Just to say this is really a great time in GD history.
listening show by show to the Spring 73 tour
The sound excellent for almost every gig.
(big exception , opening night 3/15 Nassau-needs a miracle)
The Band in their prime
only the music
could
see them thru
the loss of Pigpen..
"The sun will shine in my back door SOMEDAY.."

Highlights: The Race Is On, The Other One, Buffalo Jam, I Know You Rider

They all claim it's sarcasm but it must just be totally awesome to be an old woman who knows thousands of drug casualties on the internet dream up fantasies of murdering her because they don't like her voice.

Half-Step… I swear Jerry sings, “On the day that I was born, Santa sat down and cried”.
Race is On
Sugaree
Mexicali is where the fun really begins.
Box of Rain is excellent, not rushed, just right. Jerry plays those notes with care, varying his volume and intensity as only the maestro knows how.
TN Jed is extra twangy/funky, but I think it didn’t work as well as some others.
Jack Straw starts off slow but they find the legitimate pace quickly.
Big RR is supercharged greatness, as usual.
El Paso is also a really fun version.
Row Jimmy slows things down a bit, but it still manages a nice tempo due to Billy hitting the snare regularly. The vocal finale was a bit much I thought.
LLR actually wasn’t that bad. Donna being low in the mix helped.
TLEO comes be-bopping out of the storm. Great tempo, as is the standard in this era. My theory on this later slowing is its inclusion in JGB, and more heroin influenced music. I have not evidence to support this idea.
PITB, Donna is back up in the mix, as she shrieks us into the jam. I would literally have throttled her, rushed the stage, and throttled her after she blew so many PITBs… thankfully the jam periods were substantial enough to allow one to gain some level of groove before she would bust it. Thanks for bringing her along Keith… NOT WORTH IT. I’d rather sit through 100 I Will Take You Homes than have had her. That’s something they should do in Guantanamo, a dynamic duo of lame… IWTYH and Donna shrieks on a loop. The jam is pretty mellow through the 7th minute. After the 11 minute mark we start getting some coherent noodles and the energy is picking up,

Pland>Bertha>GSET
This trifecta of energy comes in strong, with Bertha really taking it up a notch. Donna again annoys in GSET, and the guitar does less than we know it can. Still a great GSET, just not nearly the head of its pack.
Gone>Truckin>Drums>TOO Jam>Spanish Jam>TOO>Rider
Gone is slow, and has a minor jam before hitting Truckin, which has a nice little build up, and as a reviewer on archive noted, does have a small Nobody’s Fault jam. Phil takes us out of a short drums session with the TOO bombs, and Jerry sets straight into noodling. There are some prime riffs in here, not chaotic, more melodic than usual. Around 5 minutes in it gets a little slower than I would like, into space. Just before 8 minutes in the Spanish Jam begins, still listed under TOO. It’s not the typical Spanish Jam, but the Spanish theme would not be denied. Bob’s playing gets more traditional during the 9th minute. 10th minute brings some funky wind noise in the background (perhaps a cymbal with effects?!), and Bobby sings verse one. This falls rapidly into total space, in the “Jam”. After the 4 minute mark of this jam, we get almost an MLB type of theme, but it doesn’t get rhythm. It seems it’s just Jerry and Phil… Bob chimes in a bit here and there, so he was on stage. At 7 we get back into form with the beginning of the Rider Jam. Rider was an interesting call, and how they got there from the space beats me, but unique.
Sugar Mag
Casey Jones – Apparently there was some kind of huge train situation going on in the concert hall for this during this period. Must have been cool.


Overall, this is the most bells & whistle laden show (without the actual whistle Bobby would later adore). Thematic jams, extended jams, setlist oddities, varied meat sequence… but lacking the punch I would like, in the actual execution… that punch probably would have placed this show as one of the best ever.
Great SQ in this source!

This is a very good concert in hi-fidelity.
Row Jimmy, The Race Is On, The Other One and IKYR are excellent versions.
Jerry sounds good in February/March '73, as per the guitar work and vocals, particularly in Madison, Lincoln, Springfield and here.

to me, i hear a new jam that signaled the beginning of i know you rider. it had nothing to do with a missing china cat. just another jam that fell apart.

with break-down

clean, upbeat, bouncy. this is so much fun to listen to guaranteed to put a smile on your face :-)


the rest of the show ain't too shabby either. goodness gracious i love archive thanks!

