The Dead’s fiery raid on Herouville begins with a mighty Truckin’, oozing with a cantankerous spirit: Jerry’s guitar, Phil’s bass, etc. The energy is off the charts, and the boys don’t let up the rest of the show. Loser and Bobby McGee come out next, before Pig takes over on Next Time You See Me, bawling to the audience in the type of intimate gathering that he really loved playing. Morning Dew emerges out of the shadows, painting an apocalyptic atmosphere on the canvas of rural France. The whole band is firing throughout, beginning with Billy’s expertly-timed cymbal fills that plunge everyone head-first into the face melting maelstrom. After the dust settles, Bobby heads west with Me & My Uncle, before the Frenchies get another shot of Pig on a rocking version of Otis Redding’s Hard to Handle. And the China>Rider that comes next is, put, simply, mind-bending. The China Cat scorches in the interstices between the verses before launching on a bluesy jam into Rider. And the Rider itself is stratospheric with some beautiful harmonies. Promised Land and a short Deal and Playin’ follow, lacking nothing but a few more minutes of jamming. Then Pig comes back again on Big Boss Man with some bruising harp and vocals. We don’t get a Lovelight or Good Lovin’ out of the band on this night, but Pig tears up each of his tunes, all while playing piano throughout the show rather than his organ. Black Peter, Bertha, and Casey Jones, all of which feature some of those Pig keys, come out in succession next. Then it is on to The Other One, which is dark, searching, and insatiable as the boys throw it back to their primal roots, playing sixteen minutes of trippy, face-stealing music. We can only imagine the drunken French minds that were blown that day. Eventually, the band brings it back to Earth, transitioning into a mesmerizing Wharf Rat. Sugar Mags surges forth afterwards. Just picture the townspeople stumbling into the pool while they shake their bones to the tune. Then Sing Me Back Home slows things down, as it will, but still bristles with emotion before the final release of Johnny B. Goode caps the night in the French countryside.

In the two months before the jump across the pond, the Dead had only played two shows – back-to-back at Winterland – partly because Bill Graham was shuttering the Fillmore. A little bored, the boys jumped at a chance to play a free festival on the outskirts of Paris, earning nothing more than their flight and expenses. When they arrived on the continent, the Dead learned that the festival had been canceled because of heavy rains. But the boys stayed on for a few days, staying at the Chateau d’Herouville, a 1740 rambling structure where Chopin had a love affair and Van Gogh had painted. After a few days of wine, drugs, and tennis, the Dead decided to throw a concert at the place. As McNally writes in Long Strange Trip, “on the solstice, June 21, the weather cleared and they set up in back of the chateau near the pool, which the children of Herouville had encircled with hundreds of candles.” The mayor and chief of police, as well as all the townspeople, were in attendance. “No Dead Heads – it was just boogie down,” Lesh relates. “A little acid being passed around, not too much, just right…It was the classic garden party with the GD and the LSD. Talk about a piece of San Francisco transplanted to the heart of France.”

Video of the evening is available on YouTube: