This is The Dead at peak performance level. Cataclysmic version. Everyone is ON. Explorative and not a beat missed. Easily top 5 of 69.

Nice early electric version. Always preferred this key for Dire Wolf compared to when they changed it in the later years. Just right. Nice version.

Takes you right to Chicago. Jerry’s playing emulates the blues greats. Hard rocking version that reminds me of a Junior Wells cut. Highly recommend.

Haunting organ playing. Crystalline and psychedelic early version that feels very spacey. Great vocal delivery.

Very nice solo from Jerry. Phil is all over this as well, some great melodic bass playing that compliments the song very well.

This needs to be higher! For me personally the perfect Dancin Trifecta has to be 5/19/77 5/8/77 and then this beautiful show right here. Holy shit and pardon my profanity but this solo absolutely fucking rips, Jerry is RELENTLESS during this song and if I’m being totally honest he knows it and is capitalizing on it, pulling from his bag of tricks without even missing a beat or losing any energy whatsoever. I don’t know but this solo really does something to me and Jerry was clearly really digging and feeling out the space the band was laying down so he can explore with due diligence. What a stellar performance this really should be higher, incredible energy.

I enjoy this version a lot, frankly I love Jerry’s tone in this too it’s absolutely monster. However, as much as I love this show and this performance, I can’t help but to think that there are so many more performances that truly push the boundaries of the song. 2/13/70 100% did and look at any Europe 72 show, pure sonic exploration without losing the core structure of the song. Granted we wouldn’t have any sonic explorations if it weren’t for the blueprints such as performances like these. Greatest of all time? I don’t think so, yet, there is something so enduring about this one. Check out 11/8/69 for an epic DS transition into a TOO that I would consider a distant cousin of this one!

Love Jerry’s playing on this one, his joy is infectious! May not have the diminished jam but honestly still has a lot of character, my personal favorite eyes at the moment!

If you’re reading this, give this a relisten. It gets deep, cosmic ooze all over this version yet no matter how far they go into outer reaches of the cosmos, it truly never loses character and the boys really catch on to some energy here. Criminally underrated good lovin’ might be best of all time, for sure top 3 of all time. Great interplay with the band, check out pigpen and Phil later in the jam and Phil interpreting his words through his playing, brilliant stuff. Overall a fun, adventurous, and jazzy good lovin! VERY HEADY

So this, is to me, the best Dark Star they ever played. The way the express themselves on this track is beyond words. All is conveyed through this symphonic Dark Star. Incredibly jazzy and a very stream of consciousness kind of performance. They really tap into something deep in this version and this entire performance feels astoundingly profound. I literally made an account just to upvote this dark star and get it higher because I think it is that good. Even the way it starts it feels like we’re entering back into this familiar place that’s always so comforting and Jerry, leading the way, explores different rhythms and scales almost putting the band through a jazz clinic at the half note. This whole performance is probably one of if not the jazziest Dark Star ever played. It has such an elegance and a beautiful feminine energy that makes the song feel so light at times while you’re entering these spaces along with them. Jerry’s playing is so sharp and witty, dripping with psychedelia he makes incredibly profound statements with his instrument throughout this entire Dark Star. I love how the band dances in and out of so many of these spaces with so much ease. It's easy to get lost in the beauty of it all. After the first verse the band travels into deep, DEEP space encountering dark matter and conveying to the audience that there’s absolutely no turning back, but no matter what happens, they got you. Drum solo enters which feels like an Olympic Workout, It feels Herculean, and ancient. Part II of this Dark star and Jerry stars speaking in tongues through his guitar. a short but jazzy and elegant Tiger riff ensues and while it’s short, you really feel the intensity of that tiger for its energy can be felt even for a microsecond, that feeling of total ego disillusion. From the Ashes we dive back into the Dark Star Theme and Jerry starts to let his soul shine a little by playing some brilliant themes that the band just fades into completely. I tend to think of great pantheon like halls as the music intensifies. So much intent. This whole Dark Star feels like the band is pondering Philosophical ideas and coming to their own truth. If there was one word to describe this Dark Star, it would be epiphany. The ending jam always makes me emotional the way Jerry riffs around the Dark Star theme and the band falls in and out of Feelin' Groovy jam so gracefully. It was the end of the Dark Star that had me curious to seek this out. I was listening to Europe 72 and when Sugar Magnolia came on, I had to hear the Dark Star that came before it. That ending to me is one of the most elegant things the Dead have ever done. The Dead reached new heights that night in France. Nothing was ever really the same after this.