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July 31, 2024 - 6:48am

747 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 15, 2024 - 12:46am

#481

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

Yo Dave

Greek us, please
September 14, 2024 - 9:03pm

#482

icecrmcnkd

Joined:
October 20, 2015

Almost Box Time

💀🎶💿
September 13, 2024 - 1:57pm

#483

billy the kiddd

Joined:
November 8, 2021

Anniversary show 9/13/81 Greek Theatre

43 years ago it was Sunday at the Greek with the Good old Grateful Dead. What a blast! Great show. Great run, my favorite Greek run was the 1st one. Stopped at Everett & Jones bbq on San Pablo Ave on the way home. I was so fortunate to see the Dead during these years along with so many other great musicians who are no longer with us. Fun times for sure!
September 13, 2024 - 1:48pm

#484

nitecat

Joined:
November 1, 2010

Travels in California

On my way to and from Lake Tahoe this month, I passed Nevada County Fairgrounds, where I saw JGB and the Dead in 1983. I also passed Boreal Ridge Ski Resort, the home of the infamous " Worst Dead concert ever" in 1985. I recall the Fairgrounds being pretty pleasant, and the Ski Resort being a pretty rocky, dirty location. I don't remember the show being all that bad, but the boys did have several technical difficulties. I'd go back in a second.
September 13, 2024 - 8:25am

#485

JoeyMC

Joined:
July 29, 2022

What's the line on, on time…

What's the line on, on time delivery?
September 12, 2024 - 4:59pm

#486

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

#487

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

#488

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

#489

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

#490

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.

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

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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.

9/24/83 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds

I was there, great show , great venue.

12/28/83 Favorite 1983 show

I saw the Dead a lot of times in 1983, a lot of great shows at a lot of cool venues, but 12/28/83 was definetly my favorite show and should be an official release.

Ok Billy....

....I'm sure you probably posted it before, but how many shows did you attend? Genuinely curious.
Edit. The 4.11 Terrapin is outstanding. 🐢
As is all of the rhythm devils so far.
Another edit. A Brokedown to end the second set @ Santa Cruz?
Like A lot of others here, I usually don't look at setlists when I decide to hit play. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
If you want to do the shows in order, play Dave's 37 Williamsburg, VA after Blacksburg, then Huntington, then the Pittsburgh 4.18 philler from 37, then Dave's 15 Nashville then Dave's 7 Normal,IL.
That leaves Columbus & Lexington regarding the Spring '78 tour.
Those will be released in the future, along with the rest of Pitt as philler split between the two. I guarantee it. 🍻
Mark my words. I mean, the ptb are putting out a treasured Sante Fe show, so it's definitely doable.

I saw the Dead.....

over 100 times. My brother saw them over 300 times, so did Nite Cat. Pretty easy to do when the Frost, Greek , Warfield, Ventura, and all the other places they played are fairly close to where I live. Saw Garcia's Band play a lot at Keystone Palo Alto , and at the Warfield.

Billy....

....you should tell your brother to join the group here.
We enjoy cool stories.

Post drumz redo 4 6 78

THAT'S better

Louder and fuller sound

#7885

Finally arrived!

Thanks for listening

Estimated>He's Gone from 4/6/78, allowed me to understand it was worth the wait.

rock on, gang

GOAT'S?

I have a list of 50 all time greatest show's. This list has show's that I'm sure you all are very familiar with. One of these show's from the list is in the box.

Would you all like to take a guess? It's a show that I was very happy with after listening!

Still "en route" ?

But I got a strange letter last week, which I've only just opened. It's from parcelforce and it says they are holding a parcel for me sent from overseas which they will not release until I send £47.29. I assumed this was for the 78 box, but on closer inspection, it says the country of origin was Germany. I suspect it relates to another box I bought from Bear Family - in Germany last month. Which was delivered without additional charges. The tracking number reference number etc don't tally with the Dead box, which I understood was still with DHL en route.

There's no reason why the Dead box should have come via Germany, surely! I don't want to not pay it and lose it in the system. But I also don't want to pay for what has already been delivered.

Germany

DAVE ROCK
it will be the GD box. DHL shipped to Germany and then into the UK. If you look at the shipment tracker and click the details tab it should show you a second tracking number in red ending in DE. Clicking on this will show you further tracking into the UK.
Hopefully, you’ll see it soon.

Cheers

Thanks Colin - I'll phone them up tomorrow and pay up. I got a bit confused with ordering a box set from Germany recently as well as this Dead box. I do remember either you or Frank mentioning that the customs charge was £47.29
Just thought I had found a way of wangling out of paying!

4 winds

4 16?

4 7 right now sounds just exactly perfect

PF

4/16 Maybe yea? Maybe nay?

