Against my better judgment and all that is right and holy, I just tried listening to this. You guys must be drooling, jabbering, spoon-fed freaks for subjecting yourselves to this horseshit.

SET I

... Running a little behind you all today ... As far as the setlist of this first goes, it's almost a perfectly traditional collection of songs. Some of my songful favourites are here: TLEO, Althea, Tennessee Jed, but other than Althea, there's really nothing that remarkable about this, though it's a well-executed set of more conservative tunes. Funny to hear Jerry strain his voice terribly in Jed, and that get the biggest rise out of the audience. Anyway, nice set, and I like it for being fun and unadventurous. Keep Your Day Job to close, though, really? Fun enough, I guess.

I hadda take a break as well...

Sugar Mag - Not bad considering the length, pretty explosive jam.

U.S. Blues - A song that really works when it works and this version really works.

I've consciously avoided this DP in the past because of the year but this was actually a pretty solid show. I'm a little surprised that its an indoor show: something about it just felt outdoorsy like it should be from Deer Creek or Alpine Valley. I would listen again if I felt a hankering for a pre In The Dark Brent era show.

Why did you pick this show to jump in and try? I mean, we all have been doggin' on it for the most part, and saying how its not a marquee era for the band. Why didn't you try the '68 show, which we all pretty much agreed was great? No offense, but your comments about this show are almost on point with a lot of what our objections were.

I'm here right now and agreed that it's a fitting end but glory be this was rough in spots.

just hitting scarlet fire, which is what i've been looking forward to all along. first set was ok, pretty standard and not really close to terrible at all. i'm not really a big bobby fan, so it left a little to be desired for me anyways.

I can't see myself coming back to this particular show again. It has a some good moments but the overall sound and approach taken by the band (humdrum pace, clumsy segues, overall low energy level, etc.) epitomizes the reasons scores of music lovers wouldn't stay in the same room with this on a stereo.

Considering the '83 show date and my mainlining Punk/New Wave at the same time tells me a lot about why we were not on the same page. However, grooming a taste for The Dead now and testing the self-life of my old '80's collection will be interesting over the coming years.

Thanks for pulling this off. I'm looking forward to the next chapter...

i'm with you on this. some good jams, but overall the band seems pretty sluggish, and this is obviously in the middle of the heavy phase of:

Agreed. I have been wondering, though, what the motivation is for the handful of us that intend to listen through the entire series, through high times and feeling bad, on this kind of regular schedule.

We hate ourselves and life in general.

What's sad is my search for another album after these "morning sermons" and I consider going back to one of the previous listens. This is getting sick...

Well, to be honest I haven't ever really sat down and really listened to any Dick's Picks through and through enough to critique them. I don't own any, but I own all the Garcia studio, Dead studio, and a handful of Dead live releases other than Dick's. I also have a bunch of of boots on my pc, but really this is just a chance to listen in and really pick out stuff. Its way different than the times I heard them in someone's car, or at a party, etc.

In addition, it's just fun to not have to figure out what the day is going to start with musically.

Yeah, I have no idea why we came up with this, other than that DJ and I were talking about how Fall lends itself nicely to ABB/Dead style jams.

And I figured I would never listen to at least 80% of these albums without a motivation.

I'll have you know this has ruined the Grateful Dead satellite channel for me.
Goat roti with pumpkin during setbreak. On to #2... (See the thread on pants-shitting.)

Oh, its an amazing idea. I'm just wondering how to follow it up. I mean, what other catalog lends itself to so many options. Dylan?

We've talked about it. I think we will move into The Stones, Dylan, and whomever else from there.

It keeps people talkin', ya know?

If the Dylan one happens, I want on the Board of Directors.

Cool. We (I) was thinking Stones albums next. There's like 40 of them, and they have so many different eras....and it's The Stones!

This may actually be better than POLLS!

Definitely better than polls, though it would be cool at the end of a run if we all said what our favorite shows/albums were. Its probably obvious with the Stones since you guys are pretty vocal about it.

Stones would be great, but I think Dylan or Van Morrison would be hilarious.

I just wiki'd his discography and I'm actually surprised that he has that many albums--VM that is. I thought I knew him better than that.

About a year ago I went through a phase where I actually liked You Win Again. Talk about a lost time.

So what...Neil Young is chopped liver?

Actually, I thought the beauty in Dick's Picks was they're all being live, subject to extenuating circumstances and they cover a huge expanse of the same songs. Trying to do this with a studio catalog and no repeats doesn't seem to fit. The only other band that comes to mind might be Gov't Mule, given their depth in live shows, but I couldn't be the source for many of them.

Yeah, I mean, we could do Widespread, or Phish, or even Pearl Jam.

Neil is kind of done to death around here, IMO.

No, he is foie gras. And Springsteen is sweetbreads.

I'm down to exhaust whatever artist is next. But I personally think we should veer off into serious turd territory and analyze full Phish tours, starting with fall '97. I know that suggestion will be met warmly. There are less than 10 of us enthralled in this exercise right now. And it is kind of better than the polls.

SET II

I actually like this set quite a bit. It's a bit of runaway, but very charming in certain moments. Scarlet gets effortless at about 8 or 9 minutes, and Fire hits on something special with Jerry's tone at about 6 minutes, when it jumps out of the mix before falling back prematurely. Excuse the cheekiness of the keys pretty much throughout the entirety of the set. Why is this called "Spinach Jam" as opposed to "Spanish Jam"? It leads beautifully into The Other One, which just collapses into Stella Blue. Really nice placement of this. Too bad the outro is slaughtered prematurely with the onset of Sugar Magnolia. If I were Yail Bloor I'd say if I was there I'd be thinking of dipping my pinky in for one more taste during Stella only to be halted at the onsetting coda of Sugar Mags. Thank god for that.