The China Cat>The Eleven sequence was always very cool and this one burns hot and fast. Don't wanna just put all of 'em up here, but this is a cooker.

A short little gem: Nice clear solo ideas and tight ensemble playing with that bursting-at-the-seams energy from the Anthem era.

It's '68 and the boys are on fire. This one pins you to the wall all its the sharp turns and jagged explosiveness. Hard pschedelic rock.

So blisteringly hot. All three Ark '69 shows are brilliant, but this is the clearest example of their brilliance on Eleven.

Just listened to it 4x in a row, something I never do. The whole intense Playin' universe packed into under 7min. Could be my favourite '71.

The Billy/Bobby interplay is clear - and beautiful - in the mix, which is a rare treasure. It reminds me of being at shows and being able to focus (when focus was even possible) on different combinations of the boys at play, depending on where you were in the audiospace. This isn't the most polished or most experimental version you'll hear. It isn't even the most well-played. It is,however, bursting with creative synchronicity and it quite simply doesn't resemble any that went before it. PiTB is a study in the Dead's evolution, and within one year it went from the weirdly apocalyptic psychedelic jam "The Main Ten" to a twangy country warble with its off-kilter meter and explosive energy. Within another year we arrive at Veneta and PiTB is there with Dark Star as one of their vehicles for interdimensional exploration. This one stands at one of the junctures.

Right on, unstrucksound, glad you dug it!

Little known fact: Phil has twenty fingers. Evidence? This song.

Good goddamned hot, this one. So much energy, they're just giving giving and giving.

Sure thing, Deadhoe69, but here it's uptempo, fresh, and pushing forward. Later ones don't (for me) have that essential pulse as the earlier ones. And Jer's vocals here push it forward with meaning and soul. There's a pulse here that sometimes I lose in the later ones. He's right, this is a good call. You'll love it. I do.