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July 31, 2024 - 6:48am

752 replies

Dead Admin

Joined:
April 28, 2021

Friend of The Devils: April 1978 (Dead.net Exclusive) [19 CD]

WHAT'S INSIDE:
Curtis Hixon Convention Hall, Tampa, FL 4/6/78
Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL 4/7/78
Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL 4/8/78
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/10/78
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/11/78
Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke University, Durham, NC 4/12/78
Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA 4/14/78
Huntington Civic Center, Huntington, WV 4/16/78
Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
Newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes
Mastered by Jeffrey Norman
Liners By Author Steve Silberman
Artwork By Acclaimed Artist Matthew Brannon
Limited To 10,000 Individually Numbered Copies
Dead.net Exclusive
It’s been said before but April ‘78 was an incredible month for the Dead. Like May ‘77, you could throw a dart and guarantee you hit a stellar show. - KyloRensPecs, r/gratefuldead, Reddit
.... April/May '78 has a lot of the same qualities of Spring '77 but with some extra edge and a much bigger sound from the Rhythm Devils. A really special era that often gets neglected. - viewtiful_alan, r/gratefuldead, Reddit
Sportatorium - April 7, 1989
when drums started I thought, oh s*#!, i hate drum solos and Billy and Mickey stopped me in my tracks. Wow, these guys are really good. Little did I know the pervasive influence this phenomena would have on my life. - pearlybakerbest, Dead.net
Huntington Civic Centre, West Virginia – 16 April 1978
This is another must-hear concert by The Grateful Dead. The sound and mix are almost ‘absolutely perfect'... It’s difficult to pick out highlights because everything is played so well; the band are tight, Donna is great and the set list is strong. - Grateful Ted, gratefulted.co.uk
We're hitting the bullseye with the eight previously unreleased stellar shows that make up FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978. Filled to the brim with peak performances from the Grateful Dead's post-hiatus period, this collection captures the historic tour where "Drums" begat "Space," morphed into "Drums">"Space" and cemented the Rhythm Devils' second-set power move from the music business to the "transportation business."
Spring 1978 finds the Dead consistently weaving spontaneous magic, showing signs of great promise and potential - from the no-nonsense rock'n'roll in Tampa, where scholars cite the first "Drumz" leading into "Space," to the lengthy communal get down in Pembroke Pines to Jacksonville where the twain emerge fully formed, offering the primordial opportunity for "soul retrieval." It's evident in the dynamic range delivered on back-to-back nights at the intimate Fox Theatre and through the laid-back unity of the band's performance in Durham at Duke, a comfort that carries over to Virginia and West Virginia where the playing is unbridled, bursting with momentum, threatening to carry itself away. And nowhere can you hear that more clearly than through Betty Cantor-Jackson's original recordings, reliably crisp, bright, and vivid.
Individually numbered to 10,000 copies and exclusive to Dead.net, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978 has been mastered by Audio Engineer Jeffrey Norman using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Steve Vance designed the collection’s custom box, which features a removable wave drum. (We invite you to unleash your inner Rhythm Devil.) Acclaimed artist Matthew Brannon created the set’s original artwork. The collection also includes a 48-page book with original liner notes by author Steve Silberman and photos by James Anderson, Bob Minkin, and more.

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September 12, 2024 - 4:59pm

#491

JimInMD

Joined:
June 27, 2011

Re: Steve Silberman's Obit

Nice Post Dr. Robert

When I run that obituary through HowNow (C) TM, the proprietary software I wrote to get wordy musings through this website during the HeyNow period, it would have taken 6,234 separate posts to get the entire thing through without getting HeyNow'd. (unfortunate to see it get fixed the day my patent came through...argh)

anyhow... I'd call that tremendous progress.

