Without A Warning

On this date in 1970, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brother's meet on stage for the first time. Duane, Greg and Peter Green joined the band on stage for some truly spectacular fireworks at the Fillmore East. Download the soundboard HERE and HERE.

There are a few errors with the recording, which is why we join this show already in progress. The band is in the mist of veracious "Other One." We a brief jam that excels into the second verse before descending back into the "Cryptical." They show two newish songs that will be recorded later in the year for "Workingman's Dead;" "Dire Wolf" and "Casey Jones." A loosey-goosey "Not Fade Away" is punctuated by excellent guitar work by Garcia but is lead by the driving baselines of Phil Lesh. In the last blog, the band turned to the acoustics because Phil's base amp died, well it's back here and better than ever. Garcia's guitar also doesn't have that distinctive Garcia sound because he had just switched from a Gibson to Strat. He used the 1963 Sunburst Strat until May of this year and decides to go back to the Gibson. This is why Garcia sounds cagier that usual.
The is the romp filled "Cumberland," which is followed by a "Cold Rain and Snow" that really pops. The "High Time" is very quite, with wonderful harmonies by that Phil guy again. Then Bobby rips a "Me and My Uncle," which accelerates the heart rate of the band. So as the band drifts into the "Dark Star," this heart rate races the jam as the guest start to join the band on stage. The jam is takes on a Traffic-esk life to it. There might be an actually tease there but I can't pinpoint the song. I even went back to "Low Spark" to see if it reminds me of something but it didn't.

Amiss all the madness Bobby steers the music bus into "Spanish Jam." The theme works well as Garcia, Duane, and Green trade licks and build layers on top of layers of gooey guitar ness.  Phil does his best to entwine the guitarist. Duane steps up and takes a massive solo that peaks this "Spanish Jam." As it peaks, Phil drops a hint to his band mates and as the crescendo crashes, Garcia starts the blues romp. Pigpen leads the full stage through the verses and then they break into complete guitar madness. You can really hear the chemistry that the band has with the two Brothers. Greg sings a verse of "Lovelight" and gives way to his older brother who seizes the opportunity between the verse to take the lead. As Greg sings the second verse, Bobby is quick to join the party, trading "Shine on me's" with Bobby. There is a musical mis mosh that the vocalist send the guitarist into. If you listen close, you'll hear Jerry tease the solo of "Midnight Rider" in the build. Eventually Pigpen reclaims the vocal reigns and leads the band through verses and his "Pocket Pool" rap. There is a battle between the vocalist to stay on theme and the guitarist to blow it up. They both win some battles but the song eventually wins the war after a 33 minutes of explosiveness. Bobby caps the set by declaring, "From all of us to all of you. Thank you, goodnight!"
The band returns to the stage with acoustics in tow. They preform a lovely "Uncle John's Band" to close out the night. The next night the Dead played a club called Ungano's before returning to the Fillmore East for the 13th and 14th. These shows would be the last ones that Bear did with the band, and were memorialized in the Dick's Picks 4 collection.

The Other One, Cryptical, Dire Wolf, Casey Jones, NFA, Cumberland, Cold Rain, High Time, Uncle, Dark Star*, Spanish Jam*, Lovelight* E: Uncle Johns

*With Duane Allman, Greg Allman, and Peter Green

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