John A

Interesting opener tidbit, if we may expand the definition of "opener" somewhat. The 1st of 6 MSG fall '93 shows opened with the sequence of Rain; Shakedown Street -> Wang Dang Doodle; Cold Rain & Snow and it's arguable that the tour never reached the level of that 4 pack again!

The problem with anything trumping 5-9-77 is that we have one of the greatest versions of Help Slip Frank and it actually occurs right out the gate - insane to comprehend. It's like the Louisville '74 encore. You have a just shy of greatest ever level Morning Dew. In the freaking encore slot! How do you top that?!? A super cool opener is 6-8-80 Boulder - Uncle John's -> Playin' -> Uncle John's in celebration of the 15th anniversary. And you gotta love Halloween '85 in Columbia, SC.... Space -> Werewolves after Billy supposedly announced backstage that he wouldn't come out and play if Garcia didn't open with Werewolves. Jerry was game, although he hadn't done it since '78 and didn't remember the words. I really groove on that story and hope that it's true!

Let's change the discussion from best theoretical opener to best actual opener and ask what is the greatest opener ever.... My vote is Buffalo 5-9-77 Help>Slip>Franklin's. With honorable mention to the 1st Terrapin San Bernardino '77.

Well I'll be dipped in shit! I rolled my eyes at your Lay Me Down proclamation but have just cranked the Ultra Matrix. We disagree about that hair (MSG is better) but damn that 12/14 version has got the goods. Listened to the Knockin' as well, which I already knew was great. While still my reference '90 Knockin' is 9/8 Pittsburgh, I agree the intensity of the solo in 12/14 is degree apart.

That's too easy. A better question would be is there ANYTHING else I'd prefer as a 2nd set opener than Scarlet Fire. Maybe not. 💥

Check out the Rider and the Black Peter from the original show. About as hard as the 1989 GD could rage. A candidate for my favorite Shoreline show.

Wow does he look young. Without the hair loss he could pass for a college kid. I love this quote about how he saw them in England (where he'd been living) in March '81 after not having seem them for some time.... (I paraphrase)

I did a deep dive on Baby Blues a few years back, and I can confirm the 4-6-82 Blue was just a half notch below best ever.

To me, Morning Dew gets elevated for a few reasons. It became a symbol of something special in later years, as in if you got "The Dew" the show was necessarily something exceptional. That ties into the rarity in post hiatus years; once in '76, only a few times in '77, once in '78, and once in '79. Plus it was there from the very beginning (literally as it was on the first album) so it had the most room for evolution. And did it ever evolve, culminating with Jerry's vocal delivery in the post coma years. All that and it's inherent pathos and power. On the other hand, the likes of Stella Blue, Terrapin, and I'd add Comes A Time, were Garcia/Hunter compositions, so that should clearly carry lots of weight. Good springboard for discussion, Milehighjoel.

As GD lore goes, you gotta love it when so little says so much.

This was the tour where Bruce was getting after Jerry for everything being too structured. Rumor has it that between sets Jerry told him to pay close attention coming out of Slipknot

With the caveat that I even surprised myself a bit that I just researched this... 🧐 All Over Now never preceded Loose Lucy, but it followed it twice in 1990. Black Throated Wind did indeed follow Loose Lucy twice in 1974 (and preceded it a couple times in the 90s). In addition, Johnny B Goode followed Stella once in 1973 and again in 1974. And Black Muddy River encored at 2 shows in 1989 where Johnny B Good closed the set. Finally, Greatest Story followed Gimme Some Lovin' twice in 1985... That one is pretty surprising, but Gimme opened several shows in its early days in '85/'86. But certainly Dino knew all that.

I remember being bemused by how wild that 2nd set was when I first heard the tape in the mid 80s. An eternal question when reviewing such a performance is what gives? What motivated that set to transpire? Beyond the odd structure, the only '78 Jack-A-Roe, and the final of just 3 World To Gives.

Nice to hear Phil & Friends bringing a high quality performance. I thought he was done with the road as of several years ago. What's he doing in Nashville? New found energy having kicked back throughout the pandemic?

