a huge Keith show - Johnny B Goode midshow is absolute killer! and everything onwards is fire, esp: China Cat>Rider, Truckin' is all pinch harmonics and gusto (note the very waltzy transition into a worthy 35-minute The Other One!), (apparently Phil left the building right after One More Saturday Night, despite the band still being onstage ready to play more, lol)

only patchy AUD sources circulate, which is a pity because it's a rager!! - jerry puts his ass into this Bertha opener! and the subsequent Greatest Story Ever Told is an all-timer!, Bird Song, MaMU, even bathroom numbers like Black Throated Wind and Sugaree have extra stank on em, but beware the literal fireworks on Mississippi Halfstep; dig the NJ heads singing along to Deal (a relatively new solo album cut),

Bird Song, China Cat>Rider (albeit not an all-timer like dick latvala insists), BTW, Big River, Loser, Cumberland Blues, Playin' in the Band!; He's Gone>Truckin'!, Mexicali, a garage rock Friend of the Devil! and an all-timer NFA!!>Goin' Down the Road!!>NFA! (Dark Star>Morning Dew is a classic, but not really a fave of mine - best parts are minutes 18-23 for the sorta Elastic Jam and 33-38 for the Mind Left/Feelin' Groovy jam)

Deal, live debut of Box of Rain, an all-timer Playing in the Band!! (aggro, orgasmic, jazzy, but sadly incomplete); set two opens with a drunk Grace Slick briefly jamming with the band(?), that portends a jolly set with shades of late Primal Dead, incl. spicy hot Big River, Mississippi Half-Step (minus ragged vocals), Greatest Story Ever Told, Brokedown Palace, Truckin'>bass solo>Other One

AUD only - (after Sugaree, we get Weir: "Let's hear it for the past." *cheers* Lesh: "Let's hear it for the future!" *cheers* Weir: "And let's hear it for the present.") (note the goofy ending to El Paso) China Cat>Rider!!!, Mexicali Blues, Stella Blue!!!, Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues, a rather unique Playing in the Band (esp ~8mins in), last 10 minutes of Dark Star are quite the meltdown!,

mostly AUD only - wasn't totally feeling set one in this quality, but when the SBD picks up with Truckin'>The Other One we are seeing the jazzier new directions the band was going (worlds away from europe 72!), complete with the first Phil-O Stomp (which itself contains a jam in which weir debuts the Let It Grow chords)

if you're counting, this is the final Loser with the "Sweet Susie" vocal line until Nassau '79 - the SBD mix is mostly vocals and drums, so listener beware (note the hilariously flubbed Mexicali); set two is a fantastic AUD(?) showcasing an ace Greatest Story Ever Told and perhaps the finest Tomorrow is Forever, peaking with a hot but rushed Truckin'>Other One>Mississippi Halfstep>Morning Dew sequence

set two has serious heat! - standalone He's Gone is an all-timer!!! (w/ searing jerry tone and a lengthy outro jam), El Paso (jerry wilding in the background), Greatest Story (fast as hell), Attics of My Life!, Big River, Dark Star (tight and exploratory, w/ brief Phil-O Stomp), (beware weir's shrieking on Sugar Mags and Casey Jones); fiery Johnny B Goode as second encore!; the jerry songs aren't quite holding together in set one (note the truncated/aborted Friend of the Devil) although Playin' in the Band is fierce as ever (and features both weir and donna screeching on the reprise, lol)

Jack Straw in Wichita! (albeit with a nasty reel flip right at the beginning), Promised Land (jerry already in a mood), MaMU, perhaps thee all-timer Bird Song!!! (active and dynamic, not just vibes), a clean Box of Rain and Don't Ease Me In pairing; jerry shreds on Cumberland Blues and a standalone He's Gone, then a wickedly raucous Truckin'>Other One

set one has mix and tech issues, meaning LOTS of Phil (not exactly a minus, to be clear!) and an overall looser vibe (dig jerry's spontaneous guitar solo when his mic craps out during the first verse of Deal!) Sugaree has more juice later in the set!, PiTB; (China Cat>Rider is missing a crucial section of the jam, sadly) stay for the near-primal NFA>Goin' Down the Road>NFA closer!!!

