Grateful Dead

Four shows in and one to go.

This is one the best sounding two track box sets they have ever put out. Man, just unbelievable sound quality. And then there are the performances.
Every night is different. The Loose Lucy on 6/9 really sticks out as a perfect example as Jerry really gets into it and adds some impressive guitar work that I have never heard on this song. Any given night. Such a mellow vibe to a good chunk of the 6/9 show.

Hope you all get your issues worked out on this box so you can enjoy to the fullest.

10,000, was probably not enough given the demand, but given the last couple of years of not being able to sell out 13,000 to 12,500, you can't blame them for reducing the numbers.

More than a week ago I cleaned glue off my CD’s for the second time, then put them in CD sleeves.
I’ve now listened to all of them on a Cambridge Audio AXC35 CD player and they all played without any noticeable errors, skips, clicks, etc.
Happy for that.
Up next, try to get error free copies on a HD so that I can listen to them on a portable music player.
When I first got the Box I ripped the CD’s before listening to them because I was going on a road trip and wanted to play the audio files from a USB flash drive in the car. All the shows were defective……

Talk about intelligent CD packaging, Hendrix -Songs For Groovy Children 5 CD Box has cardboard CD sleeves that open when gently pressed on the edges. They have a single accordion fold inside that opens and makes the CD’s very easy to get out.
That deserves a Grammy.
Rhino should have to return all Grammy’s they’ve won in the past for packaging because of this epic failure.

....Spring '90 and TOO was smart.
Then again, I remember complaints that you had to open the CD case to see the second set setlist lol.
I guess women aren't in charge of current packaging, because they are smarter, that's right.

What a show! No disc problems. Jerry blazes through the right channel.
I am born again 1973!

I was putting my music room/man cave together last night, and opened up Spring '90, and definitely agree on that packaging. The boxes are big, but so what, they're oversized with these cardboard atrocities, too. But in Spring '90 and TOO, they really gave nice extras. I didn't originally have Spring '90, I got it in a trade about a year ago, and never really looked at all the extras, though I had wanted the set at the time for its book and program, also didn't realize it had the marketing stuff including 8x10 glossy. And the cds were still secured in the digipaks, unscratched (always a concern of mine on new to me stuff, why I prefer to buy new). My only complaint is the reason why I didn't buy at the time, the mix wasn't the multitracks the way TOO was. My memory of the extras in TOO was that they were not quite as extravagant, though it had a book on the tour that was good. The best thing about TOO was the sound mix, though I don't regret trading it for FW'69 Complete one bit (thanks again Pierre!).

So, don't mind a big ass box, as long as it has the cds well housed. Wouldn't mind some extras, tickets and marketing inserts are cool by me. Books even more welcome. One reason I really want Europe '72 is not just the steamer trunk, but the book as well. Think they should find a happy medium. Listen to the River works better in a practical sense than HCS. I'm happy we get access to these things, but there are serious quality control issues, and the more complex the design, the more those issues crop up. At least that's my take, for whatever it's worth.

....were 24-tracks. I'm not very good at math, but I do know more tracks means better sound.
Re-Spinning King Gizzards Fishing For Fishies. I REALLY like that record. Great stuff.
Ambrose Kenny-Smith harmonica love.

Why is Spring 1990 box called The Other One?
Having a brain cramp and google will not tell me.
Are there two 1990 boxes?
Cheers

The first box was 6 shows plus filler from 3/24/90, the second box, two (?) years later was called Spring '90: The Other One, which to me was just a good, clever use of a subtitle. They had 24 track tapes available for the first box, but they invested more time individually mixing those 24 tracks on each song on TOO.

And funny you mention the Giants Box, Vguy, was listening to 7/10/89. It sounds good, soundwise. Was less a fan of the songs themselves. Mainly Watchtower where Bob was maybe trying to slur his way through it like Bob Dylan, but he tried the same in Sugar Magnolia. Which reminds me of my least favorite parts of the Spring '90 boxes, the LLRs, LRRs, Queen Jane's, and others where his histrionics vault across the line of annoyance. Price of admission I guess.

