It was such a pleasure to read Baronsons review that I had t0 chime in and say so! Thank you for that.

...My favorite of the 6 shows we saw over there....Ripping Promised 1st set closer....

What a spot on great review by Baronson. I too was there for that evening and I too can vouch, 100%, for the existence of the saturated business cards. By the time it came around to me (hanging out with a bunch of people I had met from Hampshire college....floor on Phil side) it was just a scrap of paper, I didn't realize it was a business card, but I was invited to rip off a small corner. What followed was a crazy colorful amazing smash mouth of a show, followed by an exit into a trippy visual playground (literally) outside of the Zenith. Had so much fun playing that we missed the train, said ahhhh whatever, and a group of us started walking back into town. Took us maybe 3-4 hours and we could't have been happier, just taking in the sights of Paris as we strolled back.

Highlights - Meh

just a quick thank you to baronson, i hope i remembered that right, for one of the most engaging reviews I have read on here. RIP Bear. My favorite part of your story. So well written front to back though. Our hotel at Jim Morrison's grave. Nice.

And I'm sure the show was a treat for all who were there.

Bucket>Sugaree, Minglewood are def a solid start, but from there I feel the energy level wavering at about average. This show seems to be one of the higher regarded from the Europe 90 tour and I think that both Wembly shows and the second Berlin show are FAR superior.

Second set jam feels a tad lazy to be honest. Crazy Fingers is tepid and dull (i'm usually a Crazy Fingers fan too). Playin' instead of getting psychedelic and funky just looses structure about five minutes in, and just continues with drum fills and synth/guitar noodles rather than truly thoughtful playing.

I'm only being so critical as a counterpoint to all that praise this show to high heaven. 1990 is an EXCELLENT performance year, so with that in mind, this show is average for that tour and especially the year as a whole (Vince/Bruce shows included).

Stella Blue does redeem for some of the lower energy moments with some true soul and extra effort. I love me a Throwing Stones, but I feel they closed 75% of these Europe shows with Throw>Away. lol.

The boys were still there at this point, but this night feels like a solid average to me.

played this set last night in columbus and it was phenomonal.

Wow what a treat. Yeah I taped Europe and all west coast thereafter up to the Jerry Memorial. I patched into Ed's Schoepps hypercards and he was religiously dead center for perfect ORTF (a french configuration coincidentally) and I had such a great show. The real kicker was that I really didn't come overseas with any party supplies, and we were all running to Amsterdam between countries, and the last train to Paris was just so filled thst there were no seats on the train, people filled the aisles the luggage racks and the decks between cars. It was 2 weeks into the tour and everyone figured it was finally safe enough to stop tossing out what they couldn't finish so it was like the bulldog cafe on the train, total cheech and chong. At 4am about 60 miles out of Paris Nord in the middle of pitch dark french countryside, the train slowly came to a stop. By then everyone was blitzed boyond belief and totally passed out snoring. The Gendarmes tried to get onto the train with drug sniffing dogs but couldn't get through all of the bodies. I've never seen a more confused police dog in my life. He cried because it was all around and he didn't know who to point at. The cops realized it was a lost cause so instead the started doing a big show in the bathroom with a lot of aha! look what we found. They must have fished a pound of contraband out of every conceivable nook and cranny and then got of before have the group even woke. What a laugh. Anyway, at Paris, word had it that Bear Owsley had a massive chrystal of a particularly magnificent Circa 1966 suspended in oil and properly stored for 24 years for a special occasion. Conveniently a Mr. Jerome Garcia had plain white busines cards which happened to be printed on very unusually soft and absorbent paper, which then accidentally became totally saturated with this old brew and then managed to get all over the place up front near where my brother had always hung out. He came running up to find me in the taper zone and handed me a tiny damp half gnawed piece of Jerry card, which I thought was an incredibly thoughtful gesture, but really only symbolic since there was no way such a tiny minuscule random spit wad caught between teeth could have any real effect, even if it had been countless months since the last time, and even then, it was all just so ho-hum to me.

But everyone was in such a great mood and so cool that night and then the music started and it sounded so zesty and clear and I just really began to groove and dance and dance like I haven't danced since Jerry at the Orpheum. I mean I just was sitting in the sweet spot, and Old Ed caught the groove more than usual, and then everyone near us got completely totally dialed in and we just danced our asses off like it was the floor at Jerry's feet.

It hadn't rained in Paris for months and months but that night it just got so incredibly steamy in that big tent that we were totally crazed and drenched I mean it was just the first fucking awesome show that I had had since maybe Laguna Seca or an odd Shoreline or Cal Expo, and few shows ever approached SUCH FUN for me (as fun as it all was). It was high energy , totally visual tinsel sparkle wonderfully pulsating zippity-doo-dah yippy yahoo merry-go-round and yet not flabby, intoxicated, loud, dizzy, or zoned out. It was big eyed and bushy tailed. I mean there was real clarity and joyous, blithe, lighthearted, exhilarating relief and openhearted connectedness that we all find in moments, from time to time, but rarely sustain while so in sync with an entire room on tour together.

It was a sublime moment on a tour which, for me up until then, really was working hard through Brent's absence as well as the hard slog of flu season in a complicated fast moving "trudge" through Europe.

This night was a surprise. I had underestimated the French. When you see a bunch of shows and commit to taping and you've been around a while you get a little hard to surprise. Its nice when you get thrust into the miracle of a really groovin' show that is so much more than can be experienced at a dozen other nights that sound just like it.

