Has one of Jer's longest continuous strings of up-tempo 16th note solo lines (in the changes) I can recall. Wicked fast and right as rain.

This version, and the one on the 12th, are just butter. I admit to sometimes not even noticing He's Gone, but this is a high spot for it.

One of those amazing versions of this underrated song where everyone is blazing along in collective improv to genius effect. Just beautiful.

Damn fine swagger on this one, in spite of a murky tape. Show cleans up after a few songs - thanks to C. Miller.

High voltage 18-wheel Truckin'. Mix and sound on this show keep it in the shadow of others this month, but the music is all there.

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.