As we discussed back on the fourth of this month, in early February 1969, the Dead were in the midst of a relentless set of back-to-back dates. The schedule is largely par for the course that year, as the Dead played a mind-bending 150 shows, which was surely grueling at times. But far from tiring in ’69, the boys just kept coming out firing each day, gaining steam throughout and producing what would become some of their most quintessential shows. This date at the Kiel provides some premonition of what was to come in ensuing months.

The Kiel Auditorium itself was a splendid New Deal structure, built in 1934. It enjoyed a long and storied life, playing host to the Show-Me-State’s own President Truman long before becoming well-known for countless professional wrestling bouts in the seventies. The Dead would go on to play a total of seven largely forgettable – though