"If you tell the Truth, you don't have to remember anything"
-Mark Twain
"You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit." -Kurt Vonnegut

Monday, December 30, 2013

I Had To Move

For today in Grateful Dead history we go back to one of my favorite years 1989. So much goodness came dripping out of this year and today's show is one that begs the question, "Can New Years top that show?"
The special guest who sits in on this show is Airto Moreiro, and he plays drums on several tracks, yet there is another special guest. On this smoking hot night, Jerry took the stage with the Wolf. Download the matrix copy HERE and HERE.
This is the first set I "Bertha/Good Lovin'" since Egypt '78. They played the combo late in the second set a couple times, the last one before this was over five years earlier on 11/2/84. But the band doesn't tightly wrap that so g combo up they progress into a spacey jam, which allows for a key change so they can drop into a tight "Sugaree." By the time they wrap up the first set with "Music" your left wondering weather they will build in the next set. Build and build they would with the smoking opener of "Jack Straw." Then spring boarding into a "China/Rider" before a drip and oozy "Estimated." The fluttering dark jam is spun by Jerry, Bobby, and Phil brewing like three witches over a mixing pot. And instead of sliding into the familiar the band veers into a magnificent "Terrapin," which includes a quint jam before the tape cut in drums. The second set continues to cook with "The Other One" before a glorious "Standing on the Moon." Bobby ends the set with everyone's favorite weekend reminder "One More Saturday Night," which of course it wasn't because the Wolf was out on this night.
They did however manage to top this night with their New Years show. Thanks in part to the "Sugar Mags/Touch" opener and the first west coast "Dark Star" since the Greek on 7/13/84. Bobby jokes before "Victim," that he was informed that this is the start of a new "Dickhead," instead of decade. Unknowingly it was the start of something new for the Dead, as this would be the final New Years show that Brent Mydland.
I: Bertha, Good Lovin', Sugaree*, Walkin' Blues*, Jack A-Roe*, Masterpiece*, West LA*, Music*
II: Straw, China*, Rider*, Estimated*, Terrapin*, Drums*, Space, Will Take You Home*, Other One*, SOTM*, OMSN*, E: Baby Blue
*with Airto Moreiro

2 comments:

  1. I saw Wolf 10/16/89 meadowlands

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  2. Bobby's Bday! Very very cool. And the official release "Nightfall of Diamonds" such a great show from a great Fall tour.

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