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Blast Fantasto
Sep 18, 2007

USAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

goldblums eyes posted:

I'm absolutely certain this question has been asked a million times, but what is the best Dick's Picks/Live show/etc. to start with? I'm a Dead virgin (besides listening to my dad's Shakedown Street which I'm aware is a lot different) and want somewhere to dive in. I assume it could be anywhere, but I'm weird and need someone to tell me where.

Listen to pretty much any show from the Europe '72 set. A bunch are on Spotify.

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algebra testes
Mar 5, 2011


Lipstick Apathy
Volume 19 is still my favorite.

I think it was in contention for the first show to be released but they went with another show from that tour edited down instead.

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002
I stopped really keeping up with dicks picks in the 90s but 8 is sick.

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?
See y'all on the 4th!

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

goodness posted:

See y'all on the 4th!

Did you get tickets already?

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?

BigFactory posted:

Did you get tickets already?

I wish! Got a big group all buying multiples so I don't think we should have a problem getting in and gifting any extras.

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

goodness posted:

I wish! Got a big group all buying multiples so I don't think we should have a problem getting in and gifting any extras.

I'm in the same boat.

Billy the Mountain
Feb 3, 2005

I used to be TheRealLuquado

Tonight I discovered 9-20-90, Madison Square Garden.

God loving drat. CCS>Rider is the best I have heard them play, ever.

https://archive.org/details/gd90-09-20.sbd.ashley.14855.sbeok.shnf

Arms_Akimbo
Sep 29, 2006

It's so damn...literal.
Celebrating GD50 in the gooniest way possible.

Arms_Akimbo fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Feb 9, 2015

MixMasterMalaria
Jul 26, 2007
Thanos, breaker of tables and quintessential deadhead. Is that your envelope art or something groovier?

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

MixMasterMalaria posted:

Thanos, breaker of tables and quintessential deadhead. Is that your envelope art or something groovier?

I think it's just a page from a comic book.

Arms_Akimbo
Sep 29, 2006

It's so damn...literal.
Sorry, posted it on mobile. Changed to timg.

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

Arms_Akimbo posted:

Celebrating GD50 in the gooniest way possible.



I thought that was sheet of acid first, which didn't really seem that goony at all, but you're right, it is goony.

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

HollisBrown posted:

I thought that was sheet of acid first, which didn't really seem that goony at all, but you're right, it is goony.

I don't even get it. Homeboy just posted a photo of a panel from infinity gauntlet or something?

In other news, my mail order request got denied. Cool.

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?
Anyone know how much the tickets will be when they go on sale online?

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

goodness posted:

Anyone know how much the tickets will be when they go on sale online?

It's all on the website. There are a bunch of price points. I think 65 is the cheapest.

Gimmedaroot
Aug 10, 2006

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.
-Barack Obama

Arms_Akimbo posted:

AFAIK it was The Dead's tour in 2005(?) with Warren Haynes on lead.

Spring of 2009. I went to all 3 Cali shows. It was pretty fun, but Warren is such a different guitarist from Jerry. Lots of bending hard rock notes and widdly-widdly-woo heavy metal arpeggios were a bit distracting but not used too much. I wish I had a chance to see Furthur, but they just don't make it to Texas often (As a teen, I saw their last show with Jerry in Texas, and that was 1988). Because I never could get into Phish, I can't say that I am excited about Trey being there. They seemed too nice and clean and didn't have that 60's legacy of the Merry Pranksters and adventures through a fascinating time in this country's history. Phish heads or whatever that I met over the years just seemed like Trustafarian kids who think the Dead are just old and in the way.

That said, I wish I could go to this anyway since it is their farewell. No one in 2009 knew if that tour was the start of something new or the last hoorah. At the very least, the scene will have to be interesting. I wasn't impressed with the lot scene in the two Bay Area shows I saw, too many paranoid heads that jump anytime someone walked past them that didn't look like a 'hippy', and lots of offensive uptight Silicon Valley yuppies. Like I said, I still had fun and got to hear Dark Star in LA and Terrapin Station at Shoreline. I was disappointed with the stage setup as well. They had a killer light and trippy sound system in their final years with Jerry.

I've got lots of waffling, then planning to do until July. I really hope they at least film this. A blu ray box set would be nice, but I can't even find the 2009 shows anymore. LA is worth having, for sure because of the rare sixties material they played.

Arms_Akimbo
Sep 29, 2006

It's so damn...literal.
^^^^ E: listen to Warren do West LA Fadeaway at Rosemont in Chicago from that tour. Great, great stuff. The bluesy stuff was what Warren was great at.

BigFactory posted:

I don't even get it. Homeboy just posted a photo of a panel from infinity gauntlet or something?

