#Dancing bears grateful dead jazz plus#

Since it’s basically just the Jerry and Brent show, you’re going to be treated to riff after blessed riff for almost 20 minutes – this is one for the Garcia lovers out there. The second set opens with one of the most fired-up Cold Rain and Snows you’re going to get in this era, but the clear highlight of the entire evening is the pure nuclear Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain that comes after Samson and Delilah. It’s a shame we can’t really hear everyone else. Both are fast without being sloppy, and Jerry tears up his respective solos, with Brent carrying the day behind him. The whole first set is above-average for 1981, but the top moments are at the end: Let It Grow>Deal. But it’s not a great recording by any stretch of the imagination.īut I suggest that you toss these complaints aside and just focus on the music, because the band is cooking here in London.

Now, there is an audience recording of the first set and part of the second set – it’s not very good, but it gives you a better idea of just how “on” the boys were tonight, since it at least offers hints of Bob and Phil. Don’t believe me? Blair Jackson will explain it for you here. The problem (there’s always a problem) is that the available recordings are all pretty much junk, since they are missing Bob and Phil. This is a great 1981 Dead show from the Rainbow Theater in sunny London, England. This is a historic, unusual night for the Dead, and although it plays second fiddle (rightly so) to tomorrow night’s effort, you’ll still enjoy hearing this one. The “best” part of the night is definitely The Other One>Wharf Rat, which builds from a pretty basic The Other One into a titanic Wharf Rat that shakes the rafters. Spoonful makes its live debut tonight (it would not be played again for a year and a half, but then it stuck in the lineup), and while it’s nothing really that interesting, it is a new song for your listening journal. Althea is a fairly unusual version, and Beat It On Down The Line is furious. So far as the playing goes, the band is very relaxed, but there are plenty of great tunes to pick out. Today you can hear every single person in the crowd talking, but you also get a depth to the sound that is noticeably absent on most if not all of the Europe ’81 tapes.

#Dancing bears grateful dead jazz plus#

On the other hand, the fact that we’ve only got audience recordings from this very intimate venue is actually a plus for this era of shows, because the soundboard recordings are all pretty much garbage.

If you are a casual listener, you’re not going to notice much of a difference between this show and the others on the Dead’s 1981 European tour, but if you pay attention to these things, you’ll immediately pick up on the effect of the new instruments, which don’t sound as polished as the Dead’s typical equipment (the playing is the same quality – it really is the guitars themselves). I’ve recounted this tale in my writeup of the 10/16 show, but just in case you aren’t reading it, today’s show took place in a small club in Amsterdam and the boys played it on borrowed instruments because their roadies didn’t want to lug the band’s equipment all the way to the Netherlands for a couple of surprise gigs. But that shouldn’t completely diminish what took place here. This show, a fill in for a pair of cancelled shows in France, is blown away by the Dead’s show at the same venue tomorrow, a show that features the band’s final recorded acoustic set, a slathering of rarities and the revival of Turn on Your Lovelight. (A couple of other examples – the 7/28/73 Watkins Glen show that is eclipsed by the band’s soundcheck the night before or the “Formerly the Warlocks” show on 10/8/89 that is done one better by the Dark Star / Attics of My Life bust outs on 10/9/89). Today’s show falls into that category of Dead shows that would be more well known were it not for the fact that they fell right before or after a much more famous performance.