THE DAYS THAT STILL ARE TO COME

Today we go back on this date 36 years ago. The band found itself at Ohio State University at the Mershon Auditorium, which can be downloaded HERE and HERE.

They opened up the show with a rockin' "Music," which leaves the band in perfect position to jump into "Sugaree." There is some intense jams that are laid down by the band in this song. Two rockers in "Minglewood" and "Ramble on Rose" pump up the Buckeye crowd. The first travesty of the recording is the first half of the "LL Rain," which is missing. Another tender song in "Peggy-O" easy the crowds soul. The featured jam of the set is the "Crazy Fingers." The light reggae beat entwines the playing of Phil and Jerry till the song starts to easy to close. Before it does Jerry, picks up on the a rift that quickens to be "All Over Now." As the cap the set with a bubbly "Scarlet."

It is common in 1976, to find a lot of uncommon song choices in a show's setlist. So it is here with the "Lazy Lightning" opener, a song which usually comes towards the close of the first set. A beautiful "It Must Have Been The Roses" comes next and features a lyric change of "All I know is I should not leave her there." A raucous "Samson" comes next and feeds into the featured sandwich jam of "St Stephen/NFA/Drums/Wharf Rat/NFA/St Stephen." Wowser. That is a spicey meatless ball. The energy of the "St Stephen" leads into the thickness of the "Not Fade," which they don't get around to singing until about five minutes in. A brief "Drums" solo drops into a delicate "Wharf Rat." The music quickens as it sounds like there might be an "Other One" bomb but instead they circle back to reprise "NFA" and "St Stephen."
Garcia sang two of his tendentious of songs in the second set in "Roses" and "Wharf Rat," so the band comes out to encore with a song that they would never use again as an encore, "Morning Dew." They had only encored with it about five times beforehand, not including  the show that I have previous posted about 9/23/76. You know how you can look back on something and say "If I had known I'd have done it differently," well this is not one of those cases. Garcia caresses the lyric, graces his guitar, and build the solo from a whisper to a roar. A final farewell.

I: Music, Sugaree, Minglewood, Ramble, LL Rain, Peggy-O, El Paso, Crazy Fingers, All Over Now, Scarlet

II: Lazy Lightning, Supplication, Roses, Samson, St Stephen, NFA, Drums, Wharf Rat, NFA, St Stephen, Around E: Dew