A tip of the glass and a moment of silence for all those deadheads worldwide that we lost jumping off bridges, hanging from neckties, joining monasteries, becoming uber drivers, starting tech companies, worm farms, etc. during the dark period when HeyNow ruled the land. May the four winds blow you safely home.
September 12, 2024 - 12:02pm

#492

boblopes

Joined:
January 13, 2009

Steve Silberman's Obit courtesy of David Gans

Steve Silberman’s vocation as a Grateful Dead scholar and writer began organically, on a blanket on the grass at a concert in the sun. He happened to sit next to Blair Jackson and Regan McMahon, publishers of “The Golden Road,” an essential fan magazine.
“Steve wasn’t just a fan who ran off at the mouth about how many shows he had seen,” recalled McMahon of that chance meeting. “He had all these layers of spiritual and countercultural depth.
Everything he said about the Grateful Dead was intellectual and perceptive and poetic.”
By the end of that afternoon, Silberman had been invited to contribute an article to “The Golden Road” and that led to the high honor of writing liner notes for albums and box sets, and ultimately co-authoring the episodic glossary, “Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads.”
Silberman was known for wearing a custom T-shirt to a Halloween show bearing the message “Your Hallucinations Are My Costume,” and for his skill at putting cultural, scientific and medical complexity into common language, which he did during decades as a science journalist and in his 500-page treatise, “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity” published in 2015.
He spent four years on that project, followed by six years becoming an expert on cystic fibrosis. An upcoming book titled “The Taste of Salt,” was scheduled for publication in 2026. Silberman was to Silberman Chronicle obit.rtf the point of submitting chapters to his editor when he died suddenly at his home in San Francisco on Aug. 29. Cause of death was an apparent heart attack, said his husband Keith Karraker.
“Steve lived an exciting life and wrote a book that changed the world,” said Karraker. “He could walk into a grocery store and make a friend for life with the counter guy, just from commenting on the music playing on the stereo.”
Silberman also made friends for life by starting and maintaining a Facebook group titled “Cole Valley, a Not-So-Secret SF Neighborhood.” It has 8,000 members, including his sister Hillary Shawaf and mother Leslie, both of whom moved here from the East Coast based on Silberman’s recommendation.
“He just loved this beautiful small-town neighborhood on the N Judah line,” said Karraker, a high school chemistry teacher. “Steve created a town square for the neighborhood,” added his sister. “One of the greatest talents he had was keeping it civil.”
Silberman spent many years as an editor and writer for Wired magazine, but perhaps his greatest creative outlet was the Dead, having seen his first Dead show in 1973 at Watkins Glen, N.Y. He also developed an expertise on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and became a close friend and confidante of the often-difficult David Crosby. He wrote the liner notes for the Crosby-Nash live album “Another Stoney Evening,” released in 1998, and the 50th anniversary edition of Crosby’s solo debut “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” from 1971.
“He understood people,” Shawaf said of her brother. “Making human connections was his life blood. When he walked down the street people approached him constantly.”
After the death of Jerry Garcia, in 1995, Silberman wrote an essay called “The Only Song of God,” that was originally published in Dupree’s Diamond News. In it, Silberman described walking by the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland after Garcia’s death, where he estimated he had seen 40 of the 56 shows the Dead played there, often on weeknights when only the cognoscenti came.
Silberman in an undated photo at the Oakland home of Regan McMahon and Blair Jackson, publishers of “The Golden Road,” an essential Grateful Dead fan magazine. He met them at a concert and soon became a contributor.
“If you weren’t from the Bay Area, after three or four shows at Kaiser, eventually, you’d move here,” wrote
Silberman, who had followed that migration himself, though he had the extra incentive of earning a master’s degree in English literature at UC Berkeley.
His tryout with “The Golden Road” explored the connection between the Beat anti-hero Neal Cassady and the Grateful Dead, a connection that the band’s historian and publicist, Dennis McNally also visited in his biography of Jack Kerouac.
“Steve was always willing to chat about some angle of the 60s music scene in general and was a very reliable source,” said McNally. “What he said was trustworthy.”
Stephen Louis Silberman was born Dec. 23, 1957 in Ithaca, N.Y. His father, Donald, was an English professor at Queensborough Community College and an anti-war activist, as was his wife, Leslie Hantman.
“We saw my parents get arrested and be led away in handcuffs,” said Shawaf. “My dad did 11 days at the Queens Detention Center.”
Silberman’s first literary goal was to be a poet and he had success in sixth grade with a poem called “the
Math Battle.” It began, “Cubes are swirling through my head, π’s attack me in my bed,” and built enough momentum to win a poetry competition sponsored by Fordham University. That became his first published work. Silberman attended John P. Stevens High School in Edison, NJ., and gave a graduation speech in 1975, declining to cut his shoulder-length hair for the ceremony.
Seen here in an undated photo, Silberman helped author David Gans write a collection of reminiscences about Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead co-founder and guitarist.
“He was a magnificent human being,” Gans says of Silberman.
By then he was already a Deadhead, having attended his first show and begun a live concert tape collection that was to include “tons and tons and tons of tapes,” said his sister, “and some very obscure ones.” He had also come out as gay, which was not immediately accepted.
“My parents reacted very badly. It took some years for them to come around,” Shawaf said.
He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and his slow migration west began with a position as a teaching assistant for Beat poet Allen Ginsberg at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo. Silberman planned to continue as a poet himself until his father, the English professor, advised him that “he was better at prose and would reach more people that way,” said his sister.
He also reached people by helping them with their own writing. After Garcia’s death, David Gans, who has published five books about the Grateful Dead, was having trouble putting together a collection of reminiscences. When he told Silberman of his struggles over the phone, Silberman immediately drove from San Francisco to Gans’s home in Oakland, read through Gans’s essay, tore it apart and restructured it for him.
“That was one of dozens of times Steve improved my work with his generosity of spirit and his wisdom,” said Gans. “I know dozens of other people who were similarly blessed with Steve’s generosity. He was a magnificent human being.”
Later, Silberman, Gans and Blair Jackson co-produced. “So Many Roads 1965-1995,” a five-CD box for which Silberman wrote an essay. He also appeared on camera in the 2017 documentary “Long Strange Trip.”
Silberman on vacation in Europe in 2023. “He really brought empathy and compassion to a topic that had only been covered negatively in the press,” says Shannon Rosa, whose son Leo was featured in Silberman’s book about autism.
“There are Deadheads who are extreme but Steve had a historic overview that made his observations sensible and a little more grounded than some,” said McNally.
Silberman’s expertise on autism began when he was working at Wired and got a tip that there was a spike in diagnoses of the developmental disorder in Silicon Valley. This became an article called “The Geek Syndrome,” published in 2001, and greatly expanded in “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.”
“Steve’s book gave hope to a lot of families like ours that had only had messages that our lives would be one of doom and gloom,” said Shannon Rosa of Redwood City, whose son Leo is featured in the book.
“He really brought empathy and compassion to a topic that had only been covered negatively in the press. I
can’t tell you how many families I’ve heard from whose lives have been changed for the better because Steve showed us with compassion, not pity.”
That came through in everything Silberman wrote, especially the essay on seeing the Dead at Kaiser Auditorium.
“At shows in those years, up at the front on ‘the rail’ where you could observe the musicians at work, the crowds could get so dense on a Saturday night that you would lose your footing,” Silberman wrote in Dupree’s Diamond News. “But if you relaxed, you could nearly float, like a cell in a bath of nutrient, the rhythms coming to you as a gentle push in one direction, then another...”
“It was one of the safest places in the world.”
September 12, 2024 - 10:22am

#493

daverock

Joined:
September 1, 2014

Rip this joint gonna get down low.

51 years ago tonight I saw The Stones for the first time. I can remember wondering if they would be any good - Mick Jagger had just turned 30, and they seemed like a bit of 60's throwback. Perish the thought. I only new about 25% of the songs - I'd never heard either Let It Bleed or Exile on Main Street but it mattered not a jot. It was incredible. I have just been listening to "The Brussels Affair" double album from the same tour, and featuring the same songs. One of the best live albums of all time.

I don't think I've ever seen a hummingbird. In Lowestoft we have great big seagulls - I swear they are getting bigger every year - and during summer, if anyone eats food on the seafront they sometimes swoop down and take it out it out of their hands. It looks great, the surprise on the people's face when it happens. The most rock n' roll bird I have seen.
September 12, 2024 - 9:57am

#494

itsburnsy

Joined:
June 12, 2007

Hummingbirds

Stupid bear kept raiding my bird feeder so I had to very begrudgingly get rid of it. In the summer I got birds from as far as S America heading for AK. Now all I can do is have a Hummingbird feeder, which is cool, but I never seem to have more than one regular at a time. Right now he's green with a red head, the second, not sure what happened to the first. Read somewhere that they are the most territorial birds of all, maybe that's why I only get one at a time? Anyway, they are fascinating little guys aren't they
September 11, 2024 - 5:27pm

