Still an infant, only two months old, this is a delicately sublime version. Available on the (un-numbered) Download Series from the Family Dog.

Mr. Lemieux, if you're listening, this show deserves a look! Brent's debut and nice energy throughout, as evidenced by this Sugaree!

Lively version with plenty of Phil bombs from a seriously underrated show. Almost makes you forget how rote this song got a few years later.

Strong version from a very good '94 show. We all know Jerry's playing was in decline at this point but the magic could still be mustered at times

Tight and energetic version from an oddly underrated show -- The whole show and the following night is available as Dowload Series Vol. 9.

Obviously a sentimental favorite among many Heads given its breakout status. Jerry dives into the first verse almost immediately while the crowd is still roaring. Pretty powerful moment and it’s fun to listen to audience recordings (or a matrix) where you can get a sense of what it might have been like to be there. Overall, it’s spacey and well played especially for those like me who dig Jerry's 89/90 guitar tone. But this version is perhaps overly-reliant on MIDI effects which frankly haven’t aged well. Most of the post-second verse really sounds more like 90’s era Space than Dark Star. I periodically listen to this one and generally enjoy it but I think there are probably better late-era Dark Stars to be found.

Starts out kind of listless and sleepy. Really a bit dull until around the 19:30 mark when Phil and Jerry seem to tentatively hint at a thematic shift — after a few measures Bobby jumps on board and WOW, off we go, falling headlong into a buoyant jam that starts out reminiscent of the 2/13/70 Feelin’ Groovy jam. This evolves into a unique and brightly melodic segment that sustains itself for a few minutes and features great interplay between Jerry and Bobby, if not the whole band. As others have noted, there’s even a brief hint of a Sugar Magnolia jam, about six months before that song would make its debut. At about the 24 minute mark things shift into a nice and lively Tighten Up jam that eventually gives way to the main theme around the 29 minute mark before delivering us into St. Stephen. The last twelve minutes or so of this 32 minute Dark Star are absolutely stellar. (The danger is that many impatient listeners may have checked out by then). This is one of those fantastic Dark Stars where the best things about it are the multiple thematic jams that exist outside of the standard “Dark Star” framework.

Definitely on the spacey side. Impressive cohesion and playing but not much in the way of melodic jamming for such a long version. The WRS Prelude intro is nice and seems like an interesting bit of misdirection until you realize that WRS did not debut in full until September ‘73.

The Dark Star breakout gets all the attention but this is actually the highlight of the show strictly from a performance standpoint. Such a passionate and emotive performance. The band just absolutely crushes it.

Probably the best performance of an otherwise slightly sub-par night (from a generally incredible tour).