this is a greatly anticipated release from the group. it has been a favorite of the collectors for quite some time, but for whatever reason has never made it on the dave’s or dick’s picks release choices. perhaps because it is partially flawed on a couple of levels. the first clue is the mixing issues on the opening song, ‘bertha’. all issues were cleared up about two thirds through the song, and by the time they got to the second song (mexicali blues), they had it right. this is a story of a show in the middle of the ‘wall of sound’ 1974 tour, when the band was at a creative peak but also struggling with the pressure of their fame.there was also the additional stress of managing the massive crew that was necessary to put together the immense structure of their cutting edge sound system.

the recording quality is solid. phil was probably the member most enamored with the ‘wall of sound’, and he is on top of his game here. he is simply on fire for the whole show. to a large degree the same could be said for keith. they are both up in the mix, and rightly so. the first set, other than the previously mentioned bertha, is fairly flawless. the ‘deal’, highlighted below, is a good taste of the overall feel.  an early ‘scarlet begonias’ has a garcia solo that is on another level. it ends with a long ‘playing in the band’ (maybe five minutes too long).

phil comes on with ned lagin in the intermission for an interesting ‘sea stones’.

and then we head to the second set, where it really starts  to get special. it opens with a good batch of standards – ‘brown eyed women’, ‘me and my uncle’, jack straw’, and then eventually goes to another level heading into ‘weather report suite’. halfway through the latter, and while they segue into ‘spanish jam’, you will hear some of the more inspired dead improvisations. they are all admittedly jazz fans, and this showcases their trends towards that genre. one can hear chick corea laced jazz fusion elements, and bill’s drum work during this set is a keen example of why i have always believed he is one of the most underrated drummers, period. they string this over into’ eyes of the world’, and then bring it to a crashing halt for an exquisite’china doll’. the ballad is so stripped down that you can hear a beer bottle roll across the floor at the 3:30 mark. ‘one more saturday night’ ends the show.

good stuff. great show. not perfect, but then none of their shows are. it just goes with the territory with this band.

update: hat tip to boot for the heads up on the rolling beer bottle. please see the comments section below for his thoughts on this release, specifically the ‘spanish jam’ section.