#495

billy the kiddd

Joined:
November 8, 2021

Happy Birthday Mickey Hart

Joan Baez sang Mickey Hart Happy Birthday before the start of 9/11/81 at the Greek. They brought a big birthday cake out on stage. My favorite Grateful Dead years were when Mickey Hart was in the band.
September 11, 2024 - 4:27pm

#496

RyXs

Joined:
February 10, 2021

Belated Wishes

R.I.P. Steve Silberman

Happy B~Day Mickey Hart

Can't wait to bang along with Mick & Bill on that wave drum when it gets here!
September 11, 2024 - 9:39am

#497

JimInMD

Joined:
June 27, 2011

Re: Hummers

Love our Hummingbirds. They are still alive, well and fighting over the food in the three feeders here, but not for long (again except for the stragglers that are migrating).

Don't know any GD references for Hummingbirds, but I bet there is at least one. The closest I can come is the Nuthatch. A tiny bird, wings a mile long? I guess you wouldn't need binoculars looking for the Hunter Nuthatch.

Eyes of the World:
Wondering where the nut-thatch winters
Wings a mile long just carried the bird away

Love that lyric full of whimsical imagery.

Love that song, sometimes it feels like it was written about any one of us. A song with hope for tomorrow. Hope that what we do makes a difference and than any one of us can and does make the world a better place.

Listening to it can completely change my mood and turn a shit day into something meaningful. Come to think of it, a charm of Hummingbirds can do the same. (they call a group of hummingbirds a charm, how apt)

Favorite Eyes of the World, impossible to pick. Louisville 6/18/74 and Winterland 10/19/74 are both standouts, but there are many post hiatus, with Brent and beyond Brent hold their own amongst the giants.

Two weeks until the box? I guess that will have to be ok.

Where do nuthatches winter? It's a trick question, if there's ample cones and food they probably won't migrate at all. (at least here in the mid-Atlantic)
September 11, 2024 - 8:11am

#498

1stshow70878

Joined:
September 11, 2014

Hummers Etc.

The wife gets the hummingbird close-ups as she is a natural strawberry blonde. Here in W. Colo. they are mostly gone and the few migrators we have are young ones, mostly Black Chinned and Rufous with the occasional Broad Tailed that make the most noise in flight because of that tail. The Rufous are very territorial and come late in the season. This year they stayed for shorter periods. Usually dominate the feeder for weeks at a time but not this year.
Putting out the flag today, a somber remembrance.
Also my deadnet anniversary. Thanks to all.
Can't wait for '78! Two weeks!
Cheers
September 11, 2024 - 5:24am

#499

DeadVikes

Joined:
October 26, 2016

2024 Box

Less than two weeks to go until we all hopefully receive this box. Surprised it hasn't sold out yet.
Maybe they will give us an unboxing video?

And what is going on with this year's MUATM?
September 11, 2024 - 5:00am

#500

dmcvt

Joined:
April 4, 2013

RYXS

I find that often the hummers do those up face front things to let me know the feeder is low, get to it. Here they will chase each other away from the feeders, even though there's ample real nectar in various flowers around the yard, very territorial about the feeder since it's the pure jazz. Spectacular to have them hover inches away or buzz your head within inches, they also have learned to hover in front of blink cameras, perch a few feet away on a clothesline watching the feeder, preen, just be a hummer. Here, they have tanked up and are heading south.

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

Dead Store Products

Friend of The Devils: April 1978 (Dead.net Exclusive) [19 CD]

WHAT'S INSIDE:
Curtis Hixon Convention Hall, Tampa, FL 4/6/78
Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL 4/7/78
Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL 4/8/78
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/10/78
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/11/78
Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke University, Durham, NC 4/12/78
Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA 4/14/78
Huntington Civic Center, Huntington, WV 4/16/78

Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
Newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes
Mastered by Jeffrey Norman
Liners By Author Steve Silberman
Artwork By Acclaimed Artist Matthew Brannon

Limited To 10,000 Individually Numbered Copies
Dead.net Exclusive

It’s been said before but April ‘78 was an incredible month for the Dead. Like May ‘77, you could throw a dart and guarantee you hit a stellar show. - KyloRensPecs, r/gratefuldead, Reddit

