Pacific Northwest '73-'74: The Complete Review

     If you've been paying any attention at all the the Dead world, you should know that one of the most anticipated box sets ever was just released.  Pacific Northwest '73-'74: The Complete Recordings is, well, exactly what it sounds like.  Six shows taken almost a year apart from the Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle (in that order each year).  I would try to give you some historical background, but after reading Nicholas Meriwether's official write-up I feel left with either blatant plagiarism or a half-assed recreation of his efforts.  So instead I urge you to find someone with a PDF of his write-up, because while wordy it's a very good read.  With some great pictures!

     Roy Henry Vickers designed the box, and I can easily say without hesitation or hyperbole that it is the best looking box set (that we own).  I'm a sucker for the geometrical designs of May '77 (the original one), but this box and the album art overall are far beyond.  He incorporated his culture's art into a box that perfectly encapsulates the music, and it's enhanced by his avoidance of traditional Dead iconography.  Sure there are some skeletons, skulls, and bears, but all in very different contexts than you would expect from the Dead.  Maybe it's just projection, but I'm already associating elements of each show's album art with the music contained within, and even if I'm crazy it still enhances the listening experience.  Especially combined with the quality of the sound, which is way better than the bootlegs of these shows that I've had for years; it's like listening to them for the first time!

     This is another case where doing a song-by-song review would be too long and honestly kind of boring, so I'll just list some highlights for each show below.  One of the interesting things about these shows is actually how similar they are.  Even the '74 shows have very similar setlists to the '73 shows, which isn't too unusual in and of itself as far as the typical Europe '72 material is concerned.  But with 5 China > Riders, 5 Great Stories and 5 Race Is On's (the races are on?) the shows really do feel to be cut of the same cloth, or at least echoes of the same vibe.  While the shows are so obviously interrelated, they also capture different facets of that vibe I mentioned, sometimes getting spacey, other times getting ferocious, and generally just getting plain weird.  So let's get weird!

• 1973-06-22  Vancouver
• This show is a great way to start off the box.  It's very high energy, and has a special crystalline feeling to it that could be attributed to any number of factors, some of which aren't exactly legal.
• One of the songs that was most hyped for this box was the Bird Song from this show, it's easy to see why.  While '72 versions have a lot of drive and melt to them, these rarer '73 versions have a lot more open space and ambience to them.
• This is a truly incredible Playing in the Band.  Pretty much any version from this '72-'73 is going to transport you somewhere far out, but instead of one blazing mess of weirdness, this Playin' instead is made up of several smaller thematic elements.  This is more like a '76 version in that respect, but still very '73 in its fluidity and agility.  There's even a little bit of Mind Left Body Jam in there from Phil, which as far as I remember was only paired with Playin' one other time (12/02/73).
• Here Comes Sunshine is the secret hero of this show, another great jam vehicle that they inexplicably dropped after this year.  A lot of the Spring versions of this song fall flat for me compared to the stately and pristine versions from the Fall.  While this one isn't exactly pristine, it does stand apart from Spring versions due to its energy.  It sounds almost like they're going to totally break the ending jam open like they did in Boston two months prior, but they eventually decide to close it out.
• The Black Peter here is exactly perfect for the era.  No big fireworks like in post-hiatus versions, just laid-back psychedelic fever music.
• Of course the big vehicle in this show is He's Gone > Truckin' > The Other One > Wharf Rat.  There's no jam after He's Gone, they just go right into Truckin'.  They jam on Truckin' for a bit after the verses, and then everyone gets out of the way for Phil and Billy (as this section is labeled on some tapes) to shred the fabric of the universe.  Even Billy drops out for a bit while Phil gets really metaphysical.  You expect him to slam into The Other One at several points, but instead he crafts a totally unique jam that Jerry and the others can't help but join in on.
• They mellow down and Keith starts getting grokky with his Rhodes, and eventually they twist over to the Other One, though they don't spend much time on the theme.  Once they finish the first verse they evoke the second one by coming across an empty space, and really exploring it.  I was struggling to find words for this, and landed on a foreground of silence with a background of noise.  There is a lot of deliberate and heavy silence, but at the same time behind that you can hear them making a wallpaper or a tapestry of feedback that never quite breaks the surface.