I had not purchased either of those.
Now, was the island on Lost purgatory?
And what about that ending where they are all in a church?
Still confused this many years later.
Love J.J. Abrams stuff, especially his Star Trek movies.
Cheers

The K.I.S.S. rule prevails with box sets. That is why the two Winterland boxes were the best - decent art, perfect shelf size, design does not impede the discs, the music is great - Really great! - and even a few pieces of swag. Keep it simple.

Dave, you're welcome!

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s a shelf life here as to how many more boxes they’ll end up releasing, so I’d like to see simpler, even plainer boxes, but with more shows!
Yeah those boxes are nice (thanks again you know who for WL 73! ! ) but I’d like to see something like those, but say a little deeper with say six or 8 shows, instead of just 3…for this reason, that 2 show 89 was kinda a waste of a box. (Kinda pricey too).
Hell, I wouldn’t mind more just music only, or like Alvarhanso, I like when they include a good book with nice pics.
Yeah, bare bones, music, and ja book!

Howdy Mike, I was wondering where ya were!
Hopefully not therapy for hockey ; )

Those fall 89 multis are just sitting there rotting in the vault…Dave?….Bueller?….

Hey Oro! I'm up in T.O. keepin' jive alive! I hope all is well with you, too. Just a real busy summer, but all good. I trust your summer and your health is good.
I agree on more boxes - get them out there. There are so many great suggestions from these posts, and it would be amazing to focus for a while on some of those early days of 1968-69-70. You had a comprehensive list a while back of all the shows from Dave’s banner back in 2011, and there is some real gold there. I agree too, Oro, on the booklets included, they always “set the stage”, but maybe it is an age thing, or some kind of eye test, but make the type a decent size to read, and perhaps black typeface on a white background, because it’s real Finding Waldo stuff trying to unscramble/decipher some of the print.
But keep the boxes coming, but a little (a lot) of attention to Quality Control, and Customer Service.
The recent release was a debacle, and I felt bad for anyone who got caught in that nightmare. Do better, Rhino/Dead.

Yeah I hear ya on that one. I mean, who do they think is reading this stuff ; )

And yeah, PRIMAL DEAD baby, just get it over with: 50 disc 66-70, even if just fragments from early years.
Something on the line of E72. I know some folks watching the budget and some get saturated on “stuff”, but really it’s the only way to pay proper tribute and as I say, tick tock etc…

Let’s Say 2 more big boxes: Primal, and another thirty trips for the 60th in 2025, the rest can be plain Jane road trips or Winterland style but up the show count per box!

Besides those 2 biggies, regular considerations could be:
Fall/winter 71
Fall 72
Winter & Spring 73
Summer 76
Spring 78
80? Alaska plus…(best of year mix including….the big G)
81-83?
Summer 85
Fall 89
Summer 90
Fall 91
Greek, Frost, ok, maybe another biggie, call it simply California!
Just off the top of my pointy little head…

Oro, I like the way your so called pointed little head works. Great list there and if the Primal 68/69/70 box was just 15 or so CDs, that would be enough for a good start, then they could do second batch, call it TOO #2. Alvar, hope all is well over there after yesterdays deluge, Middlebury and Rutland flooded again. Lagunitas makes a tasty seasonal triple IPA called The Waldos, is that what we talkin' bout here? (smiley face). And yes, I am smiling after attending a by invitation outdoor music event in White River Junction this afternoon that featured young musicians as well as Bernie Sanders and Grace Potter. Mostly apolitical, more about the arts, how important the arts are to school curriculum. Had a chance to speak with Bernie, then Grace. Had no idea she grew up legally blind. Made sure she knew how much I enjoyed her at Dear Jerry, doing Friend of the Devil with Bobby. Evidently her vision is better now since she drove her SUV off to Burlington for a second afternoon event. Still only half way into this HCS box, wicked busy.

