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Jerry Garcia Band - GarciaLive Vol. 11: Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI 11/11/93
On this night, Jerry came to jam. This show was intense and determined, and really what I often want to hear putting on JGB. On quite a few occasions, especially Deal in set 1, and Dear Prudence in set 2, Jerry’s guitar could have spontaneously been caught on fire and I wouldn’t be surprised. But on this night he is not alone as mind numbingly fast bass solos and hyper intense keys are all over these sets. One of the finest JGB shows yet:
Set 1: Cats Under the Stars, Mission in the Rain, That’s What Love Will Make You Do, Simple Twist of Fate, Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox, My Sisters and Brothers, Deal
Set 2: The Way You Do the Things You Do, He Ain’t Give You None, Dear Prudence, When the Hunter Gets Captured By the Game, Don’t Let Go, Midnight Moonlight
Before the perhaps long goodbye to this journey and inevitable focus on Jerry Garcia, I wanted to take a minute and enjoy something from Phil Leah - his handpicked selections for a compilation live release. The performances span the Dead’s whole career and each of them provide some insight into those moments in time - not just a plethora of bass solos or even a focus on his playing. Each of the performances is really great, but though the most powerful have to be Viola Lee Blues (feels long absent and I forgot how profoundly great this is), Hard to Handle, and In the Midnight Hour, which is just owned by Pigpen. So glad I decided to jump on this on a whim.
Selections: Dancing in the Streets, New Speedway Boogie, Viola Lee Blues, Easy Wind, Mason’s Children, Hard to Handle, The Music Never Stopped, Jack-A-Roe, In the Midnight Hour, Visions of Johanna, Box of Rain
Phil Leah put together a compilation live album of what could have been the next Grateful Dead album. And they had some good spaces to explore here. Liberty, Eternity, and Easy Answers seem like they are going down the path of least resistance as future Dead first set staples. Samba in the Rain might feel slightly incomplete and Corrina in a good space but like it needed a bit more to make it cohesive, but the templates are there. But what makes this a release worth its salt are the intense building So Many Roads, the return to Americana writing on Lazy River Road (and excellent at that), and the mind blowing beauty of Days Between. Of all the talk of decline, I think that narrative may have been oversold since on these songs the Dead seem alive and well. What could have been...
A curveball by going back to something I should have listened to earlier in the journey. If Live/Dead is the Legend of these runs of shows, then this is its Natural Mystic - a well regarded collection that just doesn’t have the same hype as Live / Dead. Disc one, which resembles a set 1, is pure amazing blues fire. Starting off with a really blazing Morning Dew and then tearing into Good Morning Little School Girl, Doin’ That Rag, I’m a King Bee, and really killer version of Cosmic Charlie, and Turn on Your Lovelight (this was phenomenal). This is precisely what I love about early Dead.
The second two discs are more or less a collection of meandering jams and long form psychedelia, much of which really pays off. The acoustic Dupree’s Diamond Blues might be my favorite. The greatest of all this for me really kicks in from That’s It For the Other One (the whole suite - it’s been a while!), Alligator, Drums, Jam (maybe the best free form jam I can remember), then Caution. That sequence completely makes the second two thirds for me.
“Set 1”: Morning Dew, Good Morning Little School Girl, Doin’ That Rag, King Bee, Cosmos Charlie, Turn On Your Lovelight
“Set 2”: Dupree’s Diamond Blues (acoustic), Mountains of the Moon (acoustic), Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Death Don’t Have No Mercy, That’s It For the Other One > Alligator > Drums > Jam > Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) > Feedback > We Bid You Goodnight
Jerry Garcia Band - Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA 4/23/95
In the start of my long goodbye in this journey to Jerry Garcia, we start with his final show with the Jerry Garcia Band at the Warfield. Granted, the quality of the recording pales in comparison to official releases, but you can certainly hear the wear on Jerry’s voice and the fact that Melvin Seals at this point is leading the charge with his spirited keys. By no means is Jerry a slouch, and he rises to the occasion as the show goes on. Of particular note are killer versions of Struggling Man, and Think - the band is also clearly feeling it in the second half of Reuben and Cherise. It was nice to hear these little moments knowing now that this was the end in an otherwise mostly indescript show.
