"We play quiet and you listen loud." (Free The Dead--Acoustic Set)

Tunes.

I had some time off from all this and truth be told, I needed it and I liked it... a LOT! This can be mucho work, posting music up for y'all. It's definitely turned into a hobby that involves a lot of figurin', uploadin', typin' and some etc etc etc, as well. Sugarmag (who's so busy right now with kids and grad school) still does a lot of the uploading and together we dig spreadin' the shows around to whoever wants to download 'em! (She'll get back to posting a show every now and then and, Babe, I can't wait till ya do! You're not listening to enough music!!!)

Anyway, great music should always be shared . . . but sometimes it's good for me to take a break. Fortunately, unless I'm hit by a bus or a satellite falls down from the sky and finishes me off, there's always something that'll need to be listened to and posted. Since neither of those or any other catastrophic life-ending event has yet to take place, this morning the music resumes. And hey, if you're a-here downloadin', while a-never necessary, a word of Thanks is always appreciated!

Shall we go? You and I while we can........

Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Warren Haynes Monday, March 30, 2009 Angel Orensanz Center, New York City

"Free The Dead" -- the early show

Dire Wolf
Bird Song
Cumberland Blues
Pride Of Cucamonga
Lazy River Road
Casey Jones
encore: Ripple

A nice little show in this little space that was once a Jewish synagogue built in 1849. 1849! This has gotta qualify as one of the oldest venues that any members of the Dead have ever played. Top 10 maybe? That's my guess.

Opening the show is Dire Wolf and we're treated to all three guys taking a stab at the lyrics. Someone messes up and the crowd takes it. Very loose and free is how it feels in the room; that clearly comes through on the recording. Bird Song has seen way better jams acoustically but this is alright. Warren and Bobby head off into near-Space while Phil keeps it together. When they bring it back to Earth, the fans express their appreciation for taking them away for awhile. It's either this or be at work! Work?! Dead!! And here again, all three share lead vocal duties. Seems like that's something they return to over and over during all or almost all of the songs played this early afternoon (it was a noon o'clock show!)

Cumberland is an interesting acoustic choice, methinks. Deadheads usually think of this as a rollicking number but here it's played a little closer to mellow and it's definitely jammed out more than what a normal Cumberland by the Grateful Dead. Another lyric flub occurs but it's taken in great stride; no big whoop.

One more interesting choice is definitely Pride Of Cucamonga. It's almost like the crowd would rather've had something else, something they know more than that. It's not exactly like it was a GD staple at any time... ever. They do add a neat little blues touch to it which is well-liked and Warren's pickin' on lead guitar is wonderful. Again, not like we've heard Jerry solo here exceptionally well over and over so hearing Warren solo isn't anything too weird, weird meaning Not Jerry. Ya know?

Lazy River Road would positively have been in acoustic Grateful Dead sets someday. It was played in the acoustic Berkeley show back in '94 but sadly Jerry checked out before we got to see a return of something like the Warfield and Radio City shows in Fall '80. I just know that would have happened and that Berkeley show was the spark. Dang it!! But here we get a beautiful version that Bob is so well used to playing by now because of its place in his Ratdoggie dog repertoire. Very nicely done.

A tune I'd've never guessed they'd been a-playin' is Casey Jones. It's not bad. Has this been done acoustically before? 1970? In an acoustic set by The Dead? A new take on it... well, it's not that much different than usual and it's known so so so well by everyone on the whole planet but it's still a bit different here.

Ripple's the encore that's all too predictable and I think finally in 2009 I'm getting tired of it. Warren's slide guitar is a nice touch but the tune is too brief and has no fun to it. Ahhh well, to each his (or her) own.

All in all a nice little show that is a treat and a half when you really think about it -- Bob, Phil & Warren, acoustic, still goin' in 2009, in a 160 year old church, at Noon on a Monday, in New York Freakin' City... for free. Must've been nice for the few hundred lucky souls in attendance and the listen isn't too bad either. Crowd noise between songs is obtrusively loud at times and vocals and talking from the stage are a bit unclear but the music plays nice and strong. Not the best recording but as of right now I'm not sure another source exists.

