3rd ever and it's a beauty. Show uneven at first, then comes together with Cryptical>TOO>Wharf for some righteous Dead, looking for their '71 sound.

Along with every other bit of this concert, raging good time energy and virtuouso groupmind, aided of course by one of the most ultimate AUDs ever.

Stop everything you're doing and listen to this now. No really, do it. Now.

Something happens to Playing' in Europe. Check 'em out, one by one and watch it grow. This one is the bomb. Outrageous shredding.

Listen to this, then listen again for Jerry's solo: Come back and tell me Big River is a "throw away" song, cause he damn-well tears it up here.

This has always been my go to song when things get too dicey and I need a smooth landing, and this one doesn't disappoint: Beautifully orchestrated, lovingly sung, emotional without being over the top, it's a fragile but perfect china doll China Doll. Reminds me of why I loved it all these years.

Y'all have my permission to insist that they play this over my tombstone, alright? The whole second set, but especially the DS>MLB>Eyes patch. Home sweet home, indeed.

It's been almost three years since I last listened to this, and it still blows me away. Cerebral but elegant. Virtuoso but loose and free. It deserves all its praise. Somehow between 2012 and now the whole show became streamable again, as opposed to just the Star, which was for a while anyway not available on the Archive. Thank you, mister cool decision-maker, who gave us back the privilege to hear this one in the context of the whole show again. Thank you. Really. Plus it has to be repeated that the fact that they can give the first organic hints of MLB around about 24 minutes into it, then spiral off, get right well freaky, then after ten more wild minutes come back around and let the MLB emerge from its chrysalis to fly into one of the nicest Eyes of all time, is precisely why I listen to 1000s of hours of this music.

One might look at the setlist and think, "what was Big River doing here?", but then one listens and understands. They are perfectly in control of their music, and this one sizzles and pops and yes, at one point probably overwhelms a circuit for a few seconds. But it's a perfect workout before the long, smooth, mellow DS that follows.

Super tight set opener, moving through the different emotional phases of the song with the beautiful one-mind that just said, "buckle in heads, this set's going to go places...".