What did they play?

Tuned in for all of set 2 on my big audio system and 65" TV. Needed a bigger TV. 😀 The sound was better than respectable, and the video quality was stellar. But moreover, the video production was sensational. Whoever directed that video feed was nailing it! Expense was not spared... That set list wasn't created casually. DSO clearly understood they were (a) at freaking Red Rocks, and (b) putting serious resources into a free stream. The list reads like a GD tour de force, and the performance was definitely up to snuff. I love how they slowed things way down and got nice and quiet for some of those second set transitions. Also of note - the show seemed to be gradually going backwards in time. Started with a decided '73 flair, moved into the early 70s at the start of set 2, then dipped deeper and deeper into the 60s as set 2 unfolded. Great stuff! The only thing missing was a Bid You Goodnight after Viola Lee, which I bet would have happened had they not run out of time.

Strangely I don;t recall the heat being oppressive at that '88 Buckeye show. I do recall the venue being really weird. The ground had a subtle slope causing one side of the stage to be higher up from the crowd than the other. And on one side there were fences that separated people's back yards. Someone was having a cookout. Talk about a free show in your back yard. Only show I saw there. I thought the Cassidy -> Deal set 1 closer was the highlight. Not sure I've listened to the show since.

Is it possible that 9-27 / 9-28-76 Rochester/Syracuse is the best consecutive 2-pack in different cities in Grateful Dead history? I mean, obviously there's stiff competition, and Barton Hall/Buffalo '77 immediately comes to mind, but still. Upstate NY was treated quite well at the end of September in '76! I'd be shocked if DSO didn't turbo charge the shit out of that Franklin's...

Recent CDC buffoonary: when they said mask are no longer needed outdoors when not in crowds, they cited a stat that "less than 10% of transmission occurs outdoors." Ok, so that's technically correct, but it's like saying "less than 10,000 people a year get bitten by sharks" when the actual number is 100. So yeah, that's true, the correct number is less than 10,000. As for Covid transmission, the best scientific estimate is about 0.1% occurs outdoors. Well sure, that's less than 10%, but please quote actual statistics! People are confused enough already.

We made great spaced omni Schoeps FOBs of Carson. Played the shit out of those Phil notes to open the Help on the Way. Fun times but hot as hell. Over 100 degrees I think.

Jerry belts out an "I'd rather be with you" in that Standing On The Moon at Irvine '89 that resonates to this day. As an interesting aside to that Irvine run, I spoke on a cell phone for the first time driving into the parking lot - in those days it was technically a "car phone". A friend had borrowed her aunt's car, and said aunt had given her permission to use the installed phone. I called a buddy back in Ithaca to give him a blow by blow of our entrance to the lot. Wild memory!

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/grateful-deads-wall-of-sound-lives-again-in-some-dudes-basement-11618161994 It's behind a paywall but if you have WSJ access it's a wild read. There's also more here: https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/music/grateful-dead-wall-sound-scale-model

Was at those '88 Byrne shows. Excellent run. The 4 song sequence to open 4/1 was a stunner! Jerry's vocal delivery on the Dew 3/30 is otherworldly.

Extremely rare China -> Rider to open the show, and hard to beat the jam section: Dark Star -> Truckin' -> Morning Dew Jerry must have been a bit feisty that evening, as he introduced Looks Like Rain: "Now here's a real pretty song that Bobby wrote." Ha!

I believe the BCT was the last truly small venue the Dead played (Spring '86). I'd have loved to seen the Fall '84 shows there (1st official taper section shows), which were some of the best of that year, not to mention the epic August '72 run. Here's some trivia, and it's a show I did attend: the first show ever billed as "Phil & Friends" was at the BCT. It was acoustic, with Jerry, Bobby, Phil (on a huge hollow body guitar), and Vince. 9-24-94. It was a benefit for the Berkeley High School music program. There was a very rare, for that era, Duprees Diamond Blues, that Jerry so thoroughly flubbed in a way that only he can. 😀