fuck yes grateful dead

Grateful Dead, June 4th 1970, Fillmore West

This, ladies and gentlemen.  Grab your creature comforts of choice and settle in, because this is truly An Evening With the Grateful Dead, proper.  The Acoustic GD will regale you with ten tales of trouble and woe and disaster narrowly averted, and then the Original Space Cowboys, yup, the New Riders of the Purple Sage (Jerry on sweet pedal steel still, kids, and Mickey playing decidedly non-country country drums) with their particular brand of lysergically-dripping Americana.  And then, THEN, settle in deeper and allow your cerebral cortex to be gently pried open in the way only the Electric Grateful Dead can do.  It’s all here, folks.

Oh, and have we mentioned this is a new find?  A-freakin’-mazing that new tapes are still showing up, 43 years later.  This is an audience tape, and if that phrase turns some of you off just go ahead and turn on again because this beautiful tape is everything that every audience tape wants to be.

Grateful Dead, 12/26/69 at McFarlin Auditorium at SMU, Dallas, TX 

Exactly one week after their first acoustic set (due to a tardy Phil Lesh), this second-ever (ditto but this time Billy) is a thing of tender beauty and I daresay they dug it too, as the acoustic opening set became the standard for 1970.  After a half-dozen “wooden” numbers in a laid-back fashion, the chillin’ is decidedly over when Pig takes the stage for a rollicking Hard to Handle.  The electricity continues to flow from there, and the Dark Star (ecstatic) turns heavy quick as it becomes New Speedway - fully formed just 20 days after the distressing events that inspired it.

Soundwise, another perfect recording.

Grateful Dead, Dream Bowl, Vallejo, CA 2/22/69

Just before the infamous Live/Dead run, and it gives said run a run for it’s $$.  Mountains of the Moon > Dark Star = beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  The hairy ride of the rest ain’t bad either - all that and this is an equally exquisite recording.

Grateful Dead, Rio Nido Dance Hall, September 3rd 1967

A mind-bending slice of late 1967.  This is the recording with Midnight Hour tacked onto the front, but there’s some doubt as to whether this belongs to this date, and if so, where it falls in the setlist.  My guess is it’s supposed to be the closer, as before the following Dancin’ Phil talks about starting it off.  Whatever!  I’m glad it’s here because it’s a wonderous (30-minute!) version - dig the guitars slipsliding all over the place around the 12:30 mark.  ”Slippery” is in fact a good term for the show as a whole, and maybe even for the Jerry/Bobby axe dichotomy in this era.  If you haven’t heard this one, I guarantee you’ll be happy when you do.  Or yr money back.

 ”This is SERIOUS, folks. This show stands (for me) as the pinnacle example of the raw psychedelic power that emanated from the Dead in the early years. This show gives us a glimpse into the true heart of one of the greatest turning point years in the band’s history. What 3/18/67 shows us of the bridge between 1966 and 1968, Rio Nido captures far more clearly. This show has completely flipped my wig. If you don’t have it yet, seek it out at all costs. This show is a classic beyond belief. This show makes me weep for all the other shows from this period that we’ve never heard, and may never still.”

   - Noah

doomandgloomfromthetomb:

The Grateful Dead - May 5-9, 1977

Since today is the anniversary of the Dead’s famed Barton Hall show in ‘77, let’s all listen to this stellar run of shows. New Haven, Boston, Ithaca, Buffalo! Take a step BACK.

Perfectly perfect perfection.

I think they’ve been doing it right the last few boxes.  Bringing in outside designers for a new and fresh take on the iconography, compiling shows that we already know are killer but which maybe haven’t had the proper sort of exposure, and mastering them beautifully.  Whatever your take on the official release vs. archive stream (or rip) debate - and I can see both sides pretty well - I’m pretty geeked about this.

PS - Oh, and finally offering up downloads of the individual shows for those who may not be in a position to splurge.

sourgabba:

I FINALLY FOUND THIS FUCK YES

So weird.  I love that they’re farmers for some reason here, and that Phil has about 45 extra pounds on him.