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Greatest "post coma" Grateful Dead jams?


John A

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Here's my criteria - full blown whole band off the rails jams. Not a great Garcia solo so much as a scenario where the entire stage seemingly achieved lift off.

My short list of nominations:

7/29/88 Laguna Seca; Playin' in the Band. The only post-76 full version of Playin', and it was a doozy. At one point I saw Brent look over the rest of the band, shrug his shoulders, and start laying into dissonant notes. Outrageous.

8/19/89 Greek; The Other One. A fitting moment for the final show at the Greek. There's a wild synth note and then buckle up as all hell breaks loose.

3/21/90 Hamilton; Victim->Standing. The best jam of perhaps the best post coma tour, fully harnessing the power of Victim.

4/28/91 Vegas; Bird Song. Certainly the hottest thing that happened with Santana on stage with The Boys, this is quite the barn burner.

3/28/93 Albany; Truckin'. Phil loads are insane. For a second I thought they were going all Fall '77 on us...

5/26/93 Cal Expo; Playin' in the Band. This one just goes on and on. Epic as it is, try to find one positive contribution by Vince through the whole thing. Tall order. Sorry to hate on the guy, but that's just how I heard it.

Anything on this list that folks would argue doesn't belong? Other additions?
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3/24/87 @ Hampton - The 1st Terrapin after the coma is a monster!  They lay into it pretty damn hard.  This coming from a year which is punctuated with less 'jamming'

 

10/20/89 @ The Spectrum - Truckin > Other One Jam.  Fantastic jam segments from this.  Also 1st California Earthquake which must be heard.  Tears of sorrow and triumph.

 

9/19/90 @ MSG - Segments during this 25-minute LIG are stunning

 

9/5/91 @ Richfield - While not sustained for too long, a segment of this Sugar Mags has EVERYONE all-in.  Total thumper.

 

9/7/91 @ Richfield - One of the best post-brent Bird Songs ever (right there with 4/1/91).  When this thing begins to head for home, they all find the perfect center and then off it goes!

 

3/20/92 @ Copps - This Promised Land has Hornsby stomping (yes, stomping) on the keys as the band boils this one over.  One of the greatest SOTM's I evever heard to boot.

 

That spring 93 Cal Expo run were probably the last 'excellent' shows I ever saw.  5/27 (Road Trips Vol 2 #4)  featured the best 1st set of the 1993 (check out the jam in masterpiece).  The segment I'll choose from this is the vocal explosion from Bobby during the Gloria encore ("It's better than TV!!!") coupled with some lightning licks from Jerry. 

 

As I 'pen' this I know I'm leaving out some important ones - I tried to be impartial but these were all shows I attended save for Hampton '87.  YMMV.

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Wow, you pulled something from Spring Tour '92 - never saw that coming!   My reference post coma Promised Land is 9/18/90.  Of course it gets bonus points for coming out of that Lay Me Down.

 

You think the other big '91 Bird Songs (3/21 at Landover is another one) are on the level of the Santana version at Vegas?

 

As for the '89 Spectrum run, I'm big on the Mr. Fantasy from 10/19.

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the Santana Bird Song Vegas 91 is really strong. other Bird Song's ,post coma, that're worth mentioning would be 12.9.89 Inglewood & 3.29.90 with Branford, beautiful ..just came across 12.12.94 Oakland's first set-closing 16minute Bird Song as well. psychedelic version for 94..

aaron, in terms of Corinna help- 3.10.93 Rosemont one of the best I've heard. very tight jam!! last time they ever did a Mind left body jam comes out of it too

https://archive.org/details/gd1993-03-10.120543.sbd.miller.flac16

i would say 7.17.89 Alpine's China>Rider belongs in this thread. it speaks for itself. https://archive.org/details/gd89-07-17.sbd.unknown.17702.sbeok.shnf

10.1.94 Boston, some nice highlights here, especially the 16min Fire on the Mtn. and the Slipknot for this thread.,,for Garcia vocal explosion thread -the So many Roads and Stella Blue of course https://archive.org/details/gd1994-10-01.sbd.gorinsky-miller.31992.sbeok.shnf

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i would say 7.17.89 Alpine's China>Rider belongs in this thread. it speaks for itself.

 

While we're on the subject of '89 China-Rider, is Alpine as hot as the 6/19 Shoreline?  I haven't listened to either in a long time, but I recall the Shoreline final Rider jam being in a class by itself....

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the 6/19 shoreline Rider jam is definitely stronger, every other aspect is a close call i'd say..

speaking of 6/19, 6/19/91 Pine Knob, Victim drips with psychedelia..i know a lot of people dont like Victim..i love it..this version and 10.26.89 miami's are very strong https://archive.org/details/gd1991-06-19.109345.sbd.lai.shnf

Crazy fingers> Playin' from 6.9.91 Buckeye Lake is some beautiful music worthy of mention https://archive.org/details/gd91-06-09.sbd.unknown.12756.sbeok.shnf

Foolish>Playin>Eyes 3.19.90 Hartford, also should be in this thread! buckle your seatbelt https://archive.org/details/gd90-03-19.prefm-sbd.sacks.1526.sbeok.shnf

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