Yes 4/7 is sounding great! I like that crunchy sound. Peggy O is masterfully played! Loser oh my sweet Lord! Music Holy Cow!!

Ifn its not 4 16

I will go with 4 8

Long a top show of a friend

4 8 shows

4 8 71
4 8 72
4 8 78

All strong in their own way

Help on the Way......

Played at the commercial break of the Padres Dodgers game Great song from a great album. Estimated Prophet played at next commercial break

Santa Fe!!!!! Whoo!!!!

Wharfrat6969....

....indeed.
Anticipation is making me wait - Heinz ketchup commercial. Circa the '80's.

"It's slow good"

Carly Simon singing

Not a fan of leaving out the dead air....

....but. I get it. 9.14.78 Blacksburg spinning.
Tennessee Jed in the number two spot is nice.
Stopping after the first set.
My cousins son notified me of a new Blood Incantation release, so I'm going to make a left.
First cousin once removed.

Nail me to the couch

Paid up and due tomorrow. I hope it's worth it. I don't automatically buy Dead box sets these days, but I still like and play the last 78 box - the one that culminates at Red Rocks, so I thought I'd have a punt on this one.

There's so much dead air on the 5th cd of "Wattstax The Complete Concert" that in 74 minutes there's only room for 5 tracks. None of which are particularly long. Most of it is spent telling people to get off the grass.

309 of 10.000

Got my box at the post shop.
Greetings to Gerd. Enjoy your box.

Santa Fe AUDs

Very excited all I had back in the day were AUDs. This is gonna be real good.

Started year with Frost ending with this!

Let's get some Meriweather shows, 83,84,85 in 2025.

4/8

'85 too!?

4 8 85 first set yes

My recollection of set two is more meh, but next time it might glow

Set one is a keeper, for sure

4/8/85

Fun show.
Only show I took a camera, front row, not bad for tripping and no prior experience lol

Taking It Slow

Doing the 4th show in the box today. Life in the way but that's a good thing. Purposely not reading the book in this 1st go round. Just doing the comparisons between shows without the influence of info or opinion to see if my take is as others have seen it. Too early for any conclusions but so far, other than the 1st show in the box, these seem fairly standard shows for the era. Not complaining at all as this is my era and you really can't have too much Dead, lol. I'm imagining that touring takes its toll on creativity sometimes. So seldom that I listen to tours in order. More like, hey Jerry seems a little too high on this or that particular show. But even that is a generalization (i.e. 7-8-78 where being a bit too high is fantastic!) as it can turn on a dime sometimes, especially after a set break. Rambling on now so back to the music.
Cheers

Cocaine often does.

Well, I Met #1920 Accidentally, In Saint Paul, Minnesota

It actually arrived by FedEx (but I didn't pay for fancy shipping) two weeks ago, but I waited until today to open it. I wanted to make sure I had a lot of time to dig through it when I cut the tape open, and today was finally that day!

Spectrum, Philly

Philly was a crazy town if you didn't play good enough they might riot and if you didn't bring the energy down before you let them out you might get the same thing!

4/16 a well oiled machine!

4/8...

...1985
3rd night of 3 in PHL
last show of 14 for spring tour
JG voice
brutal
requiring time-off to re-charge the batteries

4-8-85

My buddy Rich was at this show talks about it alot... His first was Englishtown saw The Dead 200 times. Had an audience tape from Rich, played it often!

A box and a kalamazoo

Like Christmas Day here today. I am very impressed with the box - very snazzy. Excellent article by Steve Silberman, and the whole book looks very attractive. Ominous how drums....sorry, drumz... expands exponentially during the first 6 shows from a modest 7 minutes to a jaw dropping 25.
A few gimmicks - it took me a moment to work out the existence of the draws, and for all the flamboyance the cds are still just housed in bog standard card board sleeves. I will put them in paper sleeves back in the draw and put the empty cardboard covers on top, where the drum was.
I like the first show I have listened to - Estimated really developed in 78 compared to the previous year. Because it's all on 2 cds I though of it as a short show - but it is still about 2 hours 20 minutes long.

Weird sounds you can get on that drum. Today I got my Kalamazoo guitar delivered too. Made in 1937, it's in amazing condition for an 87 year old instrument. and sounds much louder than you expect looking at it's diminutive size. This was the guitar that Robert Johnson played, according to his contemporaries, and he can be seen holding one in that photo of him taken in a photograph booth.
I am wondering if I can use this drum as accompaniment to my guitar playing - get a bit of Hill Country/John Lee Hooker groove going. Though I don't want to put my foot through the drum by mistake.

Scarlet/Fire 4/8/78

is divine!!

Just listening 2nd time. What a beauty!
---
Gerhard,
morgen ist (leider) Kellerschluss und: we're preparing for the last ride to OFR in this season.