Set 1: How Sweet It Is, Stop That Train, Simple Twist of Fate, Run for the Roses, You Never Can Tell, My Sisters and Brothers, Deal
Set 2: He Ain’t Give You None, Struggling Man, Think, Reuben and Cherise, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Midnight Moonlight
The penultimate show with Jerry Garcia. I can see where a lot of the talk of his decline came in, and places where he misses notes and lyrics, but it’s not as prominent as you would think. Jerry’s voice is pretty tired but it still lends value. This is actually a pretty good show (not great by their standards), as I really enjoyed this Wang Dang Doodle, Tennessee Jed, and Don’t Ease Me In in he first set. The highlights of set 2 include a solid China/Rider, a meaty Terrapin Station, a solid The Other One, a fantastic Visions of Johanna, One More Saturday Night and the encore of an okay US Blues. They could still go here. Not quite what they were admittedly.
Set 1: Jack Straw, Sugaree, Wang Dang Doodle, Althea, Queen Jane Approximately, Tennessee Jed, Don’t Ease Me In
Set 2: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, It’s All Too Much, Saint of Circumstance > Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > The Other One > Visions of Johanna, One More Saturday Night
The penultimate show with Jerry Garcia. I can see where a lot of the talk of his decline came in, and places where he misses notes and lyrics, but it’s not as prominent as you would think. Jerry’s voice is pretty tired but it still lends value. This is actually a pretty good show (not great by their standards), as I really enjoyed this Wang Dang Doodle, Tennessee Jed, and Don’t Ease Me In in he first set. The highlights of set 2 include a solid China/Rider, a meaty Terrapin Station, a solid The Other One, a fantastic Visions of Johanna, One More Saturday Night and the encore of an okay US Blues. They could still go here. Not quite what they were admittedly.
Set 1: Jack Straw, Sugaree, Wang Dang Doodle, Althea, Queen Jane Approximately, Tennessee Jed, Don’t Ease Me In
Set 2: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, It’s All Too Much, Saint of Circumstance > Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > The Other One > Visions of Johanna, One More Saturday Night
Encore: US Blues
Just a few days before the famous PJ 7/11/95 Soldier Field show -- the staff that week really saw some historic gigs
Joined: Sat January 05, 2013 7:30 am Posts: 8198 Location: nothing
Johanna is one song that really catapulted for me-- It used to be meh for long time then one time hearing it, I think performed by DSO and it hit me. Now I can barely listen to it because it makes me melt too much .
The final show with Jerry Garcia. When you hear stories of this period from others, especially big fans of the Grateful Dead, there’s this morose sense of Jerry being pretty much gone and done. That narrative is reinforced in the 6 part Long Strange Trip documentary as well, where they show a sick and tired looking Jerry Garcia during his final interview and share scenes of his depression and sadness at the end - Jerry sort of checking out or at the least unable to perform the way he had before. Fans listen to this show for glimpses or hints that Jerry knew his time was coming (I have heard this in the context of the beautifully performed So Many Roads on this night).
My perspective listening to the show is different. Yes it is the final night of the tour, and yes there are points, particularly during Samba in the Rain, or the start of Shakedown Street, or the Box of Rain finale, where the wear is showing - but I think this was a man and a band with a certain level of vitality heading into a next phase. It’s mostly evident in the manner with which they play the newer songs not released on prior albums. They weren’t going to be the band of Shakedown Street or Sugar Magnolia or anything maybe resembling that youthful Grateful Dead pushing and tugging their sound in impossible directions. I think they were on the course to what would be released as Ready or Not - a mix of sounds but not something reaching for a new place - but gratefully existing in their space and growing older together. As a fan or as I am sure a band member, it doesn’t feel like Jerry’s time to go - this isn’t him holding on for dear life but gearing up for the next step. We have the fair glance of what that next step was going to be, and the setlist here alludes to it. The performance wasn’t perfect but the direction would have suited them well.
All that said, there are a lot of very strong pieces to this show. I noted So Many Roads, but after maybe the first verse on Shakedown Street the band seemed to find their groove there. And that entire first set is the band as it should be - yes it is quick but they hit each song pretty well and threw in a really good Little Red Rooster, Lazy River Road, and an interesting Cumberland Blues.
Set 1: Touch of Grey, Little Red Rooster, Lazy River Road, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Childhood’s End, Cumberland Blues, The Promised Land
Set 2: Shakedown Street, Samson and Delilah, So Many Roads, Samba in the Rain, Corrina > Drums > Space > Unbroken Chain > Sugar Magnolia
Not a surprise, but since that final show with Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead’s music lived on. Phil Leah & Friends, The Dead, The Other Ones , Bob Weir and Ratdog, and more recently Bob Weir and Wolf Bros., Dead and Company - even bands now that can fill arenas and festival stages as Dead cover bands like Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Dark Star Orchestra (who often re-create actual set lists from the Dead’s career). But for these collection of musicians, one final run of shows to celebrate their 50th Anniversary were played, with the torch carrying Trey Anastasio sitting in for Jerry. I listened to this, the final night of that run at Soldier Field.
