favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite



You found it. So glad you made it. A favorite show, this was also my first copy of a board patch. I was lucky to get a tape off the master [from a total tweaker who made you part of his OCD before you could leave his house]. Later, when I invested in an early burner - when we called them WORM drives - and processing software, this was the show I chose to digitize and burn for people. Traders weren't used to getting a show on CD (especially as a bonus for reliable dubbers) and were jazzed. It was also something new when a couple people much later offered it to me in the same quality. We were so used to generational degradation.



Much of what was an apex in person translates to tape. The night was just so exciting, and I think this was partly a combination of the buzzing, now larger scene outside, and the fact that so many of us were ticketed for Telluride, along with the band having a night where it all fell together. Even if other '87s hold up with higher profile (9/18, 4/11), this had an immeasurable experiential component that perhaps still resonates: the entire Dead package with all its angles, spirals, swirls and contours; its tours of this galaxy and that nebula. A single show was sad when it was over, but when you were doing a run or a tour, and a show was this good, and you knew there was more coming, all you had to do was recharge and maybe drive...



First Set. Hellina for a slick opener. It was tightened like an expansion bolt for this tour. Almost had to be: the vid shoot was coming at the end of the tour (hoping for a one-two at MTV that didn't pan). Check Brent too. After a fine Sugaree, Brent does a Yankee Doodle tuning and then launches his rarity Never Trust a Woman. Often labeled "Gonna See Some Good Times" on trades, the title that Brent published is "Goin' to the Country" (earlier calling it Good Time Blues). Although it seems like someone should have labeled it "Pants Too Tight". One of the better versions - Brent is having a great set. That ingredient continues in Cumberland, where the song is pushed by a Phil/Brent axis. After a perfunctory Mexicali there's a We Want Phil chant that comes and goes all the way into the next night. Friend of the Devil is good (I lit out one week), but My Brother Esau is drummer soup, with Jer a bit ahead/behind. But damn does he make up for it with this resplendent Bird Song. Music Never Stopped is plenty to leave 'em happy for the break [which, for whatever conjunction of reasons was one of the weirdest, with mini-groups of goings-on over on the southern outer steps].



Second Set. The crowd was just massively elevated, unlike I had seen before, giving the weirdest of meltdown walk-arounds an anxious edge, all made good again when strains of an oncoming China Cat were strung overhead on self-unwinding tinsel. When it launched, the whole place just swirled with sheer intense happiness erupting from/re-absorbing into 9000 souls, and volleyed again. The Rider is legerdemain. Maybe I can't distance myself, but something is there if it made me listen to it a hundred times hence. I have never gotten over how Jer plays in this. I once spent months learning Jer's leads - the weird, non-intuitive but intricate fret sequences. I wanted to live inside them, and then analyze them while away on vacation. I could write a review about each of the 11mins of China>Rider. That said, Bobby is incredible too, and when he sang Sun Gonna Shine My Backdoor he made thousands lose their shit. That only built everyone up to the top rung of the ladder, so that Jer's Cool Colorado Rain made us take that last step and float. The Phil bombs at Northbound Train made me cry because they were so beautiful, and because the frequency wave rolled through our chests in the 11th row, up the amphitheater, and are even now reaching the center of the Milky Way. Joyful tears streaked more faces than mine. For the final solo, Jer pauses at the start and then spits the notes forcefully, emphatically, sending mortar shots skyward to engender Chinese blooms. Grounding everybody with no less excitement is the ace Dewiminna. Mickey gets complex and Bobby adds wonderful rhythm fillips. Brent is great again, and check Jer starting @5:04. Of the 20 or so times I saw Terrapin, this was the most powerful - and the loudest. The lighting was different too, and though that doesn't stick to the tape, the quality does. After a punchy Terrapin, Drums is fittingly intense. How else could it be? Riveted heads; no bathroom break. Space is likewise, the band's excitement as palpable as a twenty foot beach ball hovering over the 5th row. Jer starts riffing The Other One pretty early. The eventual payoff is brilliance: one of the year's best TOOs. Mr. Fantasy sparkles with energy that carries over into Wharf Rat, making it uptempo and unbogged. Check how active Mickey is for this set. Same for the Lovelight; relatively brief but pepped. I was stoked when we got a Quinn the Eskimo encore instead of a Brokedown (or U.S Blues or Black Muddy), even if it wasn't as good as Ventura in June. This show rewards repeat listening, but has become more obscure than it once was; maybe now a hidden gem.



1st Set : B-

2nd Set : A

Overall = 4½ stars



Highlights:

Hell in a Bucket - well wound

Bird Song - of a pair with 7/26

China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider - incomparable versions

Man Smart (Woman Smarter) - each player adds

Terrapin Station - powerful

Drums>Space - fittingly intense

The Other One - fruition of amazing sequence



SOURCES: The walker-scotton_miller_81677 is the clearest. However the pitch is fast needing -1% correction ; except the encore, which needs -2% . Given that my copy of the first set is slightly better, there must be another source out there. The gastwirt_gems_77164 is good for hearing the show with different freqs. The miller_95684 is a bit boomy.

- February 4, 2020Fons et origo