.... April/May '78 has a lot of the same qualities of Spring '77 but with some extra edge and a much bigger sound from the Rhythm Devils. A really special era that often gets neglected. - viewtiful_alan, r/gratefuldead, Reddit

Sportatorium - April 7, 1989

when drums started I thought, oh s*#!, i hate drum solos and Billy and Mickey stopped me in my tracks. Wow, these guys are really good. Little did I know the pervasive influence this phenomena would have on my life. - pearlybakerbest, Dead.net

Huntington Civic Centre, West Virginia – 16 April 1978

This is another must-hear concert by The Grateful Dead. The sound and mix are almost ‘absolutely perfect'... It’s difficult to pick out highlights because everything is played so well; the band are tight, Donna is great and the set list is strong. - Grateful Ted, gratefulted.co.uk

We're hitting the bullseye with the eight previously unreleased stellar shows that make up FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978. Filled to the brim with peak performances from the Grateful Dead's post-hiatus period, this collection captures the historic tour where "Drums" begat "Space," morphed into "Drums">"Space" and cemented the Rhythm Devils' second-set power move from the music business to the "transportation business."

Spring 1978 finds the Dead consistently weaving spontaneous magic, showing signs of great promise and potential - from the no-nonsense rock'n'roll in Tampa, where scholars cite the first "Drumz" leading into "Space," to the lengthy communal get down in Pembroke Pines to Jacksonville where the twain emerge fully formed, offering the primordial opportunity for "soul retrieval." It's evident in the dynamic range delivered on back-to-back nights at the intimate Fox Theatre and through the laid-back unity of the band's performance in Durham at Duke, a comfort that carries over to Virginia and West Virginia where the playing is unbridled, bursting with momentum, threatening to carry itself away. And nowhere can you hear that more clearly than through Betty Cantor-Jackson's original recordings, reliably crisp, bright, and vivid.

Individually numbered to 10,000 copies and exclusive to Dead.net, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978 has been mastered by Audio Engineer Jeffrey Norman using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Steve Vance designed the collection’s custom box, which features a removable wave drum. (We invite you to unleash your inner Rhythm Devil.) Acclaimed artist Matthew Brannon created the set’s original artwork. The collection also includes a 48-page book with original liner notes by author Steve Silberman and photos by James Anderson, Bob Minkin, and more.

Rips

TN John or anyone else, I'm just curious what program you use to rip your CDs. Me, I'm using EAC. But I usually wait a few days so a few people can submit their data first so that there's data for my own rips to be compared against. Selfish of me, but there it is...

(asking bc you mentioned a potential problem with that Around n Around)

Devilish Miracles. And #10000

Lawdrone I hope you get your miracle today! Mine showed up yesterday and I was genuinely but happily surprised.

Separately -- sometimes I think #10000 (or 12000 or 13000 or whatever the "last" box in the run is numbered) is a unicorn, a myth, a fever dream. No one ever seems to acknowledge being the person in receipt; I've never seen one offered for sale. So if you're out there with such a box - hey, I'll broaden the inquiry to ANY Grateful Dead box going back roughly 20 years now - please step forward to satisfy my gratuitous curiosity. Thankee

Dropped audio

Listening to my set, so far two discs have had problems. Disc one dropped the sound a couple of times. On Disc 3, Peggy-O became a garbled mess (for lack of a better description) and then jumped to the following track. Has anyone else had problems? There isn’t a physical problem I can see on either disc.

Arrived

About an hour ago. Was supposed to be yesterday.
Glad FedEx now does Sunday delivery.

First listen will be tonight.

I play all CD’s first with a Cambridge Audio AXC35 CD player to make sure they play.
I then copy to a HD and check those files since there have been many instances where the same CD plays in a player but then has defects after ripping. Sometimes I get different ripping results with different burners.
I no longer use ripping software as I’ve found that to also introduce errors.
Using a Mac I mount the CD on the desktop then just drag the files to a folder. I then play those files with a portable music player to confirm an accurate copy.

I did see a #6789 May 77 box…

I did see a #6789 May 77 box.

How the heck are you guys getting weekend delivery? My box blew right on by to Syracuse on Friday and is just sitting there.

There was a #2 Dave's Picks 3 on Ebay for a long time.

which is not #1 or 10,000

Sounds real good so far

On CD1.
Will go in order.

Betty
Plangent
Norman
!!!!!

Glad I upgraded my speakers and subwoofer this week.
I hear stuff with these Klipsch speakers that I never heard with my Bose 301’s that are 12 years old.
And a 12-inch sub. I was on my deck last night while the sub was thumping inside and the siding on my house was vibrating.

30 Days of Dead 2019

Day 29: Jam from September 1, 1968.

This sounds like some of the Clementine jams I've heard. Anyone have any further info on this wonderful little jam?

Don't know about the Clementine theme....

....what I do know, is drumming my fingers on this box set drum is therapeutic.

Obeah

Cone Kid has a better setup than me. I'm just using Windows Media Player.

The issue with Around And Around on the 4-6 show appears to have been on stage that night, as it is present on all versions of the show that are on the archive.

Flac files are terrible

I just converted all eight concerts to mp3's and am finding out that every concert has corrupted flac files. I have a list of over 28 songs over the eight concerts that sound like they ripped them from a CD that was damaged and skipping.

Agree.

Agree. Problem is at 1030 AM they knew there was a problem why is anybody still able at 434 PM to still purchase known defective product? glitches all over these files and straight up starts and stops mid songs like someone hits pause.

First Listen

4-6-78 Tampa. Must have been the headphones, or the Indica/Sativa hybrid, but this was way better than I expected. The band was a cohesive unit with no one detracting in any way. Jerry was somewhat reserved which came off as just exactly perfect with what everyone else was doing. Bob especially was fitting in so well and not going off on his own thing. Great sound quality too after the 1st song glitches were cleared up. I hope the rest of the box can live up to this start and from what I've read Duke is stellar. Onward!
Cheers
Speaking of stereos (I know, wrong thread, that's over on listening to now) the headphones verified what I have feared for a couple years now. The vintage killer ESS speakers need recapped for sure. Been wishfully thinking the muddy sound was possibly a component but I tried the headphones straight out of both the CD player (too loud, no variable output) and the pre-amp and they both sounded phenomenal. Main problem is there is no tech anywhere near me and the floor standing speakers weigh 60 lbs. each (more than my lifting limits, previous hernias). Think I need some spares until I can get them recapped. No room so I'm thinking some 8" woofer two-way bookshelfs can fit somewhere. Here I go down the audio rabbit hole again, lol.

1st

check out simply speakers, one word and dot something.

They offer different speaker materials and instructions or you can simply send the speakers to them and they will come back cherry! Of course, remove speaker from cabinet to ship.

Edit:

Checked they do have ESS speaker components. I have some old Canon-TLS speakers that need refoam and rear passive radiator kits. The Canon's were made by ESS. My speakers runneth over. Should I re-do the Canon's, not sure. Pyt Pyle-Driver woofers in them in 1987. Been using all JBL for 20 years.

Hope that helps.

Good Advice

I've seen them before as a parts house. Problem is the caps are attached to the circuit board on the crossover network that is inside behind the speaker binding posts and the mfg. didn't mount it from the outside. Someone will have to remove the woofer, and the insulation just to get to it. Not a fun or easy job. Soldering and spec-ing new caps is well beyond me. So, I will keep searching for that old guy who still does bench work in his spare time hobby.
Then I'll get a helper to get them in my car, lol. It's worth it as I can't buy new for what that repair will cost and any used vintage may have the same issue as capacitors have a useful life of as little as 10-20 years and these are almost 50 now. But boy do they sound good when working well. Shipping speakers is expensive when they are this size so many sellers of refurbished ones only offer local pick-up. Temporary bookshelf speakers will also fit into a possible 5.1 surround if I ever go there. And who doesn't need more toys?
Thanks and cheers

1st

Gotcha. Sux though

Still not delivered in VA

Package has been sitting in OH since the 20th. Was scheduled for delivery on the 21st but now just says "we'll update delivery information when package starts moving". Can't get through to anyone at FedEx who can tell me what is happening w it. Delivery on these box sets is always stressful. Going on vacation in 2 weeks and would love to have it before then to listen on the 12 hour plane ride. Hope y'all been enjoying it so far and hopefully I'll be joining soon!

#03547

Has arrived in the Mohawk Valley, one day ahead of schedule and early in the day, but still not on Friday.

I did not know there was another "T" in SporTatorium, which makes a lot more sense now.