There has been a fair amount of posts on here about the 73 box from people who have had discs that won't play, and about the poor presentation of the box, which has further damaged discs. Going off all that, I would think it would be better if Deadnet gave us some sort of assurance that they had read these posts, and are going to try and iron out the problems before trying to flog another giant box.
There's only one track in my box that won't play, and that's one of the Sugar Magnolia's - so it's not worth my while doing anything about it. But it's crazy to buy boxes and feel lucky if only one or two tracks won't play.

Please please please

I finally made it through the last of this box set. I guess I was lucky, in that I only noticed two skips. I'm not that worried about it and won't ask for a replacement. This is just my own point of view, obviously, but I would much prefer to have these come in a plain brown box and secure packaging than to have "fancy" packaging and the discs getting damaged. These are collectibles, hence the numbered series but I'd imagine the collectable aspect of this particular disc set is rather minimal. Not that I plan on selling my GD collection but if I did I'd be a bit hesitant selling this one, based on the product quality (not the music) from word of mouth (or type on screen). I'm generally not a critical person and I'm not trying to be one now but for me anyway a few more questionable end results and I may just pass going forward. I likely have three copies of almost every show out there so it isn't like I need to buy these. I just like to. If it becomes stressful and I have to deal with issues though I won't bother anymore.

That said I know that this issue wasn't intentional. People worked hard to get us something nice. So I have no animosity and I hope the next one comes together a little more effectively. I have been generally satisfied with all of the releases. Some have been a little big size-wise for me but that's okay. So if this is it for large scale issues I'm good. I wanted to throw this out just in case anybody does read these chat boards that works in the production line for the releases.

That's all I have. Now I'll go back to being quiet.

Thanks for checking! We had some seepage in the basement, not too bad for 3" of rain in the second thunderstorm of the day. We also had a prolonged downpour of hail, probably 20 minutes of dime and quarter-sized hail. Never had that even in the worst NC thunderstorms. But no damage, and no trees down. Was surprised to see today that there had been rescues in town. Was out that night, luckily didn't see any water.

Pretty awesome event you went to, it sounds like. Would love to run into our junior senator and Grace Potter.

1stshow on Lost ending, I take Christian Shepherd at his word that "Everything that happened on the Island was real", it was the most important experience for all of them. Me and my buddies used to debate the meanings, and to me it seemed to be a stealth religious show that wasn't quite as stealth in some aspects of that like Locke vs Jack in Man of Faith vs Man of Science; I mean that is pretty blatant, but what it all means in the grand scheme is less obvious. Interesting that every single one of the main characters becomes a murderer at some point, yet they all seem to still be redeemed in the end. And the Church they end up in must be a Unitarian Universalist Church with Dharma Wheel, Star of David, Cross, Crescent and star on the walls, and Sayeed is among them. I think the Sideways Universe was Purgatory, and when they left in the Church, they moved on to their final destination.

But the best thing about the whole show to me was John Locke, or Terry O'Quinn's portrayal. Then Michael Emerson as Linus. They really made the show for me. And of course the wonderful mysteries of the Dharma Initaitive and their reclusive funder, Alvar Hanso.

And agree with Daverock that it would be nice for TPTB to acknowledge the pervasive quality control issues on this release, especially to say what they might do to ensure better experiences going forward.

I like to store my Dead CD collection chronologically on a standard large CD shelf ... the oversized CD cases that came with May 77, HCS 73, June 78, June 76 and the 8-27-72 have made that impossible. I've moved much of my Dead collection to a book shelf to accomodate the oversized containers. In addition to being difficult to store, the larger cases are just tremendously cumbersome to take discs in and out of. By comparison, I recently bought the standalone versions of 5-8-77 and 6-10-73 just to have an extra copy in case the discs in the box sets ever go bad (damage, skipping, whatever), and the packaging is just so much better ... the CDs fit perfectly on a standard CD stand and are much easier to manipulate. My vote would go for future box sets ditching the oversized CD cases and just giving us packaging like the 5-8-77 or 6-10-73 single release.