In other news, my mail order request got denied. Cool.

idk it was just nice art with a relevant tone. I didn't give it much thought, just thought it was interesting and applicable to this thread. Sorry, guys.

Arms_Akimbo fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Feb 10, 2015

goodness
Jan 3, 2012

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?
What kind of mess is this ticket sale online going to be :(

Blast Fantasto
Sep 18, 2007

USAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

goodness posted:

What kind of mess is this ticket sale online going to be :(

A bad one. Due to overwhelming demand with the mail orders, they cancelled both online presales they had. Which really hosed over people like me, who deliberately didn't do the mail order because there was supposed to be a presale on the 12th.

Shark Sandwich
Sep 6, 2010

by R. Guyovich
One thing has always kinda confused me. I mostly know the Dead from their early 70s output which I like but it's more Crosby Stills & Nash than psychedelic. Did they have a different sound before that or were they always on the more folky and country end of rock?

Shark Sandwich fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Feb 22, 2015

algebra testes
Mar 5, 2011


Lipstick Apathy
They started off with a more Bluesy/straight up psychedelic vibe and after Workingman's Dead/American Beauty they paired their sound back and we ended up with that country sound for a few years, at least until their first 'retirement'.

Some of their early stuff was really I guess you'd say "full on" but it's still very pleasant to listen to. Just blazing/screaming guitar solos over long these blues rock songs. Although, not a huge amount of tape is in good condition from that era. There was a Dick's Picks 22 from 1968 that should be on spotify if you want to check it out.

Juaguocio
Jun 5, 2005

Oh, David...
I really like the 1972 Dead. Elsewhere in this thread, I've detailed my explorations of April/May, June/July and August, and now it's time to have a look at September.



This was a busy time, with 14 shows total, including 11 over 16 days in the latter half of the month. Despite the hectic schedule, the Dead delivered quality performances at nearly every show. Veneta seems to have infused the band with fresh ideas, and they explored this new dark, jazzy territory with energy and gusto. Just look at the different directions Dark Star took over the course of the month:

09/10: Dark Star-> Jack Straw
09/16: Dark Star-> Brokedown Palace
09/21: Dark Star-> Morning Dew
09/24: Dark Star-> jam-> China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider
09/27: Dark Star-> Cumberland Blues

Each rendition is unique and interesting in its own right, and the same could be said of the September shows as a whole. Despite this overall excellence, some dates are more highly regarded than others, and the officially released recordings also generally mark the finest shows. There is one major exception, as I'll detail shortly.

Cream Of The Crop

09/17/72 - Civic Center - Baltimore, MD

This show was my introduction to September, in the form of Dick's Picks 23 and some Mondrian blotter. "Casey Jones," "Loser," "Jack Straw," and "Mississippi Half-Step" are all highlights, and the main course of He's Gone-> Other One-> Sing Me Back Home is a delicious treat. The Other One sandwich from 9/28 is a better overall performance, and I'm not overly fond of "Sing Me Back Home," but the jam from 9/17 gets way, way out there. I definitely recommend listening to both versions.

09/21/72 - The Spectrum - Philadelphia, PA

I knew this show was special the first time I heard it, but after this comprehensive expedition through all the September '72 recordings, I think 9/21 is not only the best of the bunch, but one of the best of all 1972, and by extension, one of the best Grateful Dead shows, period. It was released as Dick's Picks 36, and I've read that it was one of Dick's absolute favorites. I would compare it to Veneta in the sense that it's consistently great from start to finish, with crisp, clear sound and fine playing from all band members. Dark Star-> Morning Dew is the best of all the September versions of DS, and China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider, "Ramble On Rose," and "Black Peter" are just a few of its many other highlights. If you're only going to listen to one September '72 show, it's this one.

09/27/72 - Stanley Theater - Jersey City, NJ

I wish I could have found a better image to use for this post, but there doesn't seem to be much documentation of 1972 out there. I was glad to be able to find something from the Stanley Theater run on the 26-28th, since it's one of the highlights of the month. As Dick's Picks 11, the 27th was the first of the September shows to see an official release. It's a strong one from start to finish, with great versions of "Friend Of The Devil," "Bird Song," and "Uncle John's Band," and a rare '72 version of "Attics Of My Life." The "Dark Star" jam is laid back, but traverses some interesting territory before transitioning into a nice "Cumberland Blues."

