Grateful Dead

Phil plays tonight. It's been a great background montage while I putter through taxes. Lots of great acts most of which I have never seen before. It's free.. why not check in, guaranteed to improve your vibe. JGB with Seals and kadlecik served up some religion starting just about as Palm Sunday hit the East Coast last night. Didn't make it to Oteil, lots of good stuff and the price is right. It's basically free but they encourage one to donate to the Rex Foundation, which I did.. I'd call it a bargain.

Serving up some serious funk as I write this with Barry Sless on Guitar and several recognizable faces behind the cans, strings, amps and microphones.

sorta, but judges say no as 11/1/73 was only second set : (

But after stories about Crazy Fingers, and reminiscing about GOGD, I went with a really tasty one that he recommended from 6/8/92. I know DV and some folks aren’t hot on 92, but this one is worth a spin!
GOGD does it again, top shelf, where mama hides the cookies!

So quite the Grateful Day yesterday! 4/9/82, p/o 11/1/73, and 6/8/92! All 3 pleasant surprises, well 73 perhaps not a surprise…
Phew, I think I have one more in me today while the other one is at work, then tomorrow no Dead as we’ll both be home and after hitting 11 shows in six days I’ll need a break lol. I’m guessing some of our regular cohort might need some ketchup time too?
Cool week though as we hit 69, 70, 73, 79, 82, 84, 85, 90, and 92 here on POTDWD! Let’s keep the mother rolling!

Jim, glad your digging the fest. I didn’t realize Phil was going to be there. I sorta superficially tried to find a schedule, but found only the overall lineup? Did they play all four nights? I should have checked some of it out.
Ok, time for brunch!

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I already got sucked into the free stream for the Skull and Roses festival. It would be a big lift to weave a '73 show into set breaks and weaker acts.

What's the legal term.. conflict of interest, that's it. But I'd love to rain check. Unbroken chain.. yes.

11/1/73 McGaw Hall, Northwestern U., Evanston, IL.

I may well have brought this up awhile ago. Had a good board early on of Set II. Show was close to home so to speak. Born less than a mile away. Just a few miles from the family home at show time (I was a little bit too young for this.) It's a good one for sure! Enjoy!

Forgot to mention Chrotchfester 4/9/82.
And, in my reminiscence, forgot the cool part about Crazy Fingers!
So believe the situation was they must have been running late, but things were getting dicey waiting for the doors to open, this being GA. I wanna say they had let us in that goofy glass lobby on the side of the building?
But whatever, while we mashed etc suddenly you could hear music, live music, which of course stirred things up out in the mosh que even worse. People thinking the show was started and WTF are you not letting us in. It started getting kinda ugly, so you could see the fear in the eyes of the poor bastards manning the gates.
This was before high priced security outfits full of steroid bullies looking to clunk heads. No this was retirees and moms that worked PT to pick up a couple easy extra bucks. They were not about to risk bodily harm trying to stop a stampeding mob, so they did what most reasonable folks would do and let us in!
By now they’ve been at it for a while? More than one song but intelligibility was hard out there with all the chaos.
But now that we were in and making that mad dash to the front rail, you could see them in a little half circle, and gulp, they were playing Crazy Fingers, which hadn’t been played since 9/30/76, and wouldn’t get played until 7/18/82.
Well they kept at it seemingly unaware of our premature arrival for perhaps a minute or so. Then someone noticed and they turned and saw us and unfortunately stopped playing and left.
Certainly it was a late sound check as the lights were on and by how they were huddled about etc.
But because of what time it had been it was easy to think maybe the show had started?
So pretty cool non the less, but you have to wonder what might of been if they had the opportunity for a proper sound check of it?
And the show, wow, my listen to this one surprised more than Syracuse.
Some interesting set choices and the Miller sounds pretty fuggin good!
Worth checking out if you haven’t and love 82!

This 11/1/73 is sounding pretty fine too!

Well, quiet here today?
Normal, healthy people are probably out enjoying the weather?

But we’re not lol, so how bout a taste of 11/1/73?
I think maybe Bluecrow brought this up?
Anywho, there’s only a Sirmick second set available but it gets good ratings…
So since it’s one of only three from fall 73 I haven’t heard yet, why the hell not!

Don't tell me he owes you money too!! He told me he'd be right back.

He was a quitter and left us alone and broken hearted standing on a corner…
NAaaaa, Just teasing, yeah, good ole was the man. As fun as we all try to make it, it’s just not the same without GOGD!

But at least we have the music and each other!
And speaking of the music, been playing ketchup:

4/6/69: interesting show, seemed different for early 69? Condensed maybe?
Audio was ruff, but another historic gem, though I’m not sure it lived up to the hype?
Meaning, I’ve not heard the Avalons, but have heard a lot about them.
And sometimes that’s the problem with hype/expectations, but in defense, I was working and not listening on good equipment? I guess I’ll need to relisten? But a fine pick none the less in our pursuit of going deep!

12/11/79: this is another that was all over for me, but again, not the best listening. I did the first set at work and felt like they had that end of tour, we already peaked vibe. Then finally caught the second set late last night so was tired and not feeling it. But boy that second set really gets going. I think it’s a fine show, but perhaps a step back from some of the previous monsters of this tour. That’s the thing with peaks, it’s downhill after, and from what shows I’ve heard so far this tour, 12/1 seems hard to beat! But just because your not the best doesn’t mean yer bad.
Overall I thought it was a good show, but the audio/mix wasn’t so good: JG often was lost in the mix etc. Which I think we’ve experienced on other recordings from this tour. Wasn’t that part of the criticism of 12/3?
But this is another I’ll have to give a better listen sometime?
Enjoyed the pick none the less!

4/8/82: it’s a shame the whole show wasn’t like that second set Miller.
First set seemed to be sorta status quo until that fierce Let It Grow, forgot about that one!
Seemed like from there on things picked up and was kinda a nice surprise.
Set list is nothing special but the playing is!
Seem to remember thinking Rochester was decent, but this one was better?
I guess I’ll roll that now, 4/9/82, but The Other One is at work today so I’m hitting at least a two fer, good chance for a DHB too!

I’ve got some other ideas lined up for later, but if someone has something else I’ll hold off?

Would love to see GOGD poke his head out from his turtle shell.. for the longest while he was a force on this thread.

Happy trails my friend, may the sun shine in your back door today

Love it OB! Yes, definitely remember the days when St. Pauli girl was the big import. It has probably been over twenty years since I have had a St. Pauli Girl. But used to love those and Beck's. If you remember those.
Thanks for sharing. Great story. And great 82.