• 1973-06-24  Portland
• The problem with reviewing multiple shows is that you can't help but compare them and try to figure out which is "better."  As a result of that, I feel compelled to say that this show may be the weakest of the box, but considering that it's a show with an amazing Dark Star > Eyes and one of the best Box of Rains (boxes of rain?) of the year, "weakest" is not the word I would otherwise use to describe the show.
• I had been listening to a lot of later Dead recently, so these early Looks Like Rains and They Love Each Others were very welcome changes to me.  LLR used to be so soft and delicate before it became and Jerry and Bob rave-up.  And of course everyone loves a sprightly '73 TLEO!
• Donna is so great on this show.  Not only does she refrain from murdering Bob when he comes in at the wrong time in BIODTL, she also slays You Ain't Woman Enough.
• This Dark Star, as I mentioned above, is fantastic, and not quite typical of the era.  Sure it does have some of the hallmarks, like Phil's 6 jam/proto-solomon jam, but it also features some unusual elements, like a short drum break before the first verse.  It starts out the same way as any other from the era, teasing the theme but ultimately abandoning it until Phil takes the reigns.  Instead of a big, crashing feedback > bliss evolution post lyrics, it just spaces out into a nebulous void until they start Eyes up from nothing.
• There are some questionable chords at the beginning of Eyes that could be attributed to tuning, jazziness, fuck-ups, or just general weirdness.  After than that it's as straightforward as Eyes can be.  Phil hadn't yet started doing his solos in the outro jam, and this is a pretty tight and clean version, especially through the last few changes and 7 jam.
• Phil introduces Saturday Night with, "now since it's Sunday night," because he's a Prankster.
• 1973-06-26  Seattle
• This one might be my favorite of the '73 shows.  It's maybe not as tight as Vancouver, possibly due to technical issues throughout, but I think the playing is just a bit more inspired.
• I really like the opening pairing of Casey Jones > Greatest Story, a transition that as far as I can tell was never done before or after this, even though it works so well!
• This is probably the best China > Rider of the '73 shows, very smooth and confident transitions, and again totally inspired playing.
• The second set jam sequence of this show is what really ties it all together for me.  It's same basic set-piece as Vancouver, but this time He's Gone is a lot slinkier, and they jam it out instead of going right into Truckin'.  Bob name drops Seattle in Truckin' without missing a beat, which is honestly pretty impressive.
• They keep the post Truckin' jam short and Billy flies into some fast and primal drums, followed after not too long by Phil's intro to the Other One. They do a lot more with the theme in this one, really flexing their muscles.  Phil keeps dropping short bombs that Jerry and the others spin off of.  They start to drift off a bit, and instead of coming back into the vocals, they swing into a suddenly sweet Me & Bobby McGee.  Normally when they do these weird sandwiches, the "straight" song in the middle has unusual hints and shades of psychedelia, but this one is so crisp could have been plucked from a first set.
• Once they finish it though, Phil is eager to get back to being as weird as he possibly can.  They get to through the first verse, and then all bets are off.  The rest of the song is pure madness, and Phil is maddest of all, putting his speakers (and mine!) through wave after wave of clawing feedback.  This should come with a warning about operating heavy machinery while listening because...damn.  Phil is working with some very powerful forces here.
• Instead of doing a ballad, or even doing the second verse of the song, Bobby slides into Sugar Magnolia.  Maybe he thought the local authorities would be hot on their tails after that Other One, so it would be best to skedaddle before they could fully collect their brains off the floor.
• 1974-05-17  Vancouver
• Jumping forward almost a year, the band is arguably the best it ever was.  All the new material from '73 had been fully assimilated or abandoned, and the new songs were starting strong out of the gates.  The Wall of Sound had grown into its final form, this being its fourth show fully assembled, and the band was already pretty adept at utilizing it.  While listening to a soundboard of the Wall kind of misses the point as far as audio clarity in the real world is concerned, but you can still hear how cleanly and separately the different instruments were amplified.  Jerry's Wolf guitar especially sounds huge and expansive here, every note clearly heard.
• While it's debatable whether or not this was the best year for the band, it's a hard fact that it was Keith's best year.  Not only was his piano amplified the best it ever would be, this was the year Keith became a master of the Rhodes.  He has some great Rhodes playing in '73, and even some cool electric piano (maybe it's a Rhodes?  I'm not a gear head) in Fall of '72.  But by '74 Keith could play that sucker like no one else.  He could be aggressive, spooky, atmospheric, or all at once, playing it more like an organ (and better than he played the organ) than anything else.
