West L.A. Fadeaway
July 19, 1989
Alpine Valley Music Theatre
Garcia is cool as can be in this, composed yet shredding, and shredding not in a flashy pretentious manner, but in an I am completely capable of tearing this song to pieces way, this performance is not a stretch of Garcia's skills. Garcia could do this when he was on, and for sure he was on this entire run at Alpine. This 7/19 conclusion is a grand finale, Althea, West L.A, and Deal are some incredible highlights of one of the best 1st sets of the entire decade. This is what the band could accomplish on a night when they were truly ON and firing tight. Prime, choice, use whatever adjectives you want this thing is in the pantheon of all time Garcia guitar performances, vocally its decent enough, if you haven't heard it (a minority on this site) give it a spin right away.