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.