• This show features a relatively rare '74 Dire Wolf.  They playing is good but it is way too slow for me.
• Playing in the Band is as big and deep as you would expect for '74, and there's maybe a hint of them thinking, "I wonder how long we could do this for..." before they do decide to wind it up.  Phil really demonstrated just how rumbly he could get the Wall to be.
• Truckin' here features one of Bobby's worst Truckin' scores as far as lyrics go.  The whole first verse goes right out the window, and he's late for the second verse, but besides some musical ribbing the rest of the band doesn't miss a beat.  They slide smoothly into Nobody's Fault, with Jerry singing instead of just soloing over the lyrics section.  They jam out of it on the theme for a bit before getting real weird and spooky.  You can hear them figuring out where to head from here as they melt down, until Jerry kicks them into Eyes.
• This Eyes has a rocking feel, not as in rock and roll but more like a boat rocks on the water.  It has a certain sway and pulse to it as it unfolds.  The song really opened up from '73 to '74: the solos between verses got stretched out, and the members of the band all know it so well that they can play around the beat instead of just doing the main riff while Jerry solos.  The outro jam on this one is phenomenal, Jerry and Phil totally dominating the soundscape while still listening and reacting to everything else the band was playing.
• 1974-05-19  Portland
• This is the show that they're releasing on its own from the box set, like 5/8/77 & 3/20/90 from previous boxes, and in some ways it's easy to see why, and in others it's a little puzzling.  There are Wall Problems for a good chunk of the concert, including totally obscured vocals from Sugaree to El Paso.  Bobby makes a statement about them difficulties, but those same difficulties make it hard to hear what he's actually saying.  That said, the playing in this show is maybe the best all around of the box, and to put it delicately, the second set kicks a lot of ass.
• Half Step was almost two years old at this point, and is already showing signs of the grandness that it would have post-hiatus.
• Loose Lucy & Money Money kind of go hand in hand for me, two very syncopated and free songs that take advantage of how tight the band was, while also inviting them to loosen up a little.  Money Money sometimes even breaks into 7/4 time, which is part of what makes it such an interesting song to me.  Sure the lyrics aren't ideal, but the music is so angular and exciting, it's a shame they didn't keep it around, maybe tweaked the verses.  To me it's not glorifying misogyny any more than Me & My Uncle or Jack Straw glorify murder, it's just supposed to paint a picture of that character, including how evil they are.  But maybe I'm just justifying it so I can listen to Phil's bass line during the bridge...
• '74 was the best year for China > Riders, and this one has got to be the best of the box.  It just feels so much more complete and full than the '73 versions.  It's very well suited to the bigger sound they got out of the Wall.
• Throughout the marketing of this box, Lemieux kept coming back to the Truckin' sequence from this show, and I can say with confidence that it was not overhyped.  Truckin' started getting jammed out in '72 right before Europe, but in '74 it was repurposed to be a springboard for any kind of musical idea, not just The Other One (or Eyes or Dark Star occasionally).  They usually set it up with a thematic jam like Mind Left Body (which does appear here for a bit) or Spanish Jam, but other times it would go into totally new territory; this is one of those times.  They do touch on MLB, but then they go into something far more hard rocking than I was expecting.  Instead of cavernous echoing feedback this is a driven, bursting-with-life-and-spirit, masterpiece of rock and roll.
• It goes into Not Fade Away, but that almost Primal energy is still present throughout.  Instead of the normal flowing transition into GDTRFB they break the jam down a bit with a little call and response between Jerry and Keith, and then shift naturally into it.  Just exactly perfect.
• 1974-05-21  Seattle
• These '74 shows are a great presentation of Billy's Jazz Drummer Phase.  In the Grateful Dead Movie, he described his drumming as basically dancing, and it's easy to hear that.  He's not holding down the beat so much as flitting around it, trusting that the rest of the band can keep time as well as he can (and they do!).  He plays so free and syncopated in ways totally different from any other year, and it really does sound like he's trying to be a jazz drummer.  Later in the year he got a little too frantic (*sniffsniff*) and the music got a little sloppier, but here in May it totally works.
