. Nice organ solo from Vince followed by a piano solo from Bruce, then Jer, I mean, everybody’s getting’ some. It’s great. Throwing Stones was obviously very dear to the band as a well-written manifesto of, at the very least, John Barlow and Bob Weir. It really is a great song, and a very groovy jam develops around Jerry’s guitar solo here, but not being confined to one day a week it suffers somewhat from over saturation. Personally I’ve always liked the vocal effects Dan Healy added to Bob’s vocals, but I guess Bobby wasn’t too fond of it. I liked that you could hear the murmuring of the crowd in the MK4.DAT.CDR AUD as The Weight was beginning, either recognizing it, or wondering what it was gonna be.

Bruce Hornsby must have seen or sensed the disfunction in the organization even in ’91 or so, or maybe just really felt the need to be THE leader of his musical direction, rather than an ensemble player. He fits in so seamlessly, yet brings so much to the table not only in terms of musicianship, but just adding a little light to the atmosphere. This really was a golden renaissance for the band. I love the sparseness and swing of the ’71 bar band period, but the grand expansiveness of this seven piece instrumentalist line up must be the pinnacle of the band’s evolution.

4/23/77? I'm not familiar with that one either. I see 4/22 at The Spectrum in the library, so my interest is piqued. Got some stuff to do the next couple days, though. Might add a few late comments if I get enough done.

:) :) :)

Really enjoyed this pick! Some flubs from Jerry lyrically in Terrapin, but more than makes up for it with the jam that follows. Overall good second set (GDTRFB), but I really enjoyed the first set. I love CC Rider>Train to Cry, and the Deal was HOT STUFF! Nice stuff!

I am hoping to have a chance to listen to 4/23/77, but it is not looking likely today :( Perhaps tomorrow.

Sounds good.. Enjoyed this one also. The Jam out of Terrapin was a treat. Jerry played his heart out in Deal too. The Althea and GDTRFB had their moments. The transition into Slipknot! was unique.. I think of the three the levels were highest in this one, perhaps a bit saturated especially for the Picasso Moon. Bob was real high in the mix too, so we got to hear his angular take on rhythm. Bruce really filled in the empty spaces nicely.. thinking a few parts in Franklins and throughout.. Looking forward to Rockthings more detailed listen, I was out and about but did fit in the whole show. Only half way through yesterdays.....

Onward to '77 (or do we mean backwards?).

This show is as good as the previous two nights at Shoreline. Man, to live in CA back than.
Althea, CC Rider into It takes a lot to Laugh, fun great music. Black throated wind.... Nice HelpSlip Franklins. Terrapin!

I always thought the band reached another gear in 91! Songs were definitely shorter but the music was good and they sounded great. I really didn't feel that way in fall 1990. These shows to my ears do not match what they did in 1991. I think they had to feel their way back after Brent died and had been with the band for 11 years.

Looking at a 77 pick for tomorrow.
I don't think we have ever hit up 4/23/77, Springfield. Let's do it.

> DeadVikes

Will do. Part of the fun for me is analyzing the various audience sources. I'm old fashioned. I still wanna download one for the home collection's virtual tape wall. ;-)

The show is hot, hot, hot. I wrote a bunch a stuff last night, but I'm holding off to let someone else get a word in edgewise.

I'd forgotten how much I liked this period. It's a real shame Hornsby couldn't have stuck around. He and Vince made a good team, but Bruce left a deep impression to climb out from. The "solo career" story line feels kinda odd when he could have contributed some great material to The Dead, and an even larger audience. They never did any of his tunes, did they? Can you imagine the jam they could have gotten into on Mandolin Wind?

You should check out the latest Miller Rockthing. This is a Healy Pearson and it is spectacular. A+++ for sound quality. Just half through the first set. So good.

Check it out people.

Ah, Shoreline. This sits right at the end of a big gap for me between September of ’90 and June of ’91. Another round of “Thank You”s.

Nice variety of sources to keep me busy for a bit. Quick peek at the set list, and Black Throated Wind! Lookin’ forward to that! Post Space seems pretty routine, but who knows?

To start off, I’m A/B/C/Ding the four audience sources on the Archive using Deal as the bar. They never waste any time digging into this number so it makes a good tune to evaluate the sound.

The Gesine Lohr Audio Technica 815A source reminds me of the old tapes. A lot of mid-range frequencies. Phil is there, but you don’t really feel the bottom end. The sound is kind of nostalgic, though. Everything is perfectly clear, just not quite hi-fi. Coming back to this, I kind of appreciate the more well-defined bass guitar work with this tape. More of the various drums come through clearly as well. With more mid-range comes more piano, so Jerry’s guitar solo is somewhat falling into a wall of sound with Bobby and the keys (not Bobby Keys, though).

The Schoeps MK4 source sacrifices a bit of sparkle from Jerry’s voice to emphasize the low end of Phil’s bass, which is something that I kind of expected from an MK4 recording. The guitar solo pops up above the band nicely, though, and on a second pass, the bass is less over-powering, and more well-defined than the other MK4 source. The position is listed as section 102. Having never been to Shoreline, well, that doesn’t help me much, but I’m guessing that is not the Official Taper’s Section, nor is it in Front of the sound Board, but maybe someone can help me out on that. I’m starting to take a liking to this source, even though I had initially switched away from it more quickly than any of the others.