there exist a couple of SBDs that all sound like ass, wh;ch is a pity because it's a hidden gem!! - love set one! - dig phil's lead bass playing on Sugaree!, jerry's pinch harmonics on BTW, and the intense polyphony of Bird Song!, plus hot versions of Big Railroad Blues, Around n Around, and El Paso (keith popping off!); arguably a dip in energy with set two, but it catches fire again for a very dynamic Dark Star!!>bass solo!>Bobby McGee

i kinda like this opening Bertha and Playin' in the Band! (but like dick latvala says: not the calibre of performance you'd expect from '72 Dead); China Cat>Rider is dependably strong (nice little touches in weir's interstitial solo... but then those closing harmonies fall flat as hell) and on The Other One you can hear the band straining, yearning for an Eyes of the World that doesn't yet exist (the result is somewhere between Tighten Up and that '74 Dead funk, but not nearly as interesting as either)

amazing first set, opening with a killer funky Loose Lucy, BEW, Mexicali, Tennessee Jed, fast Row Jimmy, (only Jack Straw falters in the lyric dept); Here Comes Sunshine! (early aggro version), TLEO, the really vibey Dark Star!!! with the loud POP! at 12:20 and the Baba O'Reily bass solo/jam into a brave Eyes of the World>China Doll

(He's Gone and BioDtL are beset with mix issues, so beware!) another strong first set, incl Box of Rain, Wave that Flag, Bird Song, Loose Lucy, TLEO, and Playin' in the Band!; another pre-reggae Row Jimmy, Big River, a unique Here Comes Sunshine>China Cat>Rider sequence(?!) (show has no proper jam sequence and lots of unfortunate gaps in the SBD recording)

S-tier China Cat>Rider, Mississippi Half Step, a thrillingly off-kilter Truckin' takes a longn funky detour w/ bass solo into Eyes of the World>Space (they fight thru Stella Blue - incomplete on tape - and jerry's tuning derails Sugar Magnolia) Casey Jones sounds like a party! and Jerry shreds on JBG; phil and keith dominate BEW,

Promised Land and TLEO set openers are perfecto (sounding immaculate on DP28!), China Cat>Rider (not on DP28... yet LLR is??) has phil attempting the Feelin' Groovy interlude, Loose Lucy, BioDtL (not on DP28), Big Railroad Blues!, a fast intense Playin' in the Band closer; Big River!, Dark Star>bass solo>Eyes>Mississippi Half-Step hits the spot (but it's not a fave), while NFA>Goin' Down the Road is excellent (you can head for the parking lot during the NFA reprise, however!) (Latvala cites Tennessee Jed and Greatest Story as all-timers... I don't hear it, Dick.)

that SBD tape could use an upgrade, lol! - stay for the gargantuan, near-flawless 40-minute Truckin'>Jam>Other One>Space>Eyes>China Doll sequence!, plus a killer slow Loose Lucy that opens set two (there's a hot Big River that's AUD only, too); prior, it's an average '73 first set, with above-average harmonies on Box of Rain, Row Jimmy and Here Comes Sunshine!

opens with a hot China Cat>Rider and Jack Straw combo, Bird Song is a feast of pinch harmonics; set two opens with a fiery Promised Land>Bertha!!>Greatest Story salvo! (there's also another spicy Big River that's incomplete on the SBD), keith coming in hot on Don't Ease Me In, last couple minutes of Dark Star get crazy w/ a unique transition into Truckin' (the only time they ever segued these two)

SBD mix has lots of phil! (he drops bombs on Box of Rain, I Know You Rider, PitB, Mississippi>Stella Blue!>Jack Straw) - first He's Gone after pigpen's death (as set one, song two no less; segued from Promised Land??!) fast TLEO (chased by a slooow LLR 🥱), the first true China Cat>Feelin' Groovy>Rider sequence (the previous night had a fleeting one), raucous fast Around n Around, strong Tennessee Jed and Playin' combo to finish; whole near-continuous 2nd set, esp. Truckin'>Nobody's Fault jam (w/ slide solo)>Other One>Eyes>China Doll