Cover Art

Anyone have a link to digital cover art? CDs played fine, iTunes extraction went fine, sorry to hear there are issues, is it just downloads?

Speakers

Just posting to second Icecrmcnkd's praise of Klipsch speakers. Picked up a pair of RP280 floorstanding speakers at the end of 2017 or so and have been using them hard since. Crystal clear sound at any volume, bass sounds solid even at low volumes, and no distortion even at extreme volumes when coupled with a good receiver with low distortion (currently paired with a Yamaha Aventage RX-A1060). No subwoofer as they bother my ears, and with the range of the speakers it is not necessary as they put out deep bass tones effortlessly. They replaced a pair of vintage 1970s Genesis Speakers that had the woofers re-coned once in the '90s and the inverted dome tweeters eventually just disintegrated by 2017. I got them when my father upgraded in the early '80s and I used them up until 2017, pretty good lifespan for a pair of speakers. I liked the Genesis speakers a lot, but the Klipsch just take it to another level. Your appreciation may differ.
Eagerly watching this box creep towards delivery.

tyvm icecrmcnkd, tn john - and joeymc re #s

Thanks for those replies - all appreciated!

ITSBURNSY-cover art-see edit below

Someone posted the front and back scans to the Grateful Dead Reddit page. I just Googled Friend of the Devils cover art and it was the first link.

EDIT: strike that. The colors of the posted scans don’t match what’s in the box set.

I’ll eventually get around to scanning the covers. Probable not til this weekend though.

Jeff

People are ready for you...

Getting closer...

My box has now arrived in Germany, sez the DHL tracking. Hopefully it'll be delivered this week.

Duke 78 Video

We watched the Duke 78 Video on deadnet youtube last night, that was fun. It seemed like a student production, poor camera work, and an annoying directorial tendency to create messy supers frequently during the first set. They layed off this super business in the second set which made it more enjoyable visually. Video is my background, so I'm familiar with creating this kind of effect. Jerry was really excited during the end of the second set dancing around and doing windmills. That was enjoyable. I never saw him do that in 1978.

Almost

The same amount of time to get to NYC.

Almost

The same amount of time to get to NYC.

Billy Strings Highway Prayers....

....180g vinyl shipped.
Spinning the Sportatorium on my Sennheisers tonight.

April 1978 Box Cover Art

Hey Gary & Everybody, Kinda bad timing. We're leaving for a long-postponed & long-saved-up-for, three week odyssey from Athens to Rome. Unless Copperdomebodhi hooks me up with his always excellent cover art while we're gone, I won't be able to send links until mid October. My box may not arrive until after we leave, but I'll take the flacs along thanks to a longstanding and "must-remain-un-named" benefactor. Onward!

Close but no cigar

Mine has arrived in the UK but is currently being assessed by customs. I’ll probably get a letter in a couple of days and have to pay tax before the Parcelforce lottery begins. My Neil Young box should have arrived yesterday but it is sitting in the Parcelforce local depot not moving. I ‘phoned and was told that they should have delivered it that day, I said ‘I know’! Let’s hope it arrives today and that customs are efficient in getting their post out so I don’t wait over another weekend for the GD box. Best wishes to the others still waiting.

Athens to Rome?....

.....very nice Jeff. My cousin and his wife are heading to Rome to see David Gilmour. I'm jealous on both fronts.
Be safe.

Lecker!

Yes, it's on.
Oktoberfest No. 189.
Cheers
G.

No movement since Sep. 19...

"The Waiting Is The Hardest Part".
Could the waiting be shortened with one or more of that specially brewed tasty Oktoberfestbier?
Yes!
Cheers

I made artwork with my phone…

I made artwork with my phone, I hold it over the cover and press the little scan thing. I have no idea what I'm doing but they come out ok I guess.

