Dead of the Day: 01-10-1979

The show starts off with a rocking Promised Land, and while the first set might not have too many fireworks, it is solid. The Stagger Lee and Row Jimmy are two of our favorites, and then The Music Never Stopped just blows the top off the set. There is a little bit of disco sound in The Music Never Stopped as the boys – Jerry especially – blitz through the tune. The disco would carry over into the second half with a killer, jammed out Shakedown opener. Phil throws down, Jerry goes off, and the entire band just riffs out the “just got to poke around” for a luscious long while. Afterwards, a very fine trifecta of Miracle> Bertha> Good Lovin’ roars forth with Donna providing some solid backup vocals, reminding us all how good she could be at times. Then the boys turn to Dark Star, which they had busted out for the first time in four years just ten days earlier at the closing of Winterland. As the first notes roll out, the crowd goes berserk, and the band does not disappoint on a rapturous version that segues into a churning Drums. After Billy and Mickey do their stuff, the band comes back out for an eerie, lively exploration in Space. A deeply emotional rendition of Wharf Rat rises out of that murky ether, bridging over to Stephen, which was the last they played of the tune until the brief three-show breakout in October of 1983. The boys then come back around to Chuck Berry to see the show out with Around And Around and then an encore of Johnny B. Goode.