Tennessee Jed, Here Comes Sunshine, China Cat>Rider (w/ tape-damaged Feelin' Groovy) and Playin' in the Band are keepers in an otherwise average first set; Greatest Story is nimble, TLEO, (phil leads Take a Step Back after BEW) a rare Brokedown Palace, WRS Prelude>Dark Star (what if the ambient section had a driving swing beat? now we know!) into a tape-compromised Eyes>Wharf (the latter butchered by jerry and rescued by weir with a surprise Mind Left Body jam?!)

lotsa goodies sprinkled across 4 hours! - (Bertha opener flops) instead, we get a suite of hot country rock, incl BioDtL and Cumberland Blues, Box of Rain is tight (then weir butchers Jack Straw) Tennessee Jed, Here Comes Sunshine!, Playin' in the Band!; China Cat>Rider (w/ weir rocking a chunkier tone than usual, but is out-of-tune by Feelin' Groovy), an all-timer Big River!!!, a keith-driven He's Gone with a mournful slide guitar solo into a mammoth Truckin'>(Spanish) Jam!!>Dark Star (just a quick verse)>Sing Me Back Home

average to iffy 1st set - not much to highlight besides TLEO, Row Jimmy (still evolving into its reggae form), Around n Around (weir really feeling himself, which spreads to jerry for BEW), (weir delivers Take a Step Back + No-Smoking warning after You Ain't Woman Enough); Weather Report Suite Prelude>Dark Star>Eyes>Playin'

fiery Deal (as song #2, no less!), TLEO, Cumberland Blues, Candyman (what sounds so dry on the SBds packs a punch in the roomy AUD tape), Bird Song is jammy and dynamic (jerry forgets the words, tho); set two opens with a spicy China Cat>Rider (jerry using some unique flavours on this one - also weir shouts "BEEP" at one point?), Jack Straw,
Greatest Story is too uptempo but a scorcher nonetheless, Truckin'>Jam (unique jazz-blues!, with some fighting for Eyes vs Other One)

jerry shreds all over El Paso (wasn't totally invested in the rest of set one, sadly); whole set two - opening with a Promised Land>Bertha>Greatest Story salvo!, then an almost baffling sequence of He's Gone>Truckin>Nobody's Fault jam!>Drums>Other One>Spanish Jam!>Other One>Jam!!>Feelin' Groovy????>I Know You Rider?!?!?!! (Sugar Magnolia is off the rails, however)

an above average first set, mastered beautifully on DaP 21 - Mexicali Blues and Big River (lots of phil volume and jerry tone tonite!), a fast Row Jimmy (followed by weir threatening the audience with snakes and tarantulas in lieu of Take a Step Back, lol), Box of Rain (opens with a phil bomb), China Cat>Rider (billy grooving), Jack Straw, Don't Ease Me In!; all-timer Greatest Story Ever Told!!, MaMU, Loose Lucy, Jam/Space out of Sunshine! (song portion itself is alright), Weather Report Prelude>Eyes of the World! (really heats up during the minor key jam)>China Doll; JBG>And We Bid You Goodnight encore

very hissy tape circulating on archive.org - Deal, China Cat>Rider, MaMU, (note the odd Don't Ease>Around n Around segue); middle set is average except for the intriguing last few minutes of Playin' in the Band; He's Gone!! (come for the harmonies, stay for weir's blazing guitar tone in the outro jam) into Truckin'>bass solo>Other One

whole show - the Dusborne matrix mix captures a more lively and ragged '73 Dead than the usual SBDs suggest! - an unusually lively first set feat. great versions of MaMU (garage rock!), Box of Rain, Deal, LLR, Tennessee Jed (weir tone!), China Cat>Rider (more weir tone!), Playin' in the Band (Phil-driven); note especially the Truckin'>Nobody's Fault jam>Drums>Other One(simmering!)>Eyes (minus a squeaky Stella Blue at the end, with jerry sounding hoarse on Row Jimmy too)