I was in attendance. I've always thought the proper second set jam transcription should look like this:
He's Gone>Truckin'>Nobody's Fault Jam>drums>Other One Jam>Spanish Jam>Other One>I Know You Rider.

Just sayin'........

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~^|\_@|@_/|^~
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I recommend adding this show to your 1973 GRATEFUL DEAD collection.

It's a Buffalo New York show from 1973. I bet Buffalo is nothing like it was in seventy three.

Solid performances of all the songs we love.

Billy sounds like he's smacking a piccolo snare...other than that, the rest of it falls within the margins of reality and what musicians call improvising.

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Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.

Thanks for the LOVE from 1973

PS: It sounds just like I remember it. 73 was my Senior Year in HS.

After Tico Tico you can hear Bob in the right channel playing the WDD figure. Keith briefly joins him and Jerry starts He's Gone.

it's Tico, Tico, and not Wang Dang Doodle. Unfortunately the whole of it isn't here, but then maybe they really did play only a couple seconds of it. As for my star rating on this show, it's another fine piece of '73 magic. As others have asked before me, are there ANY bad shows in '73?

Amendment to premature review---Truckin'>TOO blew me away!
Many thanks to SKUZZLEBUTT's rec on this one. At about 7min into it they break into a jam that turns to Spanish Jam f/a couple mins, and what's labeled as "JAM" after TOO, is kinda spacey for several mins, which morphs beautifully into the Feelin' Groovey Jam, and then into INYR. I think I smiled through the whole of this suite.

This is a must show. No downers here folks this show kicks some ass.

This show is amazing, with incendiary licks from Garcia the whole way through. I already knew about the He's Gone through Sugar Mag, but I took a listen to some other tunes people commented on and the reiews are spot on. A truly fantastic performance from start to finish

Though this isn't the earliest live version of Weir's "Looks Like Rain," being almost a year after the release of "Ace," it's interesting to hear it in a clear live recording without Godchaux's harmony. This is one of the best live versions of this, as well as El Paso, à mon avis.

Row Jerry Row

Has anyone else noticed that there is a tiny bit of the theme from Close Encounters right before they really kick in the rocket sleds and quasars during Spanish Jam? I heard lots of it in the late '70's when I was going to lots of shows, but this is the earliest I've heard it recorded. It predates the movie by 4 and a half years, so it's it's a Dead invention as far as I know. I was in Buffalo at the time but only 15 and unaware. Missed a super show.

great show, espically he's gone through sugar magnolia (like the reviewer below me said)
i also like TLEO, and the PITB has some very fine jamming to it (altho SOMEONE onstage lets out a wail that almost pierced my ears)

4.5 stars, but round up to 5

This is my pick for the best Other One of 1973. Wild and fast and very nice! There is a great segment from He's Gone through Sugar Magnolia.

Different sound than the standard fare you're used to!

Again, just like the show a few concerts ago, the tuning is in front of every song. It really ruins the listening experience. You want to play Playin' In The Band and you have to wait 45 seconds for all the tuning.

It's too bad, this show has one of the only (or only) naked I Know You Riders since '69. It comes out of Spanish Jam.

The sound here is solid, a little hissy but still pretty good (I'd like to hear if one of those Ashley/Bertha remasters would help). The show itself is very solid '73, with occasional fireworks in the early going as momentum is built, then they open the floodgates as pretty much everything from "Truckin'" on rocks out. In fact, the jamming during this segment is one of my favorite hunks of Dead music from this year. The show overall falls just short of a 5 for me but I have no problem with someone giving it that.

Drove from Toronto to Buffalo to see this show and have waited over 30 years (!) to hear it again. Well-worth the wait. Great show, then and now. At the time the wonderful reading of He's Gone seemed like it went on forever. I wasn't too far off the mark. So nice to hear these shows fresh.

1st Set is great especially playin but the real fun begins at he's gone>truckin and just starts picking up a good head of steam there - full of suprises and wierd funky jams - sugar mag keeps thumping Phil is ready to stop and Jerry makes it clear there is more to come I know I have said this before but this time I mean it this is one of the best they ever did - great stuff!!! Thanks to the good folks at San Rafael you guys have no idea how much joy this brings.... No sh*t.