Update on HCS damage: I've had WMG respond asking for pictures, I've had Marye ask for my details in the hopes of getting my Disc 4 from 5-13-73 replaced (what a disc to receive in defective quality ... it's only the best disc from 5-13-73 and one of the best discs in the entire box), and nothing of substance has happened of yet (no indication that I will definitely get the disc replaced, certainly no timetable, just waiting and hoping). Peace y'all

Agreed Terry and Michael were the best. Evangeline was fun to watch too!
Somehow Sawyer was easy to identify with as well. And Hugo was priceless!
Still the most engaging series we ever got into.
Strangely, we find it hard to go back to though.
Thanks for your insights.
Cheers

HCS: That Loose Lucy from 6-9-73 is funkadelic!

As of 7/27, I was told by WMG it may take 8 weeks to ship damaged items in the HCS box or to update me on their progress. Has anyone received replacements for their damaged discs or are we all still waiting?

UPDATE (8/15/23): A handful of hours after posting my question, WMG responded saying they were putting the replacement discs in the mail that day, 8/14. We'll see...

Luckily, I have had zero problems with my discs

These 5 shows are so good

Some people on the Steve Hoffman site have received their replacement discs, I am still waiting & I have had no actual agreement or confirmation that they will replace them.The response on here about what has gone so very wrong in the production of the discs is the same as the useless discs playback.

I received a mail from WMG Damaged Returns that merely said:

"We will ship your requested item and/or update you on our progress within 8 weeks"

Since then I have received two different mails from them asking me to rate their customer service and asking if I would recommed their stores to friends. I will leave it to you to guess what I said to them.

I've listened through the set a couple of times and and I think I would agree with others that the Iowa show is the sleeper. All of the show's are great and certainly the 6/10 RFK show is epic with the great last set to cap off the box, but that Iowa show really stands out in its own way.

A lot of '73 has been released in recent years, between the PNW, St Louis and the Nassau Dave's Pick from a couple years back, and it's interesting how different people recorded different shows, but for the most part sound is consistent.

While the CDs for this concert play, the packaging is badly creased. Given the postage charges and total cost of this box set for international subscribers it seems that an unblemished presentation should be expected.

I got it in flac digital a few days ago and this one will proudly stands beside May, June & July previous box sets. Every show sounds really good, and after listening all of them my first feeling is for the Kezar. I never took real attention to TLEOther, but all of them worth listening. The set lists are very near from the Vancouver show, I keep in great estim.
encouragements to all the people who made this reel. There is nothing like a grateful dead Box Set.

I love this box and agree that the Iowa show is a real standout-at least disc 4 that I listened to last night. I am encountering some skips. I am curious about others experiences with the skips and where they are occurring.

The process seems different for everyone, but I have received replacements discs in the mail.

I don't know if its the best, but I remain impressed by 5/20 Santa Barbara. I like it better than Iowa. Kezar is probably the best show of the bunch. I think all of these shows with the exception of maybe 6/9, could have been released on their own. Its commendable they didn't milk these like they could have.

EDIT: 6/9 is no slouch. :)

A few weeks ago I cleaned all the CD’s with isopropyl alcohol to remove the glue, then put them in CD sleeves, never to be put back in those crappy cardboard holders again.

All the cleaned CD’s played fine on a Cambridge Audio CD player.

I then put copies on a HD by double clicking the CD icon on the desktop and dragging the audio files to a folder on the HD. I did not use any type of CD ripping software.
I then put the audio files on a portable music player and they all played fine.

It sounds damaged to me. I'd try to get that point across if you can. Customer Service, Dr. Rhino or MaryE (here) seem to be your points of contact.

What an afternoon! Had been saving this box for the start of my holiday, put them on today, every single CD either fails to read altogether or keeps skipping tracks. On two different CD players.
What a let down!
Have contacted customer service & filled out the form....

I received my 5 13 73 Disc 4 ... much appreciated ... thank you MaryE, Dr Rhino, WMG customer service for rectifying the problem. Hope everyone else here who had or has issues with discs receives their replacements. Peace.

I believe I ordered this on vinyl. I lost a big chunk of emails. This has not shipped yet, right?

How can I look up orders without numbers?