(note keith jamming on electric piano throughout the show!) (Promised Land opener is a whiff) Deal is thick and funky, (beware some nasty overtones and distortion in the dusborne mix on Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed, Row Jimmy—sounds like a windstorm?), jerry puts extra soul into his Sugaree vocals, Mexicali Blues!!!, (Row Jimmy is sour) TLEO is perhaps the speediest ever;
middle set is average, peaked by speedy-funky China Cat>Feelin' Groovy>Rider and Big River (peep keith's dominant piano on Around n Around); MaMU!, He's Gone is amplified by keith's barroom piano, Truckin'>Phil-O Stomp variant(!!)>Other One>Tiger jam

(garcia is not having a good weekend - these are strong ensemble shows moreso than jerry showcasss) TLEO and Jack Straw have inklings of that 74' funk, Loose Lucy opens with some massive Phil tones, Mexicali and El Paso are hot (lots of sneaky jerry), Tennessee Jed closer is stadium-sized; set two opens with a balls-out fast Greatest Story Ever Told!, (who is the crowd booing at the beginning of He's Gone??) jerry teases Here Comes Sunshine during the Truckin' jam, but's they settle for a 2nd-set Playin' in the Band instead

((Postcards of the Hanging)) Here Comes Sunshine box + standalone

4 1/2 hours of music; a mixed bag - try Kevin Tobin's matrix mix for some life - Wave That Flag is the first that hits (they legit chose this shitty Ramble On Rose as the first teaser single for the box 😂) Box of Rain is nice except for some loud interference during jerry's slide solo, TLEO, Race is On, (El Paso is rowdy but weir is out of tune), Bird Song is representative (stay for phil's massive bass bomb @6:30) Playin' shows early signs of Bitches Brew vibes around 10min;
hot 2nd set, starting with a rager of an Eyes of the World!! (segueing into that one weird Stella Blue where jerry tries singing the verses in his upper register....) Big River!, Here Comes Sunshine is ace!, Around n Around delivers!, Dark Star (uptempo and jazzy, w/ Phil-O Stomp only 8 minutes in! plus some speaker-destroying low tones during Space @20min til the segue into He's Gone>Wharf Rat??!)
Truckin' and Sugar Magnolia are hypercharged versions; It Takes a Lot to Laugh is a precursor to how the band later arranges CC Rider, That's Alright Mama (w/ Betts and Trucks) sounds like a cross between Goin Down the Road, Scarlet Begonias and Mountain Jam (pretty cool i guess), Goin' Down the Road proper is a delicious venue for the 3-guitar jam-out!!

(jerry struggles with tuning throughout set one, although...) Deal, Bird Song (despite static and missing vox on the SBD), Playing in the Band, and Mexicali still hit; set two opens with one of the better trys at Here Comes Sunshine, (then weir blows Promised Land, lol) billy and keith are really carrying the band tonite (evidence: El Paso) with jerry sounding listless (a positive only on Black Peter and He's Gone)
you may as well skip right to Truckin'>Nobody's Fault jam>bass solo>Not Quite Caution/Bitches Brew jam>Ofher One>Tiger jam>Other One>Wharf>Sugar Magnolia!

another keith and billy night - Mexicali, TLEO, Box of Rain (only track on the official comp), Big Railroad Blues (keith!), Sugaree (keith and billy!), China Cat>Rider (albeit incomplete on tape); You Ain't Women Enough (perhaps the tightest ever), note jerry adding extra harmonies to El Paso! then the odd standalone Stella Blue early in the set, Greatest Story>Bertha,
a darn good Dark Star (w/ extended "Elastic" jam in 6/8 time, and dominated by phil overall) into a darn good Eyes of the World (likewise phil-dominant)

kinda underwhelming first set overall, tho note the Feelin' Groovy drop-in during China Cat>Rider and the shreddy BioDtL + Playing in the Band; set two has a perfect Black Peter!, a hot Big River (as usual) and a strong Here Comes Sunshine, the latter Other One jam (out of Bobby McGee) has some funky Bitches Brew touches and a fall-73'-esque Tiger jam

