Electrifying and high-power jams, with some of the weirdest sounds Donna ever made. Great fun and a wild ride.

Surf Punk! Never thought I'd hear California surfer thrash so clearly in the Dead, but here it is: Bobby as primordial punk rocker? Why not?

Are you kidding me? This is just blazingly good. Jerry's on fire, vocals and axe. Too good for words.

Solid and sweet, with some beautiful slide solos and nice vocals, Donna included.

A powerful triumph, just exploding with intense jamming and emotion. Real dynamite here.

Furious acid rock. This is high voltage stuff, and in spite of a little burn-up on re-entry it deserves a close listen and more votes.

Nice catch. This one is a bit stripped down. It's pretty long at over 16 minutes - but it has a superb, purposeful, and clean ensemble feel to all of it. Plus there's an extended transition jam that feels like Jerry has something really important to say, and he takes his good sweet time to say it.

For a song that wasn't in regular circulation at the time, (played only about 5 times in '72), they absolutely nailed this one. It sends chills down my back.

Hard driving 18-wheeler here, folks.

Spinning this show again, and what blows me away about this Playin' is just how much it pre-figures the heavier electric sound that this song would take on in 1974. It starts getting a bit Electric Miles Davisish just before the eight-minute mark, with the wicked wah and distortion, along with some great key work and - of course - that specially tight one drummer quality from Billy from this period. It demonstrates how they just refused to sit still - the great blistering voyages of Summer '72 Playin's were so fresh, but rather than try and reproduce them night after night, they looked at it from another angle (or another thousand angles) and moved it furthur on, finding more and more in it.