Grateful Dead 1973-02-22

This recording is only partial, but luckily it's got most of set 1, and the juciest looking parts of set 2, all in quite splendid soundboard audio. You can stream it here: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=12064

First set starts with a quite standard "Promised Land". After follows a very smoking version of the always welcome "They Love Each Other", still very upbeat, in contrast to the slower versions they played later in their career. "El Paso" is nice as well, but nothing spectacular. I didn't give much attention to "Bird Song", but it was anyway the first real (but short) jam-out of this show, nice and jazzy! Next up comes more fun with "Mexicali Blues" & "Deal", both well-played and all good. "Looks Like Rain" is almost always good, and for this version I made notice of the sweet interplay between Garcia's guitar & Weir's ad lib vocaling close to the end of the song. Sweet! After that we got "Tennessee Jed", a song I don't care much about really, but this one is good, with a thick carpet of Phil underneath it. "Box of Rain" comes next. Wonderful, with Donna doing lovely backup vocals (I like Donna!) and Jerry's guitar rolling along perfectly.

After that the first set comes to an end with a 17-minute treatment of "Playin' in the Band":
It starts tight and fine, and after the second (?) chorus they slide into the jam as expected. Garcia puts on some wah-wah-ish effect and turns the PITB-theme upside down & inside out, before he moves out into a more free form space, while Phil & Kreutzmann keeps it all together, Billy being very very jazzy behind the drums and Phil grooving along, and Garcia gets wilder, he teases "The Tiger" but falls back into jazzy jamming freely based over the PITB-theme. Phil is moving all over the frets, high and low, now, while Garcia has gotten an idea and started something else, free improvisation, yeah, free your mind and your ass (or: fingers) will follow, - it's Garcia who dominates, and Phil laying down a very very good foundation with Billy out there keeping it all wildly together somehow- damn, that drummer is good! - now they're moving out into a more open space, there's a lot going on here, but it's good, ... Garcia starts freaking out, the band takes it down to a low, but fast groove, and kick off! Everyone follows everyone and Garcia goes blues-psych-jazz! Ah, just sit back and enjoy! We're only about 10-11 minutes into it...

Set 2: They start with straight versions of "US Blues" & "Me & My Uncle". Then comes the real goodness.
"Dark Star" starts very laidback and lovely, kinda slow, with that incredible -73 jazz all the while, dipping into the blues here and there, she is walking, slow and fast, a little sad, thoughtful, conclusions appear and disappear, she enters a groove and dissolves into jazzy laidbackness, and very, very gently moves into the first theme and then goes into a detour, the first verse doesn't come as expected! But the pieces fall smoothly together after a little while, and the first verse is masterfully delivered. Shall we go? Yes, let's see where this goes, where the road takes us this time. Ah, out into space and dissonance, the strangeness. Let's explore the unknown territories we always seek. Come on. Everyone leads and everyone follows. We don't care if we get lost; we'll find our way back somehow. "Relax man, everything's gonna be allright!" as Garcia said during an acoustic set in 1970. On the recording you can really hear him smiling when he says it! OK, the dark star, she moves into space still, further, down, in slow motion. Phil lays his carpet down deep. Garcia is way out, and then he starts something really wild, it goes up and away, what is this? A rocket? A crazy carousel? The madness is complete, the melt-down quick and whoa! Garcia holds the controls and the ship dives straight into the Eyes of the World, the sweet safety, the home world, the wonderfulness of those early -73 "Eyes"... Oh yes. Mmmmm... It reminds me of an all-time favorite of mine (maybe not so strange): 3 days earlier - February 19, 1973. It's in that vein, it's truly great, yeah. Just go listen. I can't say much more. It's really great. Really. In a wild, jazzy, tight way. Listening to this is 16 minutes of your life well spent.

Eventually they collapse into the perfect beauty of "China Doll", and it's a really nice version, not the all time best, but check out the short but terribly sweet guitar playing just before the "Take up your china doll" line. It's a slow and well-behaved version, they don't rush it, the details are being taken care of and the occasional improvised lick here and there.