favorite favorite favorite favorite

08-01-73 Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, N.J. (Wed)1: Promised, Sugaree, Race Is On, You Ain't Woman Enough, Bird Song, Mexicali, TLEO, Jack Straw, Stella Blue, Big River, Casey Jones2: Around, Half Step, Me & My Uncle, Row Jimmy, Dark Star> El Paso> Eyes> Morning Dew, Sugar Magnolia> GDTRFB> Saturday NightJerry Garcia's 31st birthday - also: The BandPromised is ready to roll right out of the box.Sugaree has a decent energy to it, but it takes Keith's nudging. By the end of the song I'm certain he was trying to break his piano.Race is On is always a fun one for Bobby to break out, not super common, but it had longevity.Woman Enough, seriously?Bird Song comes to save me from plummetting off my building. It's peaks and valleys, in a nice way. The lyrics in particular. There are some sound issues, it seems, during this one, instrument balance. I may have to review it on other sources to see how it is. This is the SIRMick SBD.Mexicali has no SQ issues, so perhaps that BSong was just played that way? No point in speculating. Anyhow, this is a fine Mexicali, nice energy and teamwork.TLEO has a good tempo, but doesn't really do much for me.Jack Straw is getting more developed at this point. Still starting out folkier than I prefer. The energy picks up and becomes one of my favorite versions from this era.Stella Blue was a 1st setter in this period. Interesting placement. Most years it was firmly second set after something major. It was a nice version.Big River is rocking. You'd expect nothing less, with Keith and Jerry going off while Billy pushes out a major beat. Holy cow the jam before the final verse will blow your ears off, and then the final jam before the last chorus picks up right there too! Great Big River, A+!Casey Jones steams up and gets ready for a big ride after a big Big River. Great crashdown at the end.Aroundx2 comes rockin out to start the 2nd. Energy way up already from 1st set, which just never quite turned the corner. Whatever occurred between sets, it worked! With every chord change in the jam section, energy gets up yet another tick. Berry would be proud.1/2 Step is a done quite well after that hypercharged Around and Around. Jerry does some unique notes in his soloing here and there that were a nice change/risk taking opportunity. Not my favorite version but it kept things going nicely.MAMU comes in with less than I'd like... but it gains speed quickly. Jerry does some great work here, behind the lyrics, emphasizing Bob's singing perfectly. Good version in the end but with slightly less umph than it is capable of giving.Row Jimmy is the final song before the meat. Sloppy start. Compared to others of its day, it never really gets to where I like it. Stays too laid back.For the next sequence, I switched to the David Gans source...Dark Star>El Paso>Eyes>Dew defines the term "meat sequence". I've heard it before, so I knew going in this was where they put it altogether. Dark Star begins in its typical slow, soft intro of the day, with heavy cymbals raining as Jerry digs more and more into it. By 3 minutes in we start gathering more and more speed and are in a rather nice tempo. Billy has sprouted his extra limbs, keeping steady presence on the cymbal while hitting the other drums, particularly the snare, with great timing. The tempo, a driven pace, like a 72 PITB with a Dark Star theme. Around 12 minutes in we seem to be approaching the first verse. After the verse, we head into what seems to me almost like an Apocalypse Now inspired theme. Soft, weird drums, with soft, weird guitar. It gathers steam slowly, I am going to call it the Apocalypse Now Dark Star. Quite dark and enjoyable... and around 19 minutes we head into the early phases of an MLB Jam. They hadn't done an official one yet, at this point, the first being registered officially as 10/19/73 according to some, but it is listed in 9/21/72. They flirted with it for a second... a brief one. Then we get spacey for a brief moment in time, and have a quick Tiger that explodes into El Paso.I love when El Paso finds its way out of Dark Star, not unheard of, but not common at all! They appeared in a show together 63 times according to Deadbase.com . The first "into", was 11/15/71, in TX, appropriately. Also 8/21 & 27/72, This is a great version of El Paso, and the last of 4 times it ever happened.Eyes comes out of it full speed ahead, nice intro, great tempo. You can't go wrong. I won't blither on about it, it's one for the ages.Eyes crumbles and they head straight into Dew, a Jerry two-fer. Serious power in this Dew, doing what a Dew is supposed to do. I have heard it brought up when people talk about best ever Dews. The middle jam could seem like the double, it is so intense. They were solidly into X factor at this point! The finale is powerful, and crashes down nicely. I don't know if I can say best ever Dew, but may be best of this period (72-retirement).Sugar Mag>GDTRFB>OMSN is operating with a full head of steam. After that Gans source, there is a noticeable, but acceptable, downgrade in quality. Still a very good source from SIRMick. Sugar of course has energy, and tons of Bobby channeling Donna and vice versa in SSDD. GDTRFB is fun, and we are in the home stretch with a secured fine 2nd set. OMSN ends the show, no encore.Overall thoughts, 1st set never turns the corner, 2nd set is off and on until one of the best meat sequences out there. Definitely a keeper.