John A

Anytime I see a reference to 11-2-84, my "guilty pleasure" greatest show, I can only smile. Smokestack sandwich was in the first set that night to boot!

I've considered 11-2-85 as a possible top 10 Brent era show, but then my head explodes at the concept that 11-1-85 might have been better. What a pair in Richmond, and what a great fall tour - save for Tampa Sun Dome 10-26-85 which was somewhat of a train wreck. God bless the good ol' Grateful Dead.

Mumblings of the pedantic Deadhead: China->Rider went into drums->space 3 times.... 6-24-80 Grand Rapids, 8-14-81 Seattle (which also featured Baby Blue introduced into the rotation as an encore, played for the first time since February '74), and 6-16-91 Giants Stadium. How 'bout that? I would have guessed the number of times that happened was zero.

6-25-82 was indeed a Palladium benefit show but not solo. Garcia & Kahn played one set. Maybe Kahn was set back in the shadows.

Apparently Jerry was so freaked out to be up there solo that he put out an emergency call to get Kahn out for the Beacon Theatre show the next week. And he would never play solo again. So yeah, a pretty special night indeed!

I recall at the time thinking how it was wild that Phil was 50 (first band member to hit the half century mark). And today he is 82 - amazing!

Good lord, Bill, that commute schedule is insane Deadication. And that's before including that you worked both days! Sadly, there's little positive one can say about that poor '92 Spring tour. Even the show in Landover with a Dark Star, a Dew, and the first Satisfaction since '86 never really achieved lift off. In the immortal words of Bruce Hornsby, "I got tired of getting up onstage and sucking every night."

n - Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Feb 27, 2022 Sweetwater Music Hall Mill Valley, CA Benefit for Robin Sylvester Set 1: Playin' in the band -> Jam -> New Speedway Boogie My Brother Esau Catfish John Two Djinn Lost Sailor -> Saint of Circumstance Set 2: Like a Rolling Stone (w/Matt Jaffe on vocals) Uncle John’s Band-> Supplication-> Uncle John’s Reprise Estimated Prophet -> Truckin’ -> Spoonful -> The Other One -> Standing on the Moon -> Not Fade Away > Great to see this music in such a tiny setting. The intimacy really lended itself to this stripped down Bobby interpretation. Plus Barry Sless was a guest on pedal steel which is always a good thing. Sweetwater has a 315 capacity but they limited it to 200 so the place was nice and open. I'm often Bobby's biggest critic as far as his take on Garcia/Hunter material goes, but this rendition of New Speedway was pure gold. And the Uncle John's segment was also awesome. Matt Jaffe is a Mill Valley kid who started showing up and making a splash at open mic nights early in the new Sweetwater era when he was 16. He's now in his mid 20s and it's great Bobby brought him up for the Dylan number. Matt crushed it!

That is one deep and broad looking pair of sets. I count up to 8 song not played live by the Grateful Dead.

While that's definitely some statistical abuse, it could be worse... If you'd hopped on tour after William & Mary '78, and you happened to miss the Landover show in Fall '79, you could have gone almost 150 shows without a Dew!

If Phil sits in with DSO and sings Morning Dew, that's when we really got a problem. Maybe Eyes -> Dew.

Oh geez, Bobby did sing the Dew. Exactly what one assumes they'll avoid going to see DSO.

Melvin and JK rocked the Sweetwater in Mill Valley last night. Definitely some fat jams! Harder They Come He Ain’t Give You None Breadbox -> sweet jam -> Breadbox Lonely Avenue Tore Up Over You Stop That Train That’s Alright Mama Don’t Let Go -> Space -> GDTRFB Hey Pockey Way Sisters & Brothers Reuben & Cherise (No encore)

Set list is confusing me.... Help Slip Shakedown was it's own set? Or was that one monster of a pre-drums? One lament I have with the Dead is that the they totally abandoned that tribal beat of a slowly evolving NFA coming out of space. Great slot for it!

Agreed, but more impressively this post suggest you read that whole rant. Impressive forum Deadication. On another subject, check out the He's Gone jam from 5-12-80 Boston. Jerry, Phil, and Brent are all getting after it. At one point they seem to be hinting at Caution. Then just before the jam fades into drums things get nice and weird. Good stuff.

JFK should have been razed long before the Dylan/Dead show I saw in '87. What a pit.

Now that's gold! Well played. 😄

I'm not on Facebook, but a friend forwards me some of this stuff. Cat's name is Scott, and apparently he's written a couple books on The Dead. Today's post: 10, 2 Decent enough stuff overall, but my eyes popped when I got to the "Brent became a presence onstage as large and important as Jerry" part. I'm all for a bit of hyperbole to make a point, and I'm a huge Brent fan, but come on, man! What band were you watching?!? 🙄 Might be time to give his keyboard a time out. 😆

Both Helen Reddy and Neil Sedaka have now entered the thread! As it happens, in 5th grade those may have been my 2 favorite artists. Love it!

Greg, I think you've stumbled onto a great point about Cumberland... that tune, given the evolution of the Dead's material at the time, feels like it's a cover. But ultimately it's arguably a greater version of the songs they were getting into. Genius shit! Back to the "greatest song ever written"... As a card carrying over the top Dead freak, that song has to be one with lyrics by Robert Hunter, music by Jerry Garcia, right? Once that's been established, pick your poison. 😆 🤣

I'm going to posit what will perhaps be an unpopular concept; that Jerry shelved Viola Lee because he thought it was at least to some degree a vehicle to play fast for fastness' sake. And thereby once The Dead showed what they could do with it he was done, as there was nothing left to prove. Which reminds me of the awesome story when Jerry worked in Dana Morgan's music store way back in the Palo Alto days. Some cocky kid comes in, takes a guitar off the shelf, and dives right into some intense shredding frenzy. When he takes the guitar off his shoulder, Jerry quips, "what's the matter, man, you run out of talent?"

Sirius XM played this show yesterday, and I caught the Estimated >Dark Star on the way to picking up my brother in law at the airport. Jerry totally gives up on the DS before it makes any headway whatsoever toward getting off the ground. And after David Murray had contributed to that scorching Estimated, it was that much more of a head scratcher. If you look up "off a cliff" in the dictionary, you'll find reference to the Nassau 3-29 Branford Star in relation to this one.

Check out 6-10-90 Cal Expo for an especially fine Bertha Jack Straw opener.

85 really was a wacky year for GD setlists. Hell, Gimme Some Lovin' did some openin'!

This is true, and I'm glad you recognized boldness for boldness's sake. 😆 Nonetheless, the statement holds its own due to the obviously uneven nature of the Dead by that vintage. To wit, while the Estimated with David Murray later in that MSG run was sensational, the Dark Star that followed it was downright lame.