Thanks

I have everything the Dead has released and I feel like I've hit some kind of glass ceiling with this new box set. It's not sweeping me off my feet like I expected. It's not just this box set. Same with the Philly '73 Dave's Picks and the September '72 Dave's Picks. I don't know what's happening to me, but these shows aren't blowing me away. There are great moments here and there, but when I compare to the Winterland 1973 box or DP 28, DaP 16 and DaP 21, these shows feel substandard. Maybe Jerry isn't loud enough, I dunno. I don't believe it's a saturation thing because I still really like those other shows I mentioned. Maybe it's the repetitive set lists of the first four shows. Does anyone else have this?

Back to the problem of skipping cd's - I have been suffering from this for years with Grateful Dead releases
Fortunately I have been able to adjust the tracking on my cd player and now they play fine but they don't rip fine for digital audio players!
The problem occurs when you try to exceed the original Philips Red Book standard of 74 minutes!
I have no problem actually playing the 2023 box but when I rip to my DAP I experience skipping on the outer tracks of the cd, where the tracking errors will be greater
Apart from that these are the problems of a UK Deadhead of 47 years and life couldn't be better - keep up the releases
Ian

Darkstar if you don't like the boxset maybe you could let me have the discs that play from yours! joking aside.Today I received 12 replacement discs,and only 1 is readable in the player.I have no idea if it plays all the way through without stopping or skipping, it really is a lousy deal with this boxset. I agree,the 1973 Winterland boxset from all those years ago stands head and shoulders above this release. Maybe they have ignored the Red book standard as mentioned by someone else on this product.

Contacted Mary E & then got a very rapid response from Mac at WMG.
New discs arrived today.
First 5: 4/5 not reading in my Cambridge Audio, 1 reading, plays 15 secs then just stops.
Tried 2 in my Dell desktop, which seems able to play both!

WTF is going on.

Mmmm. I have replaced a player or two over my lifetime.

Someone on one of these threads commented that the longer CDs (70+ minutes, especially >72 min) seem to fail more often. Note sure.. I generally rip them and play the digital files.

I was having trouble not too long ago, within a year got a new CD player and a new CD/DVD R/W and haven't had a problem since. Not saying it's your drive or that the manufacturing process is not at fault, but maybe try someone else's or a different drive and see if you are still having problems. Just a thought.

Yes,they have been tested in another player the first track on several discs do not play at all,but all the tracks are read in a DVD player,but the sound is sub par as you can imagine.One disc reads,but does not play,the others are unable to be read. I am trying to find a player that will play them to my satisfaction.The remaining 6 discs play with no issues on the usual player and sound superb.

Sounds like you need to go through the normal channels then.. Customer Service, MaryE here or Dr. Rhino.

There must be a remedy. I've had minor problems over the years and have read about some major fiascos, but eventually they made good on them.

Well, shoot chip, I told ya not to eat another gram!

I thought you said another quarter.

Quarter gram, not oz…

Caveat emptor.

Back in Stock overnight and I grabbed since I missed out. Soooo... am I going to experience the same issues? Do we know if these are new boxes? Someone's returns? Guess I'll find out...

So I got an email alert that this box was back in stock but by the time I answered the email, it was "out of stock" again. UGH!!!
Seriously bummed.
I too wonder if these are new products or is the risk of defective discs, glue, etc., persisting??
In the end, these things get fixed and made right.
Now, Universe, please deliver a box of this to me.

I also got the email about the box being back in stock on the 24th and, much to my surprise, it briefly was! So I ordered. I had gotten such emails several times over the past few months but it seemed I was chasing ghosts. Now, out of curiosity, I tried to check the order status and I get "internal error". I just emailed customer service to see if they can determine the status. I suppose it'll arrive in the mail, or it won't, or they'll respond, or...I don't know. I'm totally a broken record but between the website quirks and Rhino's limited edition fetish it's the same old story. Imagine how smoothly the orders, customer service and general communication would be if the same urgent "hurry up and get everything while it's still available" mentality was applied? I just wanna enjoy the music, man...