(the SBD tape is marred by static and distortion at first, then awful pitch warping on Here Comes Sunshine and Playin' in the Band) Mexicali and maybe Deal are the only set one highlights; set two opens with Loose Lucy (still slow tempo), Big River is hot as ever, He's Gone>Truckin'>El Paso features exceptional playing but cursèd audio (bummer!), ditto China Cat>Feelin' Groovy>Rider and Eyes of the World, sadly!

tech problems and an overall listlessness affect set one, but you get the usual highlights - Mexicali Blues, TLEO, Tennessee Jed, and a really wacky Playin' in the Band (worth staying for!!); (China Cat>Feelin' Groovy>Rider has tuning issues) a hot Promised Land>Bertha>Greatest Story salvo! and the requisite perfect Big River!, no real jam sequence save for a compact Truckin'>Elastic Jam>Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad>JBG finale

skip straight to Dark Star>bass solo>Morning Dew - lol @ phil telling a photographer to "get a telephoto lens and come back some other time" after Race in On, (dude, LLR sucks so much ass during this era....), already the slowing + funkening of China Cat>Rider has begun (peaking fall '73-summer '74), and there's a fun concise Playing in the Band; (Let Me Sing Your Blues Away returns, this time with horns, as does Weather Report Suite, which is suffocated under Marteen Fiero's sax histrionics) set two just ain't very good... hard to believe, but true!

Greatest Story Ever Told! (and the crowd goes wild!), Ramble on Rose (big keith!); tonite it's Truckin'>Eyes of the World that gets the brass treatment... the effects are mixed (prewritten horn charts don't tend to vibe with the Dead's arrangements, especially not in the lean and woody '73 sound they had developed) and best when Fiero is going apeshit in the high register rather than just vamping (note that even the proggy 7/8 "Stronger Than Dirt" jam out of Eyes has nifty horn parts!), Weather Report Suite has a lovely flute part!, (Let It Grow, Stella Blue and Sugar Magnolia[?!] are all unequivocally worse w/ horns, by contrast)

Big Railroad Blues opener!, Here Comes Sunshine (solid), Loose Lucy, Black Peter, Playing in the Band (incomplete on SBD); Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (tight), Let It Grow!!! (a chaotic all-timer, horns and all!), Truckin' (sans horns, w/ garbled lyrics) into decon Phil-O-Stomp>Other One!!! (incl Elastic Jam and Mind Left Body Jam!), note keith's gorgeous contributions to Wharf Rat, One More Saturday Night (w/ horns, albeit mixed super low for a change, and phil WILDING)

stay for a unique Playing in the Band!!; opens with a too-fast Here Comes Sunshine followed by a hot BioDtL, Big River, Row Jimmy, China Cat>Rider!>Around n Around ; aforementioned Playin' is very major key (shades of The Wheel), Sing Me Back Home, Truckin' is party mode w/ audience participation and midsong banter plus a gorgeous transition jam into Eyes (w/ horns, and a solid one!), WRS w/ horns is a freaky treat

set one is unexpectedly hot, incl a fierce Big River!!! (minus some weird mix anomalies on Tennessee Jed and an incomplete Playin'); MaMU!!, Dark Star veers immediately into a funky uptempo Mind Left Body Jam and peaks with the first of the Fall '73 noise jams, (Weather Report Suite gets a bit lost, but it all snaps back with) Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad!!!>One More Saturday Night!

TLEO!!, Greatest Story and China Cat>Rider are hot n speedy!!; MaMU>Bertha opener!, tonite the jam sequence is a raucous redo of the Playin'>Mississippi>Big River>Playin' medley from 10/21 plus a short Truckin' into a lengthy instruments Nobody's Fault But Mine (then, instead of an Other One, we get back-to-back Wharf Rat>Stella Blue 🥱)

Big Railroad Blues opener!, Here Comes Sunshine is one of the greats (altho jerry seems to give up around minute 11...), China Cat>Rider! (BTW and Tennessee Jed are stinkers); whole 2nd set, comprised of a monster Truckin'>Jam>Other One>Jam>Big River?!>Other One>Jam?!>Eyes of the World>Other One?!>Wharf Rat sequence