09/28/72 - Stanley Theater - Jersey City, NJ

The final night at the Stanley is marred by sound issues in the first set, but also contains some of the absolute finest '72 material, so it's strange that an official release has never occurred. A Stanley 3-night box set -or at least a compilation of the 27th and 28th- seems like a no-brainer. Fortunately, there is a lovely Charlie Miller soundboard, and even more fortunately, the quality of the sound and performance skyrockets at the end of the second set. "Playing In The Band" was performed very well throughout September, and while there are many great versions to choose from, this one is my favorite. The "Greatest Story Ever Told" from 9/28 is also a must listen, as is the massive central sequence of He's Gone-> The Other One-> Bobby McGee-> Other One-> Wharf Rat. This show isn't as strong overall as 9/21, but its peaks reach as high as any in 1972.

Best Of The Rest

09/03/72 - Folsom Field - Boulder, CO
The He's Gone-> Other One-> Wharf Rat from this show is really good, and a sort of preview of the mammoth Other Ones to come later in the month. The whole set can be found as a mediocre soundboard and audience recording, but the big jam centerpiece appears in much better quality as bonus material on Dick's Picks 36.

09/23/72 - Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT
There are a couple of nifty sequences in this show. I believe this is the first time they tried to run the combination of Promised Land-> Bertha-> Greatest Story Ever Told together, and they would come back to this particular trick fairly often in the 73-74 period. There's also a Cryptical Envelopment-> drums-> Other One, and I think this was one of the last times they played Cryptical before it disappeared for many years.

Heady times, man. I'm looking forward to digging into October next, since it's a month that I've never previously checked out.

algebra testes
Mar 5, 2011


Lipstick Apathy
9/27/72 was the first show I heard. :)

edit: I look forward to you getting up to '73 because there were some amazing shows that year too.

MixMasterMalaria
Jul 26, 2007
Saturday's ticketing is going to be a real 'more butts than seats poo poo show' situation. How robust are ticketmaster's servers?

Blast Fantasto
Sep 18, 2007

USAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
After about an hour of trying I got some nosebleeds side of stage. I was actually trying to be high up because I wanted to be able to see the fireworks over Chicago during the show.

Long Francesco
Jun 3, 2005
No one I know was able to get anything, between ticketmaster crashing and broken capchas it was just a clusterfuck. But hey there's always stubhub!

Arms_Akimbo
Sep 29, 2006

It's so damn...literal.
I work in produce, and a friend of mine with deep pockets was looking to score 3 day passes for all of us. He brought his laptop into the store and set it up on the cantaloupe display. I was getting off at 10 when the on sale started, so he kept giving me updates on the countdown timer. At 10, I punched out and booked it to his car, where we sat in the parking lot fighting TM to see if we secured anything. It took close to 90 minutes, but we eventually did get 4 passes. It wasn't until I got home and started browsing Facebook and the news sites to realize how lucky we got.

BallerBallerDillz
Jun 11, 2009

Cock, Rules, Everything, Around, Me
Scratchmo
I managed to get 4 passes as well. I got insanely lucky - set up around 9:45 and watched the countdown on the page, I grabbed 4 side view best available and hit the buy button within seconds of the page popping up and only had to wait through about 4 minutes of "searching for tickets, don't refresh this page". I had my tickets to the show and airline tickets by 10:15.

I'm still in limbo on the mail order, I didn't get my MO back, but I didn't get a confirmed ticket email either. Folks over on twitter are saying that GDTSTOO has said that they're finished sending out emails, so I'm guessing I'm just at the bottom of the stack to get my money orders returned. My friends will be disappointed - I was the last one alive on mail order and the only one who got lucky on ticketmaster - we've got far more than 4 people who want to go.

Juaguocio
Jun 5, 2005

Oh, David...
Goddamn, Pigpen died 42 years ago today. I need to dig up some classic Pig tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AboYGlsrFw

"Pigpen, did you say gently caress?"
"I SAID gently caress!"

rest his guts
Mar 3, 2013

...pls father forgive me
for my terrible post history...
So I watched You Can't Take it With You and, apart from the anecdotes about Bob Weir's hand in the spreading of the ashes being bizarre and hilarious, I cannot think of a pettier, less appropriate retrospective of such a legendary man

It's somehow a source of comfort to think that even under the duress of the road (or perhaps because of?) Jerry remained optimistic enough to have any faith in that horrible oval office of a woman and the Grateful Dead camp somehow honor the terms of his will, though.

Billy the Mountain
Feb 3, 2005

I used to be TheRealLuquado

Fly McCool posted:

So I watched You Can't Take it With You and, apart from the anecdotes about Bob Weir's hand in the spreading of the ashes being bizarre and hilarious, I cannot think of a pettier, less appropriate retrospective of such a legendary man

It's somehow a source of comfort to think that even under the duress of the road (or perhaps because of?) Jerry remained optimistic enough to have any faith in that horrible oval office of a woman and the Grateful Dead camp somehow honor the terms of his will, though.

Could you elaborate? I haven't yet seen that...