Cheers G.

Philly 85

I had a great time at those shows and always have dug em.
Last GA? Or was that 86?
The “voice” doesn’t bother me so much, but I understand why some folks can’t get past it.
Too bad, that Easter Sunday show is a short but sweet monster…except for the voice : (
Thought it was better by the 8? Maybe not, been awhile…I think I recall an interesting set list?
Yeah Philly, crazy energy! Some how saw more shows there than any other venue. What was that Mick Jagger quote? Lol

So Glad ya made it…awesome our friends across the pond are getting their boxes and digging on em! Woah Daverock, that sounds like a interesting axe, sounds expensive too lol You need one of those one man band set ups with the kazoo, harmonica, cymbals and kick drum etc ; )

Harding Theatre November 1971

Does anyone know if the Harding shows are in the Vault? If so, does their having been radio broadcasts in any way limit their chance at ever being an official release? Or because the shows already circulate in good quality audio?

Also, anyway to acquire the music on DP23?

Peace!

Buddy Rich was a Deadhead?

Buddy Rich was a Deadhead? Who knew?!!! ; ^ )

kalamazoo kazoo

Oro - it was expensive, but nowhere near as pricey as all the others I have seen for sale online. Something of a bargain off a chap who also sent it in one of the most beautiful leather guitar cases I have ever seen. He wanted to talk to me on the phone before he sold it - which really added to the experience of buying it.
Not a bad idea, that one man band thing. Apart from the inclusion of a kazoo. No way was that a musical instrument !

I think I'll skip a day before I play the next show in the box - do one every other day. So far so good.

Philly GA

My 3rd show was one of the 86' shows. At 15 I made the mistake for a moment down on floor before show started and thank God exited before 1st set. Way bad scene in my opinion.

Spectrum

Pre GPS, driving in Philly always scared me a bit, which curtailed my visits to the Spectrum. Jerry's voice in '85? Goodness..

Thankfully, there was an explosion of new material and a focus on his playing. True, it's not for everyone and even for me, an avid '85 fan, I have to be in the mood. But it works.

I listened to 4/8 on my PC while working today. I had this on tape way back when but my recording sucked. This was much better. The things you are exposed to here.. every once in a while it's amazing Grateful Dead music you never really listened to before, especially when the only exposure you had was a raunchy, generation X cassette you had 35 years ago. Once in a while you get shown the light..

I guess that's what these forums are all about. Thanks to you all.

Birchwood

I had the same Buddy Rich idea/joke running through MY mind! :)

Just finished Blackburgs second set...

....the Dancin' was very nice. As was the Black Peter segue into Sugar Mags. All three of our dogs tails were wagging in the beat.

Philly

Almost half the shows played in Philly closed with a Jerry ballad.

4/8/85 I remember listening to the first set more than the second, D/S was sick! I love when they come out of space into GDTR...

4/8/78 guess I got to give it another listen...

DP 23

I can send it to you if you give me an email address

Ian

Longer 1st set songs - shorter 2nd sets songs

Something else occurred to me listening to 4/7/78, 1st set songs were often much longer in 1978 than they were in the 72-73 shows I have listened to so much. The opening Promised Land here clocks in at 5.14 seconds compared to - picked off the shelf at random - the one that opens 9/17/72 which is only 3.39 seconds long. Sugaree 12.12 seconds compared to 7.59 in 72, and Tennessee Jed 9.30 in 1978 compared to 8.05 in the 72 show I chose,
To my ears, this makes the 1978 versions more exciting, as Jerry takes more solos in the middle sections before returning to the concluding verses. It doesn't work out like this in every 1st set song from 1978, but it does often enough for me to notice.
Things are reversed in the second sets though . "The Other One" clocks in at 39.07 on 9/17/72, and only 16.15 on 4/6/78.

78 & Harding

Birchwood, don’t know what’s in the vault but I know Dave has 11/7/71 listed on his list he doesn’t have, but has been chipping away at for the last 12 years or so…so I bet we’ll get it eventually.

Daverock: good catch. I call this “wait for it dead” since they often really take their time and move at a relaxed easy pace and slowly build up and then WHAMMM! Jerry especially gets all animated and peaks out loud! Then back down again, really great dynamics on much of this box!
But then in the second set, perhaps not as much big or long jams.
One thing I don’t like about the late seventies: usually not a lot of big jams, or spacey stuff…but that’s personal minor quibble, overall I’ve been blown away by the consistent excellence throughout the box (really, the whole tour!)
Watching the video from the 12 really helped me fully grasp these shows.
And 8 shows of some of Betty’s best, yeah atta boys all around to the team on this one! MUCHO GARCIAS!

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