The show itself is sort of an up and down affair. The band is clearly without Jerry’s singular guitar sound, or his band leadership in these unspoken cues that you can sense listening to enough of these shows. That said, Trey does about as admirable job as can be done here. His guitar sounds much different but it still works into what was happening at this show. The songs often plod though, where Jerry would have pushed a song further, some songs, like Terrapin Station get stuck in a slow neutral. Maybe it’s their ages, or more likely it is that void.
I think the best song to come out of this performance was Althea, where the chemistry just seemed to click from beginning to end. The encore also had a great quality to it and felt more like a fitting end than their last show with Jerry, nearly 20 years to the day later.
Set 1: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Estimated Prophet, Built to Last, Samson and Delilah, Mountains of the Moon, Throwing Stones
Set 2: Truckin’, Cassidy, Althea, Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > Unbroken Chain > Days Between > Not Fade Away
So this is it. This was the ultimate journey through a band’s catalogue - the most sprawling and most satisfying of all these journeys. From just before July 4th to just before Thanksgiving: 13 studio albums, 64 Grateful Dead shows, 12 compilation live albums, 5 Jerry Garcia studio albums, 25 Jerry Garcia Band shows, 3 Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band shows, 5 Bob Weir albums/side projects, 2 shows for the Garcia/Kahn duo, 1 Garcia/Saunders show, and 1 Garcia/Grisman album. A stunning amount of music, most of it extraordinary, and always interesting.
Fact is I am still not done with the Dead or some of the other projects. I still have a hunger to check out more shows, hope to one day take in the whole Europe ‘72 tour, sit back with some earlier shows, and listen to the latest Dave’s Picks from those Hartford ‘87 shows. I’d like to do a run of the early 70s shows with Merl Saunders. There’s just an endless amount to hear and see, and that’s without exploring the post-Dead careers of the band. The journey is done for now, but my newfound connection is forever.
Joined: Sat January 05, 2013 7:30 am Posts: 8198 Location: nothing
liebzz wrote:
So this is it. This was the ultimate journey through a band’s catalogue - the most sprawling and most satisfying of all these journeys. From just before July 4th to just before Thanksgiving: 13 studio albums, 64 Grateful Dead shows, 12 compilation live albums, 5 Jerry Garcia studio albums, 25 Jerry Garcia Band shows, 3 Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band shows, 5 Bob Weir albums/side projects, 2 shows for the Garcia/Kahn duo, 1 Garcia/Saunders show, and 1 Garcia/Grisman album. A stunning amount of music, most of it extraordinary, and always interesting.
Fact is I am still not done with the Dead or some of the other projects. I still have a hunger to check out more shows, hope to one day take in the whole Europe ‘72 tour, sit back with some earlier shows, and listen to the latest Dave’s Picks from those Hartford ‘87 shows. I’d like to do a run of the early 70s shows with Merl Saunders. There’s just an endless amount to hear and see, and that’s without exploring the post-Dead careers of the band. The journey is done for now, but my newfound connection is forever.
You are amazing
_________________ crazy strong wind on the ride back had to mega pump the quads
Absolutely, liebzz, thank you for sharing all of this.
How much I really love this band has crept up on me very quietly over the last 10 years or so, and it's largely that feeling that every new thing you check out has the potential to go to some completely unexpected place. They really are a meeting place for almost everything I love about music.
Not a surprise, but since that final show with Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead’s music lived on. Phil Leah & Friends, The Dead, The Other Ones , Bob Weir and Ratdog, and more recently Bob Weir and Wolf Bros., Dead and Company - even bands now that can fill arenas and festival stages as Dead cover bands like Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Dark Star Orchestra (who often re-create actual set lists from the Dead’s career). But for these collection of musicians, one final run of shows to celebrate their 50th Anniversary were played, with the torch carrying Trey Anastasio sitting in for Jerry. I listened to this, the final night of that run at Soldier Field.
The show itself is sort of an up and down affair. The band is clearly without Jerry’s singular guitar sound, or his band leadership in these unspoken cues that you can sense listening to enough of these shows. That said, Trey does about as admirable job as can be done here. His guitar sounds much different but it still works into what was happening at this show. The songs often plod though, where Jerry would have pushed a song further, some songs, like Terrapin Station get stuck in a slow neutral. Maybe it’s their ages, or more likely it is that void.
