I am listening to every 1994 show in order, mining for gold.

This show delivers the goods, both sets. As with all things '94, there are some minor errors, but Jerry is in fine form, and the band is playing well off each other.

Not sure why, but Deer Creek is the premier venue for Foolish Heart. I never really liked this song until I heard this performance some years ago. I can't really think of a better one. Jerry just nails it, and Bobby does some great work here. Killer Saint, two Beatles songs, 17 minute Playin', etc. The NFA is FUNKY as hell.

Agree that the Playin' wonderfully out there. That said, many of my favorite versions are more focused. For example 5/3/79 [Brent's first east coast show]. Then again, everything that night was very focused as they eased the new kid in :) Put I digress.....

As a prior reviewer said, 1994 was truly a year of "buyer beware". Though I'd probably include anything after fall 1991 in that category. Maybe not the total 1994 crashes like Giants Stadium [knew that was gong to be a tough night when the 1/2 step sucked], but still some signs that all was not well with Jerry.... So while this show had some flashes of brilliance, as well as some of the more creative "space" of the latter years, I still hear and feel all the signs that this show was the exception rather than the rule for this era of the Dead...

Be that as it may, and for how bad things went till Jerry's body finally gave out, I'd rather listen to the boys on an off night than 99% of today's pop/hip-hop/r&b acts on their best night.

R.I.P. Jerry..... you truly gave all you had to give. And we thank you more than words can tell

I am glad I listened to this show today. While it does have its flaws, I feel they help to paint an accurate picture of a band at a point in time. I also believe each era has flaws. Any band that allows each show to be recorded is going to be heard warts and all. Any band with as much improvisation is going to open themselves to moments or even periods where the jams are less intense. I roll with the dead in all eras and lineups, hoping to form a better understanding of the band.

Twenty years done come and gone my oh my!
I have a lot of personal memories from this show but I'll stick to the music. I will say that I saw Jesus at this show...those in the know will know what I'm talking about ;-) Hard to believe it's been twenty years!
While this is a solid show for 94, the Playin>Drumz>Wharf Rat is way beyond the norm. In fact, this Playin is one of the very best of modern times.
The opening Shakedown is very funky and showcases the absolutely PERFECT digital SBD. The middle of the first set is solid but uninspiring. Unfortunately this set has both Broken Arrow and Cheesy Answers...two of the worst songs in the Deads repertoir. Cheesy Answers has to be one of the worst first set closers, talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth!
Second set is really just a build up and come down from the incredible peak during the Playin jam. The Foolish Heart is definately not among the best(check out 6-11 or 6-16-93). Saint is well played. I Want to Tell You is a rare treat but is really just an intro to the Playin, it's a trip hearing the final instrumental come unglued as they morph into the space vibe for Playin. Then the countdown into Playin. The lyric part is pretty standard but as the jam starts to develop it becomes clear that this is no ordinary version. I would call this the best Playin of modern times if it wasn't for 5-26-93 (as incredible as it may seem, the Playin from 5-26-93 actually ranks with the very best versions from 73-74, and thats saying something! Do yourself a favor and check it out sometime, it wont dissapoint) Back to this Playin-the jam is very visual, like a masterpiece painting. It starts off as a beautiful Hudson Valley School landscape painting, then slowly starts taking on a somewhat sinister Salvador Dali aspect with the trees starting to melt and strange otherworldly creatures wandering through the landscape. From there, it starts coming completely unglued and splatters of color splash across the canvas in Jackson Pollack fashion. Complete chaos is achieved as the intensity builds to an insane climax that has to be heard to be believed! Then we float into the ether as the jam resolves itself back into a landscape image, this time a beautiful sunset scene, WOW what a jam!!!. Good Drums with crickets and cicada sounds echoing the real insects chirping outside. Trippy short Space literally drips into a very powerful Wharf Rat, one of the best I've heard. Jerrys grizzled voice gives the perfect touch to this song of lost opportunities. -I'll get a new start, live the life I should- They even have some 'fly away' effect during the jam the I havent heard on any other version. This Playin>Drumz>Wharf Rat can hang with any music the boys played in their entire career, no kidding! This is one of my very favorite verisons of Throwing Stones, very guitar and percussion oriented. The whirro(washboard) adds a unique aspect to this version, I've never heard one quite like it. NFA is average for the period(which aint sayin much). The Rain is very sweet, this is probably my favorite of the Beatles songs the boys did.
But again, check this one out for the Playin.