• This show is obviously known for having the longest Playing in the Band, but that means the rest of the setlist is often overlooked.  You can tell that the band is on tonight right from the start, and call me crazy but I think it's Keith who thanks the audience after Me & My Uncle.  It doesn't sound like anyone else, except maybe Billy, but I think it's Keith.
• Every one of Jerry's solos feels like it's ready to totally burst free of all restraints, like every song should be 47 minutes long tonight.
• There's a lot of great slide work from Jerry on Row Jimmy and Weather Report Suite.  I can't imagine what that must have sounded like in person.  Wolf already so big and and present on the Wall, and then you add that slide to it?  Fughettaboutit.
• We may never know exactly why the Dead played 47 minutes of Playin' this night.  Did they decide beforehand that they were going to play it as long as possible?  Did they just get lost in the powers of the Wall and had no idea how long they were playing?  Did anyone in the band get bored halfway through but had to wait for the rest of the band to circle back to the escape line?  Whatever the case, this PITB is heavy duty stuff.  Different themes come and go as Jerry and Phil dive in and out of tangles of feedback.  It's hard to say much more about it because it's just so dense and filled with ideas, all you can do is listen to it over and over and catch something new each time.
• The setlist "normalizes" a little bit after Playin' winds up, but they release they still had some weirdness left in them and start up a quick and fuzzy Eyes.  It's really a very straightforward Eyes for '74, in that it's fantastic and exciting, but it isn't 20 minutes long.  Not that you can complain about the length of a song after that Playin'!  They settle down into a very nice Wharf Rat, probably my favorite of the box.

     All in all, as good as the box looks, it sounds even better.  It ties six different shows together from the same locations just a year apart, providing not just snapshots of the different years but a way to track the Dead's growth within that year.  Between the changes that happened Summer and Fall shows of '73, the recording of Wake of the Flood, the epic run at Winterland in February '74, the creation of the Wall, and the projects the band members had done on their own, the difference, they were in a lot of ways a changed band by the '74 tours.  But these Northwest shows have a shared energy that bridges the time between them, producing some of the best music the Dead have released.

Another 30 Trips Around the Sun

     Ever since the 30 Trips Around the Sun box set came out in 2015, I've been tempted to write a show-by-show review of it.  Every time I've gone to start it though, I realize just how much work that would be, and now that it's 2018 it seems kind of irrelevant.  About a month ago, though, I had a brilliant idea for something that I thought would be easier: making my own version of the box set!  Everyone had criticisms and other options for the shows that Dave Lemieux chose, and while I think he mostly made the right choices, I figured it would be fun to take my own stab at it.  And it was definitely fun, I'm very happy with the choices I made, it was also a lot more involved than I thought it would be.

     Before we get to the shows (or skip ahead, I'm not your boss), I want to outline some of the considerations I was making that made it so much harder than I was expecting.  My first consideration was to try to put myself into Dave's shoes.  He of course has the Dead Vault to work with, which as you probably know is far from complete.  Apart from shows that are just plain missing, there are various collections of master tapes from Betty Boards to random stragglers that haven't made their way back home yet.  There is enough evidence online to compile a fairly comprehensive list of what Betty Boards exist, which ones have been returned, and therefore which ones are still missing, but I was already in over my head and will let someone else do that calculus.  What I tried to do instead was go off my own personal collection (which is rather extensive if I do say so myself) and kind of call that my Vault.  When it came to years like '86, '92, and '95 that I'm not too familiar with I had to reach out for some help online and utilize the archive here and there, but I'm fairly sure that all the masters from 86 onward are in the Vault...right?

     Besides the obvious considerations of the quality of performance and recording (in that order), I wanted to make sure each show was a fair representation of the year as a whole.  Some years are more dynamic than others in terms of playing style evolving over time ('69 going from Primal Dead to Cowboy Dead for example), so I wanted to pick shows that represented the varying styles of that year.  So for '86, I didn't go with any of the great shows from December, because Jerry and the rest of the band really turned a corner after the coma, and the same is true of '92.  I also wanted to keep the shows from being too similar to the ones that Dave chose, because otherwise what's the point of going through all of this?  One of the trickiest things was balancing the shows so that two adjacent years wouldn't be too similar, while also getting an even showing of the whole catalog of songs across the 30 trips.  I'm realizing now that too many shows are from Berkeley, and I have maybe one too many Scarlet > Fires, but I'm not going back now.  I do think that overall this is a pretty damn good take at a 30 Trips Around the Sun though, and I hope you agree.

