Shug

Thanks, Mr. Heartbreak, for that detailed description. I love to read that kind of review that gives a sense of what was like to be there. It sounds like it was way more fun than the setlist would indicate. Nothing like a good rockin' into it crowd!

Yeah, I knew that guy, he was from Virginia and had moved to Nor Cal to see more shows, didn't work, lived off a trust fund, drove a BMW, had a bomb stereo, smoked the dank all day long and knew someone who knew someone in the Dead office and got the sweet low gen SBDs. I didn't really like him, he was kind of a mean person, but I hung out with him as little as possible, just enough to get copies of his tapes. That sounds awful, but I suppose one did what one had to if you wanted the tapes badly enough. I also knew plenty of good people I went to shows with and shared tapes with, too, I'm m

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/30/DDG12JM4F61.DTL&ao=all Disturbing stuff, no doubt. My opinions about his music don't have anything to do with feeling bad about his personal problems. I truly hope he's resting in peace or reincarnated into a happier life or whatever happens after we die.

That is true, and funnily enough, the same is true for Keith "replacing" Pigpen as the main keyboard player. The story goes Keith just kept showing up and basically announced that he wanted to be the new keyboard player and they said "OK". Apparently they used the same laizze faire approach to selecting new members throughout their career. From my perspective, they got lucky with Keith and Brent and Hornsby, not so lucky with Vince. At least with Brent, they knew what they were getting since he had been playing with Bobby's side band for awhile.

I know why some Heads felt that Brent was moody, angry, or had a dark spirit (dropping f-bombs in Never Trust A Woman and Little Red Rooster and the singing stuff like "this song's my last song for you, bitch") and there is some truth to that, but overall I felt a lot of passion and exhuberence and soulfulness from his music. I can see how it was not everyone's cup of tea, but I think he was really loved by many Heads. Tons of Steel is my fave Brent tune, just killer. And his vocals on Gimme Some Lovin', how he blended with Phil, were fantastic, IMO. Vince, on the other hand, was really j

Casinos are so cheesy, cluelessly assuming they know what songs a band like Wilco is gonna play. This ain't some washed up nostalgia act that is guaranteed to play their "hits" (as if Wilco ever had any hits). For some reason, this kind of thing bugs the shit out of me.

Here's a thread about that. http://viachicago.org/topic/46301-song-requests-for-concerts/page__hl__requests

I, too, love Brent's vocals (and his Hammond playing)... Shit storm? What shit storm?

A lot of people feel that Kimock IS a JG sound alike. I think he can be great but tends to be too mellow or takes too long to get fired up, a least that was how I felt all the years I saw him with Zero. When he gets going, his tone and feel are amazing to me. He's a lot like the Dead, can't be forced to fire on all cylinders, but when he does, look out! Haynes and Herring, IMO, sound less like JG than Kimock. Hornsby on keys would be my dream, too. I'd have no problem with the dream line up you mentioned, Vacant, unless Kimock was playing too mellow. Maybe if you added in Haynes or Her

The Phil and Friends Quintet (Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring on dual lead guitars, John Molo on drums and I think Rob Barraco on keys) are playing a few shows again at Terrapin Crosssroads, but tix are like $150, ouch! Out of all the post-Jerry configurations of the remaining Dead, this band was far and away the best, for me. It was complex, intricate and long jams with two lead guitars blazing away. They did some great stuff like Viola Lee Blues and cool covers like Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. And it was kinda like 1973 in that any song might materialize out of any jam and there was

You Are My Face!! This one's been absent too much, for my taste. Thanks, bbop, as always, for the timely and thoughtfully detailed reviews. I appreciates it!