5 stars for the absolutely pristine SBD.
5 for the Playin>Drumz>Wharf Rat.
3 for rest of show.

My birthday was the 21st and we were blessed with this orange bud. We met this guy who would let us patch into his dat machine and would play the show through back at the campground after the show so I got crispy aud dats of all three shows. i was dosed the whole time and just could hear the drums really loud. We had a drum circle after each show and it was great

For me '94 is the year of buyer beware due to Jerry's declining health and habits.With this show you get all you paid for and then some. It is an exellent digital soundboard too.

Overall this is an inconsistent show, but that doesn't matter. The musical voyage of Playin' in the Band on this evening is absolutely astounding. If you love the wild explorations of Playin' in the 72-74 period, CHECK THIS OUT - and however loud your stereo is, it needs to be cranked up, especially for the extraordinarily powerful climax immediately prior to the drum jam. Jerry was very inventive during this improv, really making use of the very crisp tone of his lightning-bolt guitar and creating lots of new musical ideas totally distinct from his usual Playin' "spinning" riffs.

Mr. Philip Lesh is probably the #1 all-star here, frequently taking the lead with elegant melodic turns and going completely psychotic with rapid repeated notes to build up the true psychedelic frenzy. The diverse moods of this long stretch of full band exploration include soft contemplative wanderings, crazy space-funk grooves, and a general sense of building tension that delivers several meltdowns, each wilder than the last. Rather than fading out into drums or doing a playin' reprise, the band delivers a final huge crescendo that will melt your face and leave you with a silly grin on your skull.

Post-drums is good, especially the Throwing Stones, but this is a truly historic version of Playin' in the Band, and the rest of the show is not really on the same level.

YES!!! B.T.E!!!! BEST THROWIN EVER!!! I sadly missed this night, but was blessed witht the other two. I love this run. For '94 this is hot!

sorry to correct you but 93 was a 3 nite stand also that was the only time we made it out there as far as shows go the next nite is real nice

Just reminiscing while listening to the stream...I saw the '90 shows at the Creek...and '94 was the only year they did a 3 show run there, according to Deadlists. The Creek was a sweet place to see a show. Alpine was cool...Oakland was groovy...but for me the Creek was the Zenith.

I was at this show. While the 1st set was no great shakes, besides shakedown. The second set rocks. The Playin is out of this world. Wharf Rat Drips out of space, very trippy. The best Throwing Stones ever? I think so. Perfect quality. Do yourself a favor and ignore the people who rip on this show. This Playin is the longest of 94 by over 7 minutes, this alone is worth a download of the second set. IMHO you cant compare the Dead & Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd's contrived, same everytime setlist can in no way compare to the deads freeform approach. If I were in a band, I would get sick of playing the excact same shit every single night. If you want to place Hollywood theatrics over the music, then live Pink Floyd is for you. IMO the music is more important than the light show. I'm sure Floyds playing was tight, they play the exact same show every night for a year, note for note. Post Roger Waters Pink Floyd is a joke. 4 stars for sound and the second set. Skip the first.

Ok so I was 16 at this show, my sister tellin me how much I have to come see the Dead!

Gotta say, I had just seen Pink Floyd on their 1994 tour at the Silverdome in Detroit, so my expectations were way high.

Can't say this show was anything compared to that. But, my story is pretty kewl still.

I grew up in Michigan, so it was me, my sister, and two girls and two guys she knew, drivin down in our dad's van to Deer Creek.

Great day, and such a kewl place to be! At 16, I was just so taken by what was happenin on lot, was lovin it!

Anyhow, the best part is we didnt all have tickets. My sister and her friend (who are both very good looking) strip down to bikinis, and wrote "I Need A Miracle) on their stomachs!

Hahahahah, sure enough, two older men come up and offer them tickets, which they took! And guess what, they were FRONT ROW SEATS! So they give me their tix and then they sneak me into front row!

FRONT ROW DEER CREEK MY FIRST SHOW!!!!! Shakedown opener blew me away! So close to Jerry he almost spit on me! And Phil winked at a bunch of girls who called his name! Was amazing!

The rest of show is fairly mediocre, but I do remember lookin back at the dancin crowd at Deer Creek and bein amazed by how the crowd undulated to the music! Not the best show, but still an amazin experience!