The Daweez Neumann KMF4 pull may be a little brighter than the Schoeps tape, but still has that Phil bass that you feel as much as you hear. On second (actually third or fourth) listening, The Neumann source sounds like it has the mid range frequencies scooped out. There are lots of bright highs, and Phil booms in here and there, but the drums and keys are kind of lost… which, may suit some, but there is a kind of metallic quality to the highs that feels somewhat aggressive to this ear.

The Front of Board Schoeps MK4 take, though, I think this has the best frequency balance of the AUDs. Goes to show, you don’t ever know. Must be something about the seats, or perhaps the signal chain. The first MK4 source might have used heavier wind screens. Hard to say. Same mics, completely different sound. lol. Whoa, Phil is shaken’ the room. Deep bass in this one, but Jer’s guitar is shining, and Bobby is right there in the mix. If anything, the drums may be getting a little lost. The keys are coming in and out of the mix, as usual, really. This has both Bruce and Vince, right? The last three recordings have a lot more bass than the first, but it is much less well defined. It kind of booms. Even though the bass is kind of a puddy of low-end, it somehow does not interfere with the other instruments.

The more I A/B the two Schoeps sources, the less I can tell them apart. lol (T_T) The second source has less info and a CDR generation in the lineage, but somehow feels more… I don’t know, “alive,” as if I can get a better audio picture of the space. I hear more of the venue, but in a good way. It feels more like I’m there, rather than listening to a recording. The similarities in these recordings are many, but the differences are almost hallucinatorily fleeting. I’m going with ID 9402 Schoeps source attributed to O’Connor. I must say, this Deal has kept me entertained throughout this comparison process. Eleven minutes of smoking’ Deal? Don’t mind if I do!

The only disadvantage of picking up the older submission is that it isn’t Y2K-proofed, and also comes ask SHN, rather than FLAC. No audio quality difference, just a little more trouble to convert for me, and that’s all on me.

I’ve not yet listened to the latest and greatest Miller SBD transfer.

Yes! For sure Shoreline 91 sounds fantastic for tomorrow. Thanks Jim.

> JimInMD

"5/12/91 for Tomorrow?" Sounds good.

Just a few last impressions from 11/18/78

The instrument/voice balance is definitely much better by It's All Over Now.

I think the thing that seems unusual about the Scarlet/Fire, other than the clean cut which may be a result of the Archive's streaming system. There's always a short loading gap between songs.

I was thinking that the jam at the end of Scarlet Begonias seems especially sparse, and then I started wondering where Phil was? There isn't a whole lot of deep bass in this recording, so that may be it. Not sure. I like Donna's off mic reaction to some strange noise that Bobby (presumably) made by accident. ...Ah, I got to the Fire patch. That's the cut that was mentioned. It sometimes feels a touch lackadaisical, but that sort of thing suits the transition into Fire.

Miracle is ON, right out of the gate. No teething problems with this one. Just struck me that it sounds like Jerry's already using some kind of distortion/fuzz effect on his guitar here. I'm a bit of a gear nut. I'm gonna hafta look into that.

Dayum. This Other One is waaay out there. Love it! The drummers totally running with it, complimenting the gooey, stretched out psychedelicized sense of time created by the guitarists with a frenzied lysergic background buzz. Still pre-Beast if I recall correctly, but plenty to keep the Rhythm Devils busy... and busy they are. Did someone say, "Go man."? "I knew you were about to come on."? This really is the beauty of the board tapes. Occasionally you get a glimpse into the verbal communication that goes on between band members. They're always talking to one another a lot more than I used to imagine. It wasn't till I started watching how much conducting Phil used to do that this aspect of their playing became evident. Things changed a lot when Phil started taking a less active role in the spontaneous orchestration during shows, I suppose.

Ollin Arageed, what a nice treat. A little hold over from the Egyptian Vacation. 12/19 is the only post Egypt '78 show I've got in my library, and sadly I couldn't tell you anything about it right now. From there it's to the Godchaux's farewell show, and then Brent's debut or somewhere thereabouts. Again, thank you for filling in this rather sparse zone in my listening experience.

The word I keep coming back to while listening to this show is "beautiful". I was about to use it again to describe the Wharf Rat. Keith is doing some really nice fill-in stuff between the vocals here. Certainly a sight better than his contribution at Giza (yikes!). .... oops... everybody completely missed Billy's cue to start the ending there. LOL. Oh, well. Carry on lads. :P

Love how the transition to Sugar Mag thoroughly cross fades. That's brilliant how they kept a bit of Wharf Rat alive while slowly letting Sugar Magnolia develop. A lot of times Jer'll drop the intro of the next song and the others just stop what they're doing immediately for a couple bars instead of letting the songs blend. Sometimes it feels forced when Jerry does it that way, but this one is just about perfect, for my ears.

One More Saturday Night was one of the more predictable Dead tunes, and I reckon if you were on tour it probably got kind of repetitive, but from a song-writing point of view, IMO this is one of Bob's best songs. It's the kind of built-to-be-a-show-stopper that I wish I could write someday.

Ok, fast-forward a decade or so to 1991!