77/5/8 Best show ever?

[JRL]

From the NY Times

//http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/music/12ratl.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

[laughingwillow]

Pretty good article, imo.

Thanks.

lw

[JRL]

I thought so too.

So what do you think of said show?

[laughingwillow]

That show was fooking electric, imo.

But I really like the Buffalo show that went down the day before or the next day, and actually listen to it more often than the Cornell gig.. I do appreciate that whole tour. Heck, the whole year of 1977 just smoked, imo.

However, I'll prolly dust off the cornell show after posting this comment. hehe

lw

[laughingwillow]

On the other hand, its tough to pick a best dead show or era that I didn't catch live. And out of all the Dead gigs I caught, there was only a couple that I would classify as clunkers. (Mostly due to technical problems.)

Looking back, many of my favorite experiences were the shows we caught with toostoned. Large doses of sacrament with circus joints passed around during certain peak musical movements left some lasting impressions, bruddah.  :cool2

However, I really couldn't pick a favorite show attended. There were way to many peak moments. The first five years were like a honeymoon. The next five, scary and hairy as shit. The second decade leveled out a bit, but there were negative residual effects from earlier shows. This last decade has been smooth like buddah, bruddah. Tons of intensity tempered with experience makes for grand lift-offs into the cosmos.

I miss toostoned.

lw

[laughingwillow]

...... but at the end of the day, I agree with the folks who contend that if one can recall a specific show in great detail, one wasn't really "there" when it went down.

lw

[Amomynous]

The next five, scary and hairy as shit.

Was that from the feeling of the time, the zeitgeist, or something else?

[JRL]

I only saw about 12 shows in the flesh, a couple in the 80's at Cal Expo were a bit underwhelming, but I was at the retirement show in 74. My show memories are all a bit smokey.

As far as recordings, I am partial to a couple shows from 1969(the Avalon and Fillmore East) I found in my mailbox sent from the midwest..

But I am gonna check some 77s.......

[laughingwillow]

LOL I could always make up a little care package, bro........

lw

[JRL]

Please do. I really like putting my shows through the lw filter.
So much music, so little time....

[JRL]

You be the judge:

//http://www.archive.org/details/gd1977-05-08.mtx.dan.35086.flac24

[laughingwillow]

So, I've been previewing a few shows as of late, including the Cornell gig in '77.

The big deal about that show, imo, is that the entire band is on fire and the two drummers are ACTUALLY PLAYING AS ONE.

lw

[JRL]

That was rare. Mickey Hart has killed plenty of my buzzes over the years. What's wrong with him? Now Billy Crossman, now there is a real drummer, the unsung hero of rock and roll. Long live Billy K!!!!!

[laughingwillow]

Hey, amom: I just saw your question copied below.

The next five, scary and hairy as shit.

Was that from the feeling of the time, the zeitgeist, or something else?

There is really no easy way to explain it. So you might be sorry you asked.....

A point was reached in 1988 or so when the dead scene/shows started getting real personal for me. The deeper I got into the scene the more I realized it was a bona fide separate society existing on the fringe of the mainstream. I remember ending up in a hallway at Kaiser Aud one particular psychedelic show and then realizing I was being herded in a specific direction by the spinning freaks. SO I fought the current and went back to an empty area around the corner. Soon I was in the middle of a spinning mass of humanity being "escorted" around the bend again. Much psychedelic hi-jinx ensued before I threw in the (early) towel for the evening. I split, vowing never to return. Even skipped the next night's show. However, two weeks later, I was back on the bus. I became alternately obsessed and terrified as the psychological pressure started to ramp up at shows for me. A psychedelic fear of the unknown, if you will. However, I was just as attracted to the cosmic lessons I'd gleaned from past shows as I was afraid of what lie just around the proverbial cosmic bend.  Oh, how my mind conjured e-vile and insidious motivations for the families collective acts and actions. Anyway, the wife and I happened to attend many of the same shows before we met. Imo, the first show we attended together in 1994 was the turning point with my inner psychedelic turmoil. After that, the biggest lessons I gleaned happened at shows with the wife and toostoned.  

lw

[Amomynous]

Wow....