     Reviewing each of these shows in any kind of depth might kill me, so I'm just going to post the dates with links to the recordings on the archive, and some relevant notes for each one.  Some of the links I post aren't to the exact recordings I have.  You search for the shows here in my listening log, which is slightly hyperbolic but at least gives an indication of what shows and songs I really liked, and the recording quality on a scale of 1-10, factoring in Soundboard vs Matrix.  Leave your own comments down below on what shows you agree or disagree with.  I tried pretty hard to make sure none of these shows had been released (except for a few songs here and there), but if you know that any of these have been officially released please do tell me; I'll pick another one and only cry a little bit.

• 1966-03-25  Trouper's Hall, Los Angeles, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1966-03-25.139750.sbd.miller.clugston.flac1648
•  This first year of the box gave me more grief than probably any other year.  It's far from the best or most iconic year they've played, but there is a ton of material released from it either in whole or in large portions, which made finding the right show harder than I had anticipated.  I owe a lot to the incredible work done here to figure out the actual dates of shows.
• That said, I'm still very happy with this show, especially because of the standalone jam that really signifies where the band would head in the next 30 years.
• 1967-03-18  Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd67-03-18.sbd.fink.10282.sbeok.shnf
• While a better year than '66 by far, there are a lot fewer full recordings available, so my choices again were limited.  This was still an easy choice though, because this show is great, and is a snapshot of Baby Dead right before they got Primal.  The sleeper performance here is the jam in The Same Thing.  It comes out of nowhere and is totally lysergic.
• 1968-10-12  Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1968-10-12.139745.sbd.miller.Glassberg.flac1644
• Again, thanks to the hard work of Lost Live Dead, Dead Essays, and the comment sections of the Archive, I was able to make sure this was the right date and the full show, which has circulated as 10-13 for a long time.
• Pure Primal Dead, but no Pigpen sadly, which almost made me skip over it.  But this has always been one of the best performances of arguably their weirdest year, and the jam after New Potato is not to be missed.
• 1969-04-21  The Ark, Boston, MA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1969-04-21.sbd.miller.88465.sbeok.flac16
• This one came to mind right away when I thought of a good '69 show.  It captures the Live/Dead vibe from a couple of months earlier, but also has some hints as to where the band would be headed next.
• Not really one particular standout to point to, just listen to the whole damn thing!
• 1970-06-06  Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1970-06-06.sbd.miller.86951.sbeok.flac16
• The version I have of this doesn't have the acoustic set from the beginning of the show, so I think in this case we would say that set is missing from "The Vault," and just put out the electric set.  Because it's incredible!
• Ok, the Dew is kind of sloppy, but the rest of the show is as close to a perfect '70 show as you can get.  It doesn't have many of their new songs with the exception of an early Attics of My Life.  It also features a rare New Orleans in the middle of Good Lovin'.
• You Lovelight naysayers might not love this one, but I think a 24 min Lovelight that goes into NFA and then back into 10 more minutes of Lovelight is a great excuse to boogie down!
• 1971-08-15  Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-15.sbd.gustin.131.sbeok.shnf
• This and the next show are two more that immediately sprang to mind when I came up with this project, and if you listen to nothing else from this list listen to these.
• Seriously, I stand by this one as the best show of '71.  It's got Super Phil leading the band, and they are willing to follow him even unto the darkest regions of The Other One.
• 1972-09-15  Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1972-09-15.133998.sbd.miller.flac16 
• This is in my Top 5 Shows Ever category, a perfect example of the year as a whole, and an even more perfect glimpse of that wonderful Summer/Fall '72 energy.  Maybe not as good as Veneta for some, but for me it's got everything Veneta has but with The Other One to add a little more edge to it.  The Other One goes into a jam in 11/4 for a while too, just as an extra tidbit.
• 1973-10-30  Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, MO
• https://archive.org/details/gd1973-10-30.sbd.miller.32367.sbeok.flac16
• This year was kind of hard to choose from because A) So much has already been released, and B) everything is so good!  I went with this one because it's not only a fantastic show, but it's arguably the most '73 a show can be: it has every song from Wake of the Flood except for Let Me Sing Your Blues Away.