The Dead, as of April 8, 2009, is not @ the Live Music Archive

Download The Show Here Audio Quality: Source: Nak 100 Mics W/Shotguns > Sony Sbm 1 > Sony D-7 by Steve T ''AKA'' Big Red Bag Part One - "Free The Dead" acoustic show - 3/30/09 3/30/09 Weir, Lesh, Haynes - Angel Orensanz Center - Part 2

3-30-09 aka 03-30-09 aka 3/30/09 aka 03/30/09 aka 09-03-30 Angel Orensanz

No hike but some tasty tunes!

Today I kinda messed up by not going on a hike. Not truly messed up but I should have hit the trail. Sunday is often a day for church, a day for football, a day for hiking... but it wasn't imperative that I go. Woulda been a fan-freakin'-tastic way to burn some calories, that's for sure. But hey, another way to burn calories: dance, baby, dance! Seriously. Get up outta that chair yer sittin' in, put on one seriously delicious nugget of a show and just dance. Know what I'm sayin'? Well, do ya??!? I don't think yer hearin' me -- DANCE!!!!!!!!!!

"The Dead" -- 2/14/03
The Warfield, San Francisco

(Robert Hunter opened)

The Band
Phil, Bobby, Mickey, Billy,
Jimmy Herring - guitar
Jeff Chimenti & Rob Barraco - keyboards

1st Set
tuning/Jam -> Hell In A Bucket -> Iko Iko,
Lazy Lightning -> Supplication -> Lazy Lightning,
Loose Lucy#, Hard To Handle²³, Casey Jones²³,
Cumberland Bluesª -> Sugaree³

2nd Set
A Love Supreme Jam -> Looks Like Rain ->
Sittin' On Top Of The Worldª -> Spaceª ->
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds³, Born Cross-Eyed ->
Jam -> Help On The Way -> Slipknot -> Jam,
Turn On Your Lovelight²³ª-> Slipknot²³ª-> Franklin's Tower²³ª

Encore
Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad³ -> Not Fade Away²³ª

² with Joan Osborne; ³ with Warren Haynes;
# with Sammy Hagar; ª with Michael Kang
+

What band is this now? The Grateful Dead? Nooooo. The Other Ones? Nope... well, yup, sort of. Between the show on New Year's Eve 2002, just 2½ months before, and this show on Valentine's Day, for whatever reason, Bobby, Billy, Mickey & Phil decided to ditch the TOO moniker in lieu of, simply -- "The Dead." Very same band members, though. The Other Ones was just fine with me so why the change. Marketing reasons? I don't know. In any case, ladies and gentlemen -- The Othe, er, umm, I mean -- The Dead!

Right from the start this is a hoppin' and jammin' show! The Jam-> Bucket-> Iko is over 18 minutes long and just so wonderfully retro, almost, harkening back to the good ol' Grateful Dead, but this time with Mickey covering vocals on Iko. He has a fun time with it, too. Cool as that opening was, holy cow, Joe, let me tell ya, that was just the tip of the iceberg!

After rollin' through Lazy Lightning -> Supplication, twas time for a little Van Halen flavor, kinda, sorta, courtesy of Mr. Sammy Hagar. "A good friend of mine, a guy who needs no introduction so he gets none," Bobby says jokingly. Could there seriously have been anyone in the house who really needed to be told who that was walkin' on stage?! And what song would this guy be joining in on? Loose Lucy? With Sammy on vocals? I bow down to Jerry, okay, but this was just plain freakin' sweeeeeet!!! Did Jerry & Sammy know each other? No clue have I but this is fun tribute! He does it justice and then some! Afterwards Phil says to the crowd: "Everybody say, 'Thank You, Sammmyyy!!!!'" with Bobby quickly adding, "Everybody say, "There goes the neighborhood." Ahh, great music, good laughs, very cool and the grin splashed wide across my face as it comes to a close again right now can attest to my pleasure so far.

Two more guests on the next tune and what an intro this song gets... it could just about get its own Jam label but soon enough they're kickin' into Hard To Handle. Mmmm, Joan and Warren playing off each other... with all due respect to Pigpen, this is amazing and I bet Pig watchin' down just nodded and grooved in agreement at how awesome this sounded. 15 minutes ooozing with bluesy groove to melt the mind... I'm on my 4th listen in a few days and good God, it only gets better with each listen!