...although I can recall the '93 Creek's being very uneventful and mediocre.
Highlight: 17 minute 'Playin'

Note to Hank29:
Nobody is telling you that you can't consider this a great show. We all don't have to agree with eachother. Kudos to you if it rocked in your mind, whether it be contextual, drug induced, etc.....To each his own. There definetley is no need to label someone who disagrees with you as crazy. Case in point: two previous reviewers LOVED the Foolish Heart, and I think it is without a doubt the worst one I ever saw, and maybe I would argue the worst one the Dead ever did. But if someone else LOVED it, then more power to 'em!

P.S. kingdork does have a pretty solid point, Jerry was pretty out of it this particular evening. I saw enough shows between 87 and 95 to say that in general this evening he was more forgetful than usual. Simply an opinion though.

Don't know if u were at the show Scott, but hit the nail on the head...I was at this one and just found this site. 1st time I heard the show since. 12 yrs. later and my 2 best memories are the Foolish Heart and the jam during Throwin Stones...one of the BEST times of my Dead life!!

4 out of 5

In all fairness hank29, of all the big time live acts I've seen over the years, the GD are the ONLY ones I've heard blow lyrics.

Fun to hear the crowd react to the screw ups though.

I've been enjoying this database tremendously, thank you Archive. What I'll tell you I'm tired of is all these people saying this or that doesn't sound as good as other things. I'll tell you what. This show at Deer Creek rocks. Any one who says different is crazy.
It rocks for many reasons. Does it rock because Jerry forgets lyrics? Well, no that does detract from its rockiness. However, I challenge any of you nitpickers to not forget a word or two after you spent your whole adult life singing the same songs. Sing 35,967 songs and see how many words you forget. I'm sure every song would meld into one as well.

It rocks because of its context. That is what all the naysayers are forgetting. It rocks because it was right after the RFK shows and Casper and I just missed it. We landscaped for another week so we could hit Soldier Field and Riverport. And those rocked as well. That is why the Grateful Dead rocks in any recorded format. That is what those picking nit forget.

Vince even plays competently.

I wish I could download this one. Great show. The jam in the throwing stones still moves me, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the percussion. I wore out my XL II's a long time ago. To me the sound is decent, but I'm old and used to get jazzed on a 2rd gen aud. And I loved the Foolish Heart.

Yes, it was my first show ever! Being only 15, I had a lot to learn. Thank You Jerry. Anyway, I agree, let's talk SOUND in these reviews. This show actually has great sound. Good show, good sound, TWO sick Beatles covers (psychedelic I Want to Tell You). Highly recommended.

I don't care if someone had a bad time at a show. I want to know the quality of the recording. This probably went to analog, but still worth the download.

I was at this show and remembered the Foolish being really choppy and disorganized. More importantly though, I remember Jerry making it the highlight of evening when he rallied off that "UNTO A FOOLISH HEART" vocal masterpiece in the final minutes of the rendition. The verses of the song are borderline unlistenable, but the vocal reprise by Jerry makes this version one of the best. In those final couple years, Jerry struggled with remembering the words, but give him a line to rally around (So Many Roads, SOTM, DEW, Stella, ect...) and he turned them into some of the finest moments of the Dead's long beloved run. And this Foolish is one of them.

calling this foolish the worst ever boggles my mind. was it tight? no, far from it. But how can you deny yourself joy from Jerry laying it all out there with what's left of his pipes! That version brought a huge smile to my face. This Creek run was all good. Deer Creek ruled until the new-wave "hippies" stormed the fences the next year. Was there anything worse than the scum who sat outside any given venue, unshowered for a solid month yelling "Miracle me, maaaaaan" Shut up, get a job, buy your own tickets, ya tool!! cant give this one a 5. but a 3.5-so a 4.

im not sure what others base their opinions on but this show was very solid. Shakedown to open and the cowboy duo with Big River first!! what a treat. But for me the absolute highlight has to be the 17 min Playin in the Band..... a visit to the early 70's indeed....and Rain as encore was very fitting to a day that rained off and on most of the show.

Strong start--really snaky, 11 min 'Shakedown' to start, strong 'Jack-A-Roe' and 'Big River'...but second set.....ugh....worst "Foolish heart' ever? Jerry sings all around the right key! Fortunately, next 2 nights of this run were much better.