Cooks along thanks to Jerry's tasty leads.

These Dec. shows are just great cowboy fun.

Billy tickles the drums at Bobby's lyrical blunder. Then blues.

Never miss a Big River from Dec. '73!

Stays in this solar system, but swirls around in shifting torrents of light.

nothing I've heard from this night prepared me for how weird and exploratory this would get. If you're a fan of beefy, heady PITBs, spin this tonight.

more exploratory than Barton? Although less hot, it avoids that version's problems. Killer version.

Short version: if you like this month of these tunes, check it out and up vote. NO WAY 05-13 is better than this; it's ranked higher because of the box set.

Phil bass rips at beg. of "Scarlet." Bobby plays "China Cat" lick about 3 min in. Several well played choruses from Jerry. Three great drummers with Keith, who was assuredly awake this whole run. This "Scarlet" (pre-transition) likely ranks with Cornell; it probably comes down to a note-by-note of Jerry's solos for me. Worst case, it's still a totally killer version. Transition is considerably better than many of those following 05-08, IMO. Everything just works here. Jerry loses some steam guitar-wise towards the start of the first verse of "Fire," but his vocals have been consistently good this whole Palladium run. Nice peak in the first "Fire' solo. Convinced beyond reasonable doubt that lack of exposure is why this is so low, and why comparatively musically weaker versions from May are so much higher. Jerry flubs next verse, but unlike the godawful "Franklin's" from 05-09 (there, I said it), makes up for it with good guitar playing. Phil makes everyone gives just a bit extra on the potentially repetitious and tedious outro material, elevating even that a step above.

While I fully agree, I would caution everyone not to skip out on the set before this. This is a show that isn't talked about breathlessly only because it's less well-known.