3/24's similar jam, including the "Spanish," is noticeably better than this one, but this show has a superior "Playin'."

For me, 73 is my favorite year and this is an overlooked show. Great sound and great show.

Damn! Jerry's closing solo on Tennesse Jed is the most exciting and moving I've ever heard! It is ferocious...he bends the hell out of the strings to get the perfect note and tone. I've never heard any other guitarist bend strings to get certain notes like Jerry did in 1972-1974. The rest of the show is f-ing awesome too!

stream 71 and 72 sugar magnolia for the same effects

I believe Garcia is definately playing some st. steven licks throughout the jam in GSET. Its very cool hearing those notes in that pedel steel sound overlaying the rythm jamming of the band underneath - that is of course until donna G chimes in to completely ruin all that was very pleasent.

Cant say for sure? But It sounds like Jerry was about to fall into it during the GSET. This show is nuts!

Unbelieveable. Can't wait to download this one
after listening to it today..I'm not a big "Greatest Story" fan, but this one is great..Ditto El Paso. Don't even bother listening first..just get it.


Jim

the Other One jam > Know You Rider is the cats meow.

excellent groovy playing, similar to the late June run in the following months. Jerry is in top form and drops quasars throughts Greatest Story, the rest is sublime. get er' done.

do it!

My old cassette version was simply He's Gone thru Casey. I'd never been able to find any more, although it was always on my top 10 "wanted list" back when we traded all through the mail.

The He's Gone thru Casey is about 50 minutes of supremely lyrical and enjoyable jazz jamming. I've never found a show that rivaled the weird and fun turns these jams take.

The sound is excellent for '73, which is a year generally considered the worst for sound quality.

Show: A
Sound: B+/A-

A for Sound Quality
B+ for show quality. This is a great one folks!

I attended this concert, after new friends had me listen to the "Grateful Dead" (a racehorse?) and the "New Riders of the Purple Sage" (which they produced I read), having seen them at Stony Brook U. one Halloween. A mirror ball was turned on at one part, in the 1st or 2nd jam and Jerry left the stage, (after midnight? I was there with a Yippie, Jeffrey) and ended with a three story locomotive front-end was revealed from behind the curtain as they played "Casey Jones". We saw them again, at the Watkins Glen Music Festival, with The Band and the Allman Bothers, a poorly run event, like Woodstock, in terms of food (read "Three guys with unlimited capital"). Is that an electronic tuner?

Jerry's tone is on. Something about these late March shows, specifically the 21st, 26th and this one.

This is a great show- fabulous sound quality, and from one of the Dead's most fascinating eras. The TLEO is absolutely superb, in the more up-tempo style (that they for some reason abandoned) that i prefer... The Playin that follows is also monumental. Worth the DL, no question. Thank you, Archive!

just wanted to say a big thanks to all the kind folks out of San Rafael for releasing shows from this era and of this quality and energy after all these years especially. you truly keep the wheel rollin' by doing so. your generosity and human spirit are so refreshing in the entertainment world. i can hardly watch pro sports anymore.

this is another nearly perfect sho that is just SO easy to listen to. every song flows and flows and flows. 2nd set raunchy versions of greatest story almost make me giggle. the band changed so much over the years. wish i coulda been there, but being over 12 at the time, oh well.

By even the most crude evaluator, this tape should always be a 5 star....hell, truckin>otherone>rider!

I am speachless download the show and you will not be disappointed. There is not one iota of a blemish on this recording. It doesn't say its a Betty but it sure sounds like it.

This show is great for a long car ride through say the hills of Vermont or garberville CA...just so crispy and slinky. Otherone and its follow up jams are rediculous!

What a gem!

Good sound quality here, not the greatest, but its workin'. Lots of good jamming, He's Gone-> Truckin'-> Drums-> The Other One-> Spanish Jam- was where this show was at. Jerry and Phil tear it up.

I just LOVE this show. Tight, high energy. Despite the fact that it lacks some of my favorite selections from '73 (Dark Star, China>Rider), I frequently seem to pop this disc in. I guess it just makes me happy. (Note -- I downloaded it a while ago from gdlive.com, not this site, so I can't comment on the sound quality here, only the show itself -- sorry!)