We all tried so hard to get that onto the tape or burned into film or memory or described a million different ways, but when it happens its just so nice, and so disarming, and all you can do is just smile smile smile. And it DID rain that night in Paris for the first time in many months, and the show went on way too long and was way too fun and we all just stayed so long that we missed the last subway out of Le Zenith, that spece aged distant corner of the town, and we walked miles and miles to the Mercure Montmarte, as fifty taxi cabs drove by with fares since nobody in Paris had umbrellas and we were just too American to leave any cheese eating surrender monkeys (I quote Robin Williams) out in the rain. We were totally wet, our gang, and we caroused all the way through that beautiful wet city making friend along the way until we finally got to our hotel at Jim Morrison's grave at 4:20 a.m. It was a beautiful night and it made the whole trip through Europe worth everything just for one night. It was just Omnipotent Serendipity. Or as I like to call it, Omnipotydipity.

Thanks for the tree link. I know about that sight but I just hadn't rolled a tape since I stopped taping. Its weird but the recording was a collaboration for me. And so I didn't have much interest in it outside of the shows, as strange and as unexpected as that may seem considering my dedication to making and collecting incredible stuff. I would mix 2 AKG 414b with 2 C460b CK 1 and roll up to 20 decks. I was the mad taper from hell and my gear bag weighed 100lbs. I had batteries and tape for everyone. It was a labor of love.

So I guess I deserve to just download a board now and then... Actually I haven't spun a DAT for years and I really need to digitize on hard drive before the masters totally self destruct from lack of use since 1995. I just need to find an antique DAT machine, before they go extinct.....anyway, when I get my shit together I'll be sure to mass produce CD's for everyone.

My alma mater, UCSC just received the Grateful Dead (non vault) "archives" of memorabilia and literature and historical stuff, so I am getting motivated to get this stuff online so I can give them everything I have. The novelty is that I was not a shotgun taper like almost everyone else, and I like fat wide ambient recordings that clearly captured the vibe and tome of the audience. I roll for minutes after the band left the stage and even record post show "green sleeves" or whatever on the P.A. and all of the comical shatter and shenanigans you'd get in a room full of the coolest people I knew.

Man, its all coming back to me now. Thanks for stimulating the memory again. Sometimes I forget how much fun it can be to remember some old fun.

Peace Bro

I took a really sweet young lady from Australia to her first show found out she was freaked out by crowds, took her up to the rafters to ease her distress where i promptly fell off a six foot riser in between sets and busted my leg.
The french hospital , the morphine, the water crossing of the channel all a big blur,
The positive side I got to sit in handicapped for the halloween show side stage to Garcia as he was howling "WEREWOLVES OF LONDON" -Priceless

I was lucky enough to see both Paris shows and the three London shows and this was my favorite of them. This was the only time in the 34 shows I saw that I arrived without a ticket and I took a couple of hours to find someone who was willing to trade a ticket for that night for my spare Halloween ticket. This was a small venue, maybe a couple of thousand total capicity, much bigger than the indoor barns this NorthEast Dead Head was used to. The floor was general admission which was also fairly rare for an indoor Dead show in 1990.
It was the first time I had seen Vince and Bruce and the first few songs seemed strange without Brent up there.

The song that blew me away that night was Minglewood. Minglewood is generally up there with Walkin' Blues as a classic bathroom break song. Jerry's first jam was full of energy but the jam towards the end was did it for me. Vince did his bit, then Bruce piled on with some honky-tonk piano, then Weir did his slide thing with Jerry closing the deal. I was speechless; a smokin' Minglewood! The rest of the show was played with plenty of energy and gusto with China-->Rider being of note.

Check out Minglewood, go on, I dare you....

nice concert that sunday afternoon
good feeling
nice people coming from Europe's different place

i saw all the shows of the Europe 90 tour aprt from halloween in London the Paris shows i enjoyed the most.
The Zenith is a big tent that leaks water.
Before the show i went to Musee D'Orsay and met Jerry, so these shows will stay in my mind

Nice show. Love the pre drums portion especially. Check out NFA. Half the band goes into OMSN, the others NFA.

Fabulous place! I've seen many shows here and the Dead topped them all. GReat sound! When groups play in Paris they have to play well and the Dead did the same. I swore I wouldn't see the Dead after Brent died and although the new guy pretty much well I don't want to be offesnsive anyways these shows rocked I love PAris!!!

These were the only two Dead shows I ever saw, and I count myself lucky it was these two, most of the people there were saying they were the best two shows of the Europe 90 tour. The sound and the good feeling that night were amazing, and both really come out in these recordings, bringing back the happy memories and the smiles of the evening. I've been wanting to listen to the music again ever since, but I'm too much the n00b and didn't know where to look. Until now... :)

I would give a five star rating for these, except that I still find the Space jams overly unnerving : also the sound on the recording, while good, isn't perfect : but I guess that's because the band had to turn down the volume on the giant stadium- category sound system they were using, so as not to bring down the roof on the tiny little Zenith concert hall the gig was held in LOL

Of course, on the night, that really really helped keep the sound quality and sensitivity of the mikes, amps and speakers to both Jerry and Phil up to about 99.9% perfect. :)

Phil was amazing on the second night.

Happy. Peace.

This has always been one of my favorite shows from the Europe 90 tour. Jerry is especially on as Sugaree, Birdsong and Crazy Fingers are all standouts. There is a very upbeat vibe that runs throughout the second set, perhaps because of the fine China Rider that led things off. When Bobby launches into Playin' out of the fine Crazy Fingers outro... well.. its just textbook Dead.

Check out the fine St. of Circumstance. A song like this could have been butchered on lesser nights, but not tonight. High energy and tightness is what this song demands and the band does not disappoint. Then amid all the chaos at the end of the song leads into a subtle drift down into a delicate Crazy FingersÂsweet! Playing in the BandÂawesome! A rollicking China Rider to start off the set. Thanks Archive!!

Thanks for posting this one have had the second set on CD for awhile but the first set is butchered on the CD I have - the sound is great and what a great venue - Circus tent - China/Rider shines