Also just about pretty damn perfect too. Follows a super-macho Hard to Handle and the combination shows so much of the emotional breadth of the Dead.

A sweet and rare country torch ballad showing off just what they were thinking bringing the Godchaux on board the bus.

Heavy and Heady. Starts with super-charged explosions then melts into ballsy MAMU in under 8 minutes. Love the '71s.

Absolutely smokin' hard rocking swagger. Builds from a cool shuffle to a blisteringly hot rocker setting up Drums/TOO. Great show all around.

The band plays/signs together so well on this sweet one. The whole concert is brilliant.

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.