• All of the jams in this show embody the Fall '73 duality of bright sunny bliss jams, and dark brooding feedback.
• 1974-07-25  International Amphitheater, Chicago, IL
• https://archive.org/details/gd74-07-25.sbd.fink.1072.sbeok.shnf
• After two Other One shows in a row, I figured it was only fair to do two Dark Star shows in a row, even if this Dark Star doesn't have any verses in it.
• July of '74 is the best month of that year for me.  The band had fully grown into the Wall of Sound, but hadn't yet dissolved into the bickering and tensions that ultimately led to the hiatus later in the year.  Keith especially shines on every show that month, and he really gets a chance to flex his muscles in Weather Report Suite and Dark Star.
• 1975-06-17  Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1975-06-17.sbd.GEMS.96125.flac16
• My hand was kind of forced on this one, as every other show from this year has been released.  I was planning on doing the totally gonzo 3-23 show from Kezar, but that was apparently released as a bonus disc on some other release.
• That being said, this show really is good.  There are no lyrics to Help on the Way or Blues for Allah yet, so it's mostly just another giant jam fest, which is awesome.
• 1976-09-27  Community War Memorial Auditorium, Rochester, NY
• https://archive.org/details/gd1976-09-27.sbd.miller.87664.sbeok.flac16 
• You've probably heard this show before, and you haven't you're missing out.  From the amazing Fall '76 tour, this show falls right between the two that make up Dick's Picks 20, and I've always wondered why it wasn't released on there instead of the Landover show from the 25th.  This must be in the real Vault, because the Other One was released as part of 30 Days of Dead in 2011.
• Besides the second set sandwich that really is as good as it looks on paper, this show also features Supplication without any verses.  While I love the words to Supplication, this means it got even jammier, which I potentially love more!
• 1977-10-02  Paramount Theater, Portland, OR
• https://archive.org/details/gd1977-10-02.123102.sbd.miller.flac16
• This one was kind of frustrating, because the Road Trips series of releases really did a number on October '77. It's all over the place with what shows it picked from, but this one is allegedly totally unreleased.  Which is crazy!
• It opens with the first Casey Jones since the hiatus, and while Jerry totally whiffs the verse after the solo, this leads to the longest ever Casey Jones because they just keep going through the solo over and over until Jerry feels confident enough about the lyrics.
• This second set is also, if I do say so myself, the perfect representation of Fall '77.
• 1978-05-05  Thompson Arena, Hanover, NH
• https://archive.org/details/gd1978-05-05.sbd.miller.112180.flac16
• If I had to write up a '78 setlist, this is what I would come up with.  Which isn't to say that this is just an average show for the era, because on the Dead's only trip to New Hampshire they played their asses off.
• Dave Lemieux has described (in not so many (or many more) words) an era of the band that lasted from May of '77 to July of '78, and May of '78 is a special little epoch within that era.  The band was at perhaps its peak level of confidence and power, but also feeling very loose and funky.  This leads to a lot of fun and inspired playing, including maybe my favorite Lazy Lightning > Supplication.
• 1979-11-02  Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
• https://archive.org/details/gd1979-11-02.142393.sbd.miller.flac1648
• Fall of '79 is when Brent really cemented his role in the band.  And while I generally agree with the sentiment that the 80's started in '79, there's still a bit of that 70's energy, especially from Phil, who kind of faded into the background in the next two years.
• '79 is also another good year for unexpected and unique jams, like the one at the end of Saint of Circumstance.
• 1980-08-30  Compton Terrace Amphitheatre, Tempe, AZ
• https://archive.org/details/gd1980-08-30.sbd.miller.110152.flac16/gd80-08-30d1t01.flac
• Summer of '80 is one of my most recent discoveries, and it's so incredible.  From May-early September the band was on a hot streak.  Their new material was all maturing very nicely, and they were getting a lot more adventurous with their setlists.  This particular setlist is pretty standard, but the playing is all top notch.  Even the early CC Rider is a thrill!
