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1st Set

2nd Set

In certain circles this was a big trading show but now it seems like an orphan. It's one the few remaining highpoint shows from the highpoint era with no SBD or official release - just AUDs. It occurred between the shows onand thebox. It's better than the former, though not some of the latter, and apparently the show is missing from the vault?It was a one-off at The Forum and, surprisingly, the only time they played it outside of the six shows in '89 (when it was called Great Western) - that half-century old venue that's still pumping along. I remember shrugging about this tape because during the soup-Nazi, taper-stranglehold era nobody had more than low-gens (and now we think it's weird there's no board!).This is right in the middle of the band's famed spring '77 highpoint and a couple weeks later was when Zeppelin did their famous Forum stand, from which the Listen to Eddie and Badgeholder boots came (the former is much better). Isn't it weird that Dead tapers were so much more skilled on average (yeah, I know there are a few reasons for this).I like the dude that yells "you never know what the next song's gonna be but whatever they do it's great". That's true of almost any concert yet we know exactly what he means semiotically. Another funny one is the dude: "looks like we're never gonna see a China Cat again", four songs in!"Funny though, I get a stronger smell of cigarettes than I do of dope". That's funny on a another level to me because, going to an Orange County show, I told my SoCal head host that I disliked all the smoke at SoCal shows and he was convinced nobody smoked behind the Orange curtain until we got inside. Those SoCal shows were full of cigarettes! I never did figure out why and that was true of Ventura, The Forum, Irvine, etc.: B: AOverall = 4 StarsAverage for Spring 77 - which is above average ( i.e . 2-1/2 Stars)Highlights:Tennessee Jed - turns bouncy jouncy ragtime-likePeggy-O - '77 has the strongest Fennarios, destroy the other era-osFriend of The DevilNew Minglewood Blues - '77 was so uptempoBrown Eyed Women - tighter than a _______in a ______The whole thing but in particular -Samson & Delilah - even Donna is greatEyes of the World - Bobby starts way uptempo, the pace slackened after this eraDrums - not usually as remarkable as 80s/90sChina DollNot Fade Away - hyper tempoPlaying in the BandSOURCES: This is a Bertrando>Menke FOB in the MOTB so qual is stellar AUD. Menke's sounds a little fuller than Rob's, and since he was patched from Rob one surmises it was just the difference in decks (plus it seems a little EQ/mastering differences).