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

Juaguocio posted:

Goddamn, Pigpen died 42 years ago today. I need to dig up some classic Pig tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AboYGlsrFw

"Pigpen, did you say gently caress?"
"I SAID gently caress!"

Pigpen wasn't the most musically accomplished member of the Dead but if you read Rock Scully's book, he seems to think that Pigpen may have been the most influential early on and the most responsible for their image and persona.

When he died the Dead really lost that rough edge that I think made them so great in the 68-72 period.

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

Hollis Brownsound posted:

Pigpen wasn't the most musically accomplished member of the Dead

You don't say...

rest his guts
Mar 3, 2013

...pls father forgive me
for my terrible post history...

Billy the Mountain posted:

Could you elaborate? I haven't yet seen that...

Before Garcia died he made a bunch of verbal agreements with various members of his family and left instructions in his will and the Grateful Dead camp plus Garcia's newly wed/widowed wife came off as excessively grasping and anti-, well, Dead. More detailed examples include a private divorce settlement that was immediately voided (by Koons) upon Garcia's death, a ridiculous legal battle over whether or not Jerry actually owned his guitars, and various members of Garcia's family getting stiffed while running the "Garcia Estate" into the ground with inane marketing ploys and licensing deals. She also spends a portion of the documentary gloating over her successful renegotiation of whatever royalty Garcia was receiving from Ben & Jerry's.

The highlight of the documentary was that Bob Weir dreamed that Jerry wanted his ashes spread in the Ganges despite Garcia's never having been to India and also his express wishes detailing that his ashes to be spread in the Bay (the majority were). At this ceremony, Deborah Koons and (potentially) Bob Weir thought it would be best to exclude his former wife and children, to the point where they blocked them from entering the boat from which the ashes were to be spread.

Also 68-72 Dead is the best version.

rest his guts fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Mar 16, 2015

Juaguocio
Jun 5, 2005

Oh, David...

Hollis Brownsound posted:

Pigpen wasn't the most musically accomplished member of the Dead but if you read Rock Scully's book, he seems to think that Pigpen may have been the most influential early on and the most responsible for their image and persona.

When he died the Dead really lost that rough edge that I think made them so great in the 68-72 period.

Pig was actually the only original Dead member to come from a blues/R&B background. His dad was a Bay Area disc jockey, so Pig was exposed to a lot of that music at a very young age. He was basically the "frontman" in the early days because he was the most confident singer, and a solid organ player too. While the other Dead members got better at playing the blues later on, Pig was just a natural born bluesman.

Gimmedaroot
Aug 10, 2006

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.
-Barack Obama

Juaguocio posted:

Pig was actually the only original Dead member to come from a blues/R&B background. His dad was a Bay Area disc jockey, so Pig was exposed to a lot of that music at a very young age. He was basically the "frontman" in the early days because he was the most confident singer, and a solid organ player too. While the other Dead members got better at playing the blues later on, Pig was just a natural born bluesman.

And on top of that, he was one of the early 'peace and love' proponents. It was said he was the one who told people as early as 65 to 'say hi to your brother' and get the friendly vibes going, and he was a drinker rather than a doper. He had to look like a tough Hells Angel type because Lesh said "otherwise he would get stomped on". People didn't realize how nice he really was, and for some bizarre reason the Hells Angels loved him most of all even tho he was in an interracial relationship. I know the Hells Angels aren't the Aryan Nations, but they aren't the most tolerant bunch of guys, especially back then. But Pig, and later Jerry, somehow charmed them.

I remember the last bit of biker deadheads in the 80s just as they were getting priced out of shows thanks to their new found fame, to the delight of Bobby who never liked the Hells Angels. Funny that it took the younger fans my age (we were called Touch-heads by the older fans) to gently caress up the scene worse than any of the crazed biker gangs. Gate crashing was not new, but crack cocaine, non-deadhead nitrous peddlers, and mosh pits definitely didn't belong at Dead shows. But that's what happens when you play to minimum 50k+ at every show with a minimum of 5k people just hanging around in the parking lot.

If you think "You can't Take It With You" is depressing, watch "End of Road". It covers that last tour in 1995.

Off topic, did I mention the time Tupac met Jerry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdvZU9rAtM

I knew Chuck D had massive respect for the Dead, but the idea of Trixie and Tupac together is just too cute...

Yiggy
Sep 12, 2004

"Imagination is not enough. You have to have knowledge too, and an experience of the oddity of life."
Can someone explain to me why Billy hates John K?

Arms_Akimbo
Sep 29, 2006

It's so damn...literal.
For people who will be in Chicago for GD50, last night moe. announced that they're doing after shows all three nights, if that's your thing.

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algebra testes
Mar 5, 2011


Lipstick Apathy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODPgBaiFI4

Sweet video on the Wall of Sound.

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