• 1981-08-28  Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1981-08-28.sbd.miller.113680.flac16
• '81 surprisingly gave me a lot of grief.  There are some good shows, but I was having a hard time finding ones that were good throughout.  A lot of the obvious choices fell flat in different parts of the shows, and they just left me feeling meh.  But then, like a bolt of lightning through my skull, this show came to mind!
• Honestly this setlist seems like it was written for me.  It's missing The Other One, and I could probably do without Rooster, but otherwise everything is right up my alley.
• Not to miss are the extended jams out of Wheel and Never Trust a Woman, and of course I'm just an absolute sucker for Spanish Jam, especially when it sounds like this.
• 1982-04-14  Glens Falls Civic Center, Glens Falls, NY
• https://archive.org/details/gd82-04-14.sbd.braverman.7629.sbeok.shnf
• Ok, I've gone this far without saying it, but I think my pick here is better than the official one.  I like my '74 pick better, but that's just taste, both shows are definitely great.  But the official '82 show has an incredible setlist, and while there are definitely some great songs, for me it really just showcases how sloppy they could be.  By the end of the show it's all just misplaced bombs and bloat, and the Dew only kind of makes it better.
• This show though, is hot!  There are a lot of good Playin' sandwiches that year, and this one really does it for me.  And who can say no to Deep Elem?
• 1983-09-11  Santa Fe Downs, Santa Fe, NM
• https://archive.org/details/gd83-09-11.sbd.dankseed.4995.sbeok.shnf
• We all have a certain beret-wearing ferret to thank for reminding me of this show when the latest Dave's Picks was released.  It's an undeniably excellent show from another epoch of excellence in the band's history.
• It's also another setlist that's just designed to catch my eye.  Maybe the best Help>Slip!>Frank of the mid 80's revival, a second set Let it Grow that really grows, and of course a Dew to top it off.  Do not skip this show if you have not heard it before.
• 1984-10-30  Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd84-10-30.mixed.ladner.22256.sbeok.shnf
• Ok, I guess Fall is just a great season to see Dead shows in!
• Scarlet > Fire was always a great pairing, but something about mid-80's versions really makes them stand out to me.  Those melting Spring '77 ones will always be on their own pedestal, but I think that 83' and 84' have so much more power.  And Brent's ability to seamlessly switch from one keyboard to another really makes him a much more adaptable player in this song than Keith ever was.
• 1985-09-03  Starlight Theater, Kansas City, MO
• https://archive.org/details/gd1985-09-03.123078.sbd.miller.flac16
• Ok, this one is pretty similar to the official one, but this year and the next are not in my wheel house.  '85 was a wildly variable year, with setlists and song selections never seen again, and when they were on, they were on.
• The reason this one is so similar to Dave's is because I think we were both trying to capture the best of the variety of that year.  Bringing Cryptical back was a huge move, and Comes a Time was played as frequently as it should have been!
• It's also cool to see bits of Big Dead from that late 80's start to peak through the cracks, most visible in Drums > Space.
• 1986-04-22  Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1986-04-22.sbd-pcm.miller.34768.flac16
• I was at a total loss for this year, but thanks to the suggestion of a good friend on the internet I added this baby to my collection.  And at the end of the day I like this one better than the official one.
• This show seriously blew me away, Jerry is so present and active, and the rest of the band (except maybe Brent...) seems almost up to their tight '87 glory.  This has a nice mix of that tightness but also some gratuitous solos and explorations by Jerry.
• 1987-09-08  Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI
• https://archive.org/details/gd1987-09-08.sbd.miller.106715.flac16 
• I figure one of the most '87 things you can do is put Hell in a Bucket in the place of either Scarlet or Fire, and I think this is a show where it actually worked pretty well.
• The energy in this show is incredible, and while I typically don't like post-coma Other Ones, this one really cooks.
• 1988-07-15  Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1988-07-15.141964.UltraMatrix.sbd.cm.miller.flac1644
• I figure after breaking Scarlet > Fire apart the previous year, I'd better put in a good one to make up for, and if this one doesn't do it for you, I don't know what to say.
• Gimme Some Lovin' > Morning Dew is a surprisingly good pairing, both songs are cathartic in their own ways, and Jerry's lick going into Dew is so simple but glorious.  And then he proceeds to just tear it up.
• 1989-08-18  Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1989-08-18.sbd.walker-scotton.miller.83774.sbeok.flac16 
• '89 is best known for its Fall shows, but the Summer run features some truly mind bending shows, this one included.