Man, if I were Colin I'd have been arrested at the post office.... ;/

Edit: In case anyone is wondering, I grew up in that part of New Jersey that's like a spit from NYC, I think this explains my lack of patience and aggressiveness.
I am at least aware of it... :)

* 2024 Boxsets

…#9151, which is located on the back cover of the booklet - the new 2024 Boxsets have landed in NJ,on the outskirts of NYC. Bergen County! I received both the CD Boxset as well as the Vinyl Boxset! Once again the art production is primo! The Grateful Dead has done it again! A real work of art and it’s made up from premium quality materials. CD art work is also fantastic! All my CD look perfect except for one disc,#5 has scratches all over the CD. I pray and Hope i can get a replacement CD. I’ll settle for a copy if they aren’t available to mail a replacement. I’m going to try to get help. Otherwise, this year’s box is beautiful in every way! Time to dig in , I always play the music in order for reasons of my own. I enjoy exploring the music as it was originally recorded date wise! I love 1978! Let the magic begin to fill the air with sweet songs & lyrics! Long live the good Ol Grateful Dead!

The Art Production is beyond beautiful, it’s actually a Drum! The box itself is a Drum!!! Totally mind blowing! And also comes with a drum like tambourine rattle!

In the U.K.

My copy is in a ‘secure facility’ at a UPS warehouse. Crumbs.

JoeyMC

Me too but I am from that little island thang called NYC! Be proud brother!

Noise Reduction

I love that they released this - but I am very disappointed that digital noise reduction was used - there was absolutely NO reason to do so and it takes away from these perfect Betty Boards.

Noise reduction??....

....🤔

#2754 in DC

Box was delivered before lunch, which made the rest of my work day excruciatingly long. I opened it at dinner. My wife was patient & made sure we took good care of the wave drum. My daughter was over the moon to hear about a 16+ minute Franklin’s Tower. I guarantee this will get a lot of play time around here.
Thanks Dave! Thanks Steve!
Thanks Jerry, Bobby, Phil, Billy, Mickey, Keith & Donna!

#5468

#5468 is in the house. Won't have a chance to start to listen to it until Thursday.
Tapes provided through the assistance of ABCD LLC. They are back. 👍 Such a great story!

For Christmas get her a drum

Broken drum?

Can't beat that....

#47

Lowest number I’ve gotten on any of the boxes or the Dave’s.

Makes me feel sorta kinda warmish.

Noise reduction

How do you know?

Is this why the volume seems lower than other releases?

HEY NOW! (wtf)

gettin hey now'd again...thought that had been disposed of.

guess not.

sucky

Hey now...

It doesn't like the colon punctuation mark, that is two dots above each other, as is sometimes used between hours and minutes. I discovered that last week.

Duke vinyl....

....out for delivery.

No. Nineteen Hundred and Something

The packaging fits into a standard book shelf. Standard slip cases for the discs. All of it well made and designed. That alone makes me glad I didn't go with the all digital.

For the artwork, it now makes sense to me and it works. There's a backwoods swamp feel in the imagery that's appropriate for most of the shows being from the deep south during springtime. The devils remind me of what can be found in folk art from that region- just do a google image search 'Florida Georgia folk art devils'. All that Baptist influence on the subconscious, I guess. And then with the drum actually being a rain stick every time you move the box? That's when your imagination pulls all the pieces together to make it come alive! Pretty cool how that happens.

For the music, I've only listened to the first Tampa show but I'm hearing what I heard when listening to some of the DaP releases from the tour after this release was announced. It's a GD where everyone is rhythmically in synch and magically knows how to follow where the beast wants to go. And primarily from having a centering weight through Phil, Mickey and Bill-- which then allows Keith, Jerry and Bob to easily find room to freely do their stuff. Donna too (who does sound great). Quite often I find grateful dead playing to be like a big drum circle and that's indeed the case what's found here.

If all the shows hold to that style, for me personally, I'll place this at the same level as E '72, May '77 and Spring '90. I think the playing is that good and that unique to the GD vault. Case in point, after listening to one of those prior DaP releases this summer, I put in Veneta right afterward and my ears went, nope, better get back to April '78.

#00141

Magically showed up at the post office this am.

Spinning Tampa 4/6 right now - In the timbers of Fennario . . .

Hey Now'd!

I know what you mean.. every time I try to launch my new crypto currency and advertise my new Crypto exchange here, I get Hey Now'd.

It's so unfair.

Box is in, haven't opened it yet but that's where I will be going in exactly.... now.

The Duke vinyl is 180g....

....love.

product sku

081227816759

Product Magento URL

https://store.dead.net/en/grateful-dead/special-collections/friend-of-the-devils/friend-of-the-devils-april-1978-dead.net-exclusive-%5B19-cd%5D/081227816759.html