Welcome to Today in Grateful Dead History and we bring you 11-12-71 from the San Antonio Civic Center. Pickings were slim for today as the Boys only played 3 known recorded shows on this date during their career. We selected this show as it takes us back to that fall ’71 Tour when Keith had just joined the Band. His playing is stellar and he’s high in the mix – we again get to understand why he made sense for the Band. They went from Piggy and TC to a full-on concert pianist playing a grand piano, and as Billy pointed out in his autobiography (we recommended it highly), Keith was the best and we agree. On to the music!

Set List

Set I

Truckin’, Loser, Beat It On Down The Line, Sugaree, Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed, El Paso, Brown Eyed Women, Mexicali Blues, Black Peter, One More Saturday Night

Set II

Ramble On Rose, Me & My Uncle, Cryptical Envelopement-> Drums-> The Other One-> Big Railroad Blues, Sugar Magnolia, Casey Jones, E: Johnny B. Goode

Tasting Notes

Set I begins with a Truckin’ that has a really nice groove and call and response play – not your average blues shuffle! Other first Set notables include the Marty Robbins El Paso which is always one of our favorites. Let’s talk about Set II and the Other One. We get many rhythmic Jams and Phil bombs before we go back into Cryptical, which gets a bit into Dark Star territory, before rolling right into Big Rail Road. This is the magic that made the $7 well worth the price of admission and a Sunshine Daydream that leaves us feeling like our team won the Superbowl!

Tell us what you think about the show in the comments below!

Enjoy The Grateful Dead Live at San Antonio Civic Auditorium on 11-12-1971