• I also picked this show because aside from the quality of performance, it also contains some songs I wanted to make sure were fairly represented, like Crazy Fingers and Iko.
• Victim or the Crime > Bird Song is my kind of pairing too!
• 1990-06-15  Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1990-06-15.sbd.miller.106144.flac16
• In the official release Dave went with the second half of '90, when Bruce and Vince were in the band.  While I definitely have my fair share of Brent in here, I really wanted one last show with him.  And this one's a doozey!
• One of the best latter-day Help>Slip!>Franks, a slinky Just a Little Light (maybe my favorite Brent song), and a weird but fun MIDI jam from Man Smart to He's Gone.
• Even the Around & Around on this is excellent, and that's a song I'm not even sure if I hear when it plays anymore.
• 1991-06-17  Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ
• https://archive.org/details/gd1991-06-17.137545.sbd.miller.flac24
• This is probably the most '91 show there is, making it an easy choice.  From opening with Eyes to the bits of Dark Star sprinkled throughout the concert, this must have been one hell of a trip for anyone who was there.
• Seriously, they basically play an entire Dark Star in between and in the middle of all the other songs this show.  Bruce seems to be the main instigator, essentially just playing Dark Star on accordion for all of Masterpiece, but Jerry and Bob are quick to pick up on it and tease it out.
• 1992-03-05  Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA
• https://archive.org/details/gd1992-03-05.140299.sbd.cm.miller.flac1644
• This was another year that I struggled with, having mostly avoided anything before December when Jerry made his second (and final) recovery.  I found this one through the help of Deadbase 50 and suggestions from Twitter, and was very pleasantly surprised.
• An early showcase for some of their newer songs like Way to Go Home and So Many Roads, while certainly not one of the Dead's best shows, it is another good portrait of the year it comes from.  The Eyes > Way to Go > Estimated sequence is a lot of fun to me, but I've always had a soft spot for that Vince song.
• 1993-03-17  Capital Centre, Landover, MD
• https://archive.org/details/gd1993-03-17.dsbd.miller.79050.sbeok.flac16 
• I've really come around to '93 recently.  Jerry was at his healthiest for the 90's, Vince had found his niche in the band, and their new songs were being combined more confidently with their classics.
• While Playin', Dark Star, and The Other One are all way too short, the jams that connect them to the rest of the set really pay off.
• Liberty and Days Between are also two of the very best songs from the 90's, so I was happy to have such a tight show that also had great versions of them.
• 1994-10-14  Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• https://archive.org/details/gd1994-10-14.sbd.miller.79167.sbeok.flac16 
• This is a show I stumbled upon a couple years ago that just blew me away.  Fall of '94 is widely known as the last great peak for the band, and for good reason.
• You can still hear Jerry's voice failing and feel the darkness creeping in around the edges, but the playing is totally electrified.  The Fire on the Mountain alone is longer than some Scarlet > Fires, and filled with so many different approaches to the song from Jerry.  Whether he's playing with filters and octave splitters or just plain shredding, you can't deny that he was playing for keeps this night.
• What really puts this show over the top for me is the second set Attics.  Please, stop whatever you're listening to and put this on.  While it's not "exactly perfect," the harmonies and soul bring a tear to my eye every time.  Jerry is singing like he's in a gospel bluegrass band and it's so damn good.
• 1995-03-23  Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC
• https://archive.org/details/gd1995-03-23.142397.dsbd.miller.flac1644 
• I was at a total loss for this year, but once again Deadbase 50 came to the rescue.  Bruce shows up in the second set, and you can hear his presence lift Jerry's spirits.
• So the playing was better than expected, but '95 is just a rough ride if you love Jerry.  Again I think my pick for this year is better than Dave's, but I think it's just because of Bruce's effect on Jerry.  The playing is better than the rest of the year, but his voice just makes me want to cry.

     Well there it is!  Ending on '95 is maybe not the happiest way to end this post, but that's just how it happened.  Like I said above, I'm very curious to hear what you think of these pics.  Is there an even better '92 show I should have gone with?  Is one of these actually mislabeled and from another date?  Or just tell me I did it perfectly and get me a job at Dead.net!  This is coming out right as the newest Box Set is being delivered across the country, so expect to hear some more analysis from me very soon.