Casey Jones with Joan on lead vocals was interesting yet very standard GD-sounding. The next song, though... for me it's probably the #1 highlight of Set 1. Yes, I know this isn't the Grateful Dead but why couldn't they do Cumberland like this? At nearly 18 minutes long, this has the best jam of the night so far, hands down. Again, it ventures off and away from Cumberland altogether, enough to almost be called Cumberland-> Jam-> Cumberland. Bobby finally pulls everybody back to finish it up... but then off they go again into another mini-journey before truly heading into the final song of the first set -- Sugaree. Beautiful.

That could have been a short one-set show, an hour and thirty three minutes worth of music, and I woulda been one happy camper, I tell ya what! Ain't done yet -- still a set to go!

Out of the gate we're treated to more jamming in Set 2 but instead of keepin' the high speed dance theme, Bobby takes us through a slow and smooth Look Like Rain. Soon it's time to get ones groove on again as the boys slide into a little Sittin' On Top Of The World. A little? Whoops, I meant about 11 minutes worth! Yes, kids, jam mode is full on once again. No Drum session for the Rhythm Devils on this night but out of Sittin' appears a bit of Space, a brief Space, but most definitely Space none-the-less. Quickly the sweet sounds of John, Paul, George and Ringo emerge in the form of a little L.S.D. -- just as good as ever!

Valentine's Day this is? More like Halloween, in a way, 'cause what comes next is one of the best treats these dancin' kids could ask for. A week before this show, Bobby busted out Born-Cross Eyed with Ratdog -- first time in just shy of 35 years. (To this day, that remains the only time he's ever played it with RD.) Now it's making it's second appearance here with these guys. Way too short but oh so cool and then the jam was on again diving into Help-> Slip-> Frank? Nah, that would be way too pedestrian for a night like this... more like: Help-> Slip-> Jam-> Lovelight-> Slip-> Frank. Yeah, that's the stuff!! Excuse me while I get up and dance for awhile!!!

Mmmm, as they explore the outermost boundaries of Slipknot and leave it behind, a nice mild Jam ensues, slowing down to a pace where the surely sweaty Warfield faithful can catch their breath for a moment or two. My only complaint of the night comes here where the Jam essentially comes to a halt before Lovelight starts up -- no smooth transition from one to another. Ahh, well, the pause was brief enough to allow some to consider it a Jam-> Lovelight but no matter how it's typed up, soon it's time to dance again. Enter both Joan and Warren again to give Bobby a break while they each take vocal control of this one, spinning it a little differently than normal. While nothing can ever reach the monumental heights of Pigpen, Warren helps this along in great fashion before an abrupt left turn at the end brings on a whole 15 seconds of Slipknot before good ol' Franklin's Tower to end the set. Just a great finish. I can barely imagine bein' there, one of the blissed out 2,000 or so inside the Warfield, one of the lucky few who got to see this show. Not over yet, though! Just a quick encore, and then.... finally out the door.

Quick encore? Ha. Almost nothing was done quickly on this night. GDTRFB-> NFA goes on for nearly 20 minutes strong... and then the night was over. At just over three hours, this was a monster of a show. A cool night in San Francisco it probably was as the crowd exited the theater and strolled out onto Market Street, a scene done so many times before after a Jerry Garcia Band show, or after all those nights of the Dead back in the early 80's. After a show like this, Jerry would smile for what those guys did up there. Pure heaven and nothing less.

"Our love is real, Not Fade Away!"

Sound Quality: Digital Soundboard
A+ might be a bit conservative...
truly this might be more like A++++

I'm unaware of this being available anywhere
for listening but here's the Soundboard
for your downloading pleasure.
Due to my slow-speed internet and my
insistence on using only High Quality mp3 files
(441 megs worth!) I had to break it up
into four parts... but here it is. Enjoy!

2/14/03 The Dead -- Part 1
·
Part 2 -- The Dead 2/14/03
·
The Dead 2/14/03 -- Part 3
·
Part 4 -- The Dead 2/14/03