I think the best song to come out of this performance was Althea, where the chemistry just seemed to click from beginning to end. The encore also had a great quality to it and felt more like a fitting end than their last show with Jerry, nearly 20 years to the day later.
Set 1: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Estimated Prophet, Built to Last, Samson and Delilah, Mountains of the Moon, Throwing Stones
Set 2: Truckin’, Cassidy, Althea, Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > Unbroken Chain > Days Between > Not Fade Away
Encore: Touch of Grey, Attics of My Life
I've listened to some of the more recent Dead and Company stuff with John Mayer; despite Mayer's reputation I have long thought he was a good guitar player and singer, and would be someone I would enjoy hearing in that 'fake Jerry' slot if the rest of the band arrangement worked. But all the arrangements are so slow. Those shows feel so lagging in energy, even compared to late period Dead.
I don't really enjoy Trey Anastasio at all, so these Fare Thee Well gigs were non-starters for me, even though -- completely by coincidence -- my family and I were at the Shedd Aquarium, next door to Soldier Field, the day of the 7/5 show, so I ended up hearing (what I am pretty sure was) some of the soundcheck. It was quite a scene, and the traffic was awful.
Not a surprise, but since that final show with Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead’s music lived on. Phil Leah & Friends, The Dead, The Other Ones , Bob Weir and Ratdog, and more recently Bob Weir and Wolf Bros., Dead and Company - even bands now that can fill arenas and festival stages as Dead cover bands like Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Dark Star Orchestra (who often re-create actual set lists from the Dead’s career). But for these collection of musicians, one final run of shows to celebrate their 50th Anniversary were played, with the torch carrying Trey Anastasio sitting in for Jerry. I listened to this, the final night of that run at Soldier Field.
The show itself is sort of an up and down affair. The band is clearly without Jerry’s singular guitar sound, or his band leadership in these unspoken cues that you can sense listening to enough of these shows. That said, Trey does about as admirable job as can be done here. His guitar sounds much different but it still works into what was happening at this show. The songs often plod though, where Jerry would have pushed a song further, some songs, like Terrapin Station get stuck in a slow neutral. Maybe it’s their ages, or more likely it is that void.
I think the best song to come out of this performance was Althea, where the chemistry just seemed to click from beginning to end. The encore also had a great quality to it and felt more like a fitting end than their last show with Jerry, nearly 20 years to the day later.
Set 1: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Estimated Prophet, Built to Last, Samson and Delilah, Mountains of the Moon, Throwing Stones
Set 2: Truckin’, Cassidy, Althea, Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > Unbroken Chain > Days Between > Not Fade Away
Encore: Touch of Grey, Attics of My Life
I've listened to some of the more recent Dead and Company stuff with John Mayer; despite Mayer's reputation I have long thought he was a good guitar player and singer, and would be someone I would enjoy hearing in that 'fake Jerry' slot if the rest of the band arrangement worked. But all the arrangements are so slow. Those shows feel so lagging in energy, even compared to late period Dead.
I don't really enjoy Trey Anastasio at all, so these Fare Thee Well gigs were non-starters for me, even though -- completely by coincidence -- my family and I were at the Shedd Aquarium, next door to Soldier Field, the day of the 7/5 show, so I ended up hearing (what I am pretty sure was) some of the soundcheck. It was quite a scene, and the traffic was awful.
The Mayer stuff is funny for me. Yes its VERY slow, to a fault almost. But he seems to get it more and more each time I go see them play. I almost never go back and listen to shows, although I loved Citi Field in 19 and find that show to be very enjoyable and holds up to repeated listens. It was truly a WILD night. He played Jerry's wolf guitar and every song had that magic (I'm sure that was aided by the molly). But, its a good show to listen to if you want to hear the best of what D&Co does. It's a scene and they nail the vibe, always a party and lots of fun. Drums and Space is great too, like having your two dusty Uncles make techno, it rules.
I can't stand Phish, with a passion. But enjoyed the Trey shows in 2015. I went to Santa Clara but ever went to anything post Jerry.
I have a few Dead errands - that show attached to the 50th Anniversary debut, and once it comes on Spotify, the show on the 50th Anniversary American Beauty are starters along with those ‘87 Hartford shows.
On a side note, I randomly heard again That’s It for the Other One from Fillmore West ‘69 - I was blown away all over again.
Of all the many things I listened to so far, I have to say Ladies and Gentlemen had to be my favorite. I can’t think of a single release in all of music that fits my taste better than that.
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beautiful