Although it has some very good moments, this is a scruffy offering, especially by 1969 standards. Pigpen and Jerry are both guilty of committing some baffling lyrical blunders in the middle of songs which had been in their repertoire for months. Still, Jerry pencils in some nice lines on the Gibson SG, and the drummers rattle up a couple of interesting grooves. They never achieve that fire-breathing dragon effect so prevalent in 1969, but to be fair this setlist isn’t really conducive to that kind of acrobatic energy in the first place.

Far and away, without question, the MVP of this show is Bob Weir. While everyone else is busy fumbling the show, Bobby, the young kid of the group who’d been faced with so much criticism from his bandmates in late ‘68, steps up as the true professional of the evening and salvages the performance. He stokes the fire back to life with some bright, creative guitarwork and rich vocals that stay lyrically onpoint. Ace can do no wrong. Hats off to Bobby for bailing out his bandmates.

As for the unique context of this show, I think any of us would’ve loved for this to happen at our alma mater. Even so, the 1965-1966 rock ‘em sock ‘em Warlocks lineup would’ve been much better suited to play a high school dance like this one than the 7-man psychedelic cowboy 1969 lineup. The boys must’ve decided this wasn’t the time or place to uncork a Dark Star, That’s It for the Other One, or a wave of Feedback, so they settle for a huge scoop of squirrely Pigpen and then unplug the axes. 5/30/69 is far better overall, but this one is unique, and still has that irresistible, unmistakable Aoxomoxoa-era sound.

In short, although they never catch the X factor, Bob puts on a clinic. It’s 50 minutes of ‘60’s Cali Dead, so it’s well worth a spin.

I was a freshman at Miramonte HS, just down the road. Unfortunately, between the poor acoustics in the gym and my committing the unpardonable sin of having expectations I thought the Dead were terrible for quite a while after that show. Fortunately I heard some of Bob Marks' tapes and changed my ways a couple of years later. Here's the poster...
https://picasaweb.google.com/103973822590211896905/Random02

The Dead at your high school -- are you shitting me? That same year my high school had a concert with Quicksilver Messenger Service and, like this concert, a sizeable portion of the concert was a drum solo. Is that their way of slacking off? At any rate, I still enjoyed this. Opening with Good Morning Little School Girl at a high school is very cool. Some good moments in Lovelight.

Hey - just found this. Won't vouch to the reviews, seem to be all over the board, but about the concert, alan macomber and scott bauhofer (this is scott) came up with this idea for making money for the school, and put on both Santana in the fall and the Dead in the spring. We paid Santana $1250 for the night, based on the sellout of this one, we went searching for the spring show, came up with the Dead, and that one cost us $2000 for the night. And in addition to Jerry not being allowed to smoke, I think when the principal turned the gym lights on at 11 in the middle of a song, they probably were not all that happy with the experience. But regardless, having the Dead at Campolindo was still pretty damn cool.

I was not only at this show, but as a member of the Class of '69 at Campolindo, I was part of the student committee that put this on.
We did two concerts my senior year as part of a senior class fundraiser. The "Santana Blues Band" had played in the Fall. Other senior classes did car washes and bake sales. We did rock concerts.

I had been going to see the Dead for over a year at this point and was amazingly disappointed by this show. The dean of boys (Joseph Anthony) wouldn't let Jerry smoke in the gym and he slammed his guitar into his case and stormed off stage. Most of the set is performed without him. This was easily the shortest Dead set ever performed with the exception of a show they did in Oakland as a benefit for a Black Power group and Bobby got in a fight with one of them onstage.
One interesting bit of trivia about this show is that it was the first time Phil's father ever saw him play.
David Mahler Campolindo High Class of '69

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Forty years later this show still sounds like a 1969 GRATEFUL DEAD concert to me. Pigpen carries the show with his famous standards.

The GRATEFUL DEAD were not interested in being a commercial success in 1969. They had their cult following and were happy to be a counter culture creation.

The GRATEFUL DEAD put on a great show for the kids at the Campolindo High School.

If the GRATEFUL DEAD showed up at my High School and farted I'd give them 5 stars...

"Hard To Handle" is proof that no matter how much Mickey Hart can't play "time", he still couldn't screw up Pigpen's natural ability to feel the groove.

As far as the worst GRATEFUL DEAD concert on the IA here's my pick:

http://www.archive.org/details/gd74-09-21.sbd.eurodead.5649.sbeok.shnf

If you are fan of Pigpen and 1969 GRATEFUL DEAD you should add this should to your collection.

Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.

Thanks for the Love from 1969...

Pigpen gets 5 stars for this show.

This show is not as bad as I thought it was.

Suddenly I had a realization that the Grateful Dead never played a bad show -- no matter how bad it seemed at the time, or how bad it may seem 40 years later.

This, though about an hour long, (cut short due to 11 pm curfew) has some inspired moments especially the HTH and the Lovelights. I am very appreciative of the clean-up and restoration of this tape offered here on the archives. The previous tapes I heard were almost impossible to divine.

The GD never played a bad show.

This show is characterized by bad sound and uninspired playing, despite a few good jams, and contains the WORST version of Hard To Handle ever recorded, by anyone, bar none. The Dead seemed capable of playing this tune in two ways, either as great blues funk groove or an off rhythmic slaughteration. This one falls firmly into the slaughteration camp and is a disaster from start to finish. Compared to what these guys were capable on a good night in '69 this show is odiferous and is a top 10 pick of all-tome loser GD shows. Still beats a lot of ''95 though.

id take this over the best tape of any other band plus that good morning little schoolgirl isnt to bad

i likey sounds like a bunch of pros to me....quality 5 pigpen is the greatest white blues singer of all time.........these guys are animals..ok after several listens it is kinda hissy-----

" i helped blah blah blah"
" mail it in blah"
yeah i'll bet your buddies who sell insurance nowadays smoked the dead......


ok------some people JUST CAN'T DIG IT

I've only listened to the the first 2 songs so far, but GMLS is energized and Rag is fine. the first solo in Rag is a little reserved, but I hear hints of GDTRFB/AWBYGN jam there. Not the the best, far from the worst GD ever. 4 stars for being new to me 1969 GD. The end of Rag is rough, but it's still 4 stars.

I remember this show, because I was there. Their performance was pretty lame that night (up until Bob Weir finally brought things to life). But what made this particular concert so cool for me personally is that just after the show, me and one of my buddies went around the side of the gymnasium to see if we could meet the band. Not only did we meet Garcia, but he invited us into his car (an old beater green Ford Cortina) and got us loaded on his pot. I sure wish I had a snapshot of that moment!!! But as for the concert that night: D+

raw young rock band

I gotta agree with candymanan. This can't be the worst show. Granted the band sounds a little ragged in spots but they manage to bring it back together (usually). I will admit, the beginning of Hard to Handle is brutal. Nobody sounded committed to the tune, but by the end they're all more or less on the same page (thankfully they realized how bad they sounded and cut it short).
The sound quality isn't all that bad either. I think everybody out there is getting too jaded with all the great shows available.
I'm really giving it a 2.5 but only because of the cut in Lovelight.

Nothing more can be said that isn't already. I got this for the birthday factor (5-16) plus a friend was used to swim team there. Never listen nor I want to give it to a friend because no one deserves this wreck. Out of tune, lack of passion, probably pissed off staff (one make himself known at the end), with hissy sound quality to boot! A truely off off night from one of the best. "Goes to show you never know"

It may not sound good, but this show has sentimental value since it was performed at my high school (although many many years before I went there). Rumor has it that the entire senior class dosed for this show. I am so happy it has been made available. I had contacted Dick Latvala a few years ago to ask about it and he said that it sounded terrible. Nevertheless, it is still nice to have in my collection.

This really is one of the worst GD outputs, and I can't really figure out why. Maybe they weren't too excited to be playing a high school and didn't try hard? Who knows, just listen to Hard to Handle. It's a trainwreck (lyrics, timing). I can't really understand why this show is such a disaster considering the amazing shows of just a few weeks earlier at The Ark. Not to forget, this recording is very hissy. While 1969 is probably my favorite GD year out of all of them, even the best have an off night.

This show is not so bad. It sounds nice and while there is some sloppyness, there are also some real great jams. They boys are not totally groovin' through out this one, but it is still worth a quick download to hear some good sound quality and some good tunes

This is possibly the worst GD concert ever played..cm