Not trying to convince ya to like '85, vacant, because it was full of bum notes and bad singing from Jerry. But if you do wanna check it out again, here's a little list of recommendations Already mentioned 6-27-85, 6-28-85 and 6-30-85. Also very good is 3-28-85 set I opens with Truckin>Smokestack and closes with China>Rider, well played, too. The first sets of 4-7-85 and 4-8-85 Philly are inventive and played at a speedy energetic clip. Short but really good, IMO. For some reason there were a lot of really good first sets in '85 and then things often lagged at some point in the

Its been awhile for Kingpin, it seems, and I'm really happy to see it show up again. Bumped up against Monday and Outta Site makes that second encore even more exciting to me. That first encore is looking pretty good already and just the fact that they played a second one is great, but to have it be those three songs puts it over the top in my book. Right on! I'll be hoping that Red Rocks is a special enough venue to create a desire in the band to pull out something like this setlist.

Yeah, Lammy, the whole SPAC show is good (well, I'm not crazy about the post drums/space part of the show, but the first half of set II is very good, like you said). What do you guys know about Charlie Miller and how he came to be the revered mix-master tape-fixer dude? Curious about his history and connections to the Dead family.

Hershey Park 6-28-85 (set II) and Saratoga 6-27-85 (set I) have always been favorite tapes of mine. I LOVE 1985, especially the summer and the spring. Its weird how in the first half of the 80s they could play really good shows when Jerry seemed to be unhealthy. It seems to me that Jerry's poor health meant bad shows more in the 90s, but that's just a vague impression, not based on any facts I have or anything.

OK, back to the music, then. Did I mention the killer Shakedown Street from 6-30-85? It smokes! http://archive.org/details/gd1985-06-30.sbd.miller.89192.sbeok.flac16

Sorry if I touched on a sensitive topic, Analogman. I'm perfectly OK with disagreements, not sure why that would make you not want to discuss something, though? Maybe something about sobriety or the Dead scene and drug use? No need to talk about something you aren't comfortable with, but I didn't really take a position one way or the other, so I'm not sure what you think we are disagreeing about? I'm confused, but that's alright. I just enjoy the conversation and you seem to have a lot of knowledge and insight, so I hope I didn't put you off in some way. I didn't say Dick's job was a dre

What do you mean, Analogman? The only sad stuff I read in that essay (which was highly revealing of stuff I had no idea about) was that the Dead apparently made Dick do menial work for many years and didn't pay him all that much. I'm sure he would've like to get paid more, but he was doing his dream job: getting paid to sit around all day, get stoned and listen to Dead shows. Its what he was doing anyway and then all of the sudden they decide to pay him for it. Of course, he had the apparently endless headaches of trying to deal with all the obstacles to getting the shows out that he wante

Thanks for the food and bar recommendations, appreciated! We'll try to check out those Dead bars, Lammy, thanks.

That Dead Essays blog is pretty great stuff! I loved the post ranking the top versions of Here Comes Sunshine and this one about the Dead's jazz influences

Pinche Tacos looks good. Got any other food recommendations for Denver? We are staying downtown between LoDo and Central Business District. Not sure where others are staying or how the logistics for a meet up will be, but it'd be nice to meet some board folks, even if only at the show.

Red Rocks #1 will be show #8 Red Rocks #2 will be show #9 I've seen: Memphis 2003 - Gibson Guitar Factory rooftop Aspen 2010 Ryman 2011 Ryman 2011 Tempe 2012 San Diego 2012 LA Theatre 2012 I'm really bummed I missed the epic Evening With shows in 2010, the shows with the horn section when they filmed Ashes Of American Flags and I'm really hoping they do more Evening With crazy-long 40 song shows (even though I feel really bad for Glenn's hands and Nels' neck!) As for the long break between my first show and the next, I really didn't get into Wilco until Nels and Pat joined. That Memphis

I know its well over a month away and the May run hasn't even started yet, but I'm getting excited anyway. So who's going? I'll start the list and you can add to it if you are in. Shug & Laurie (flying in from AZ)

Yeah, to REALLY pay tribute to Levon, you gotta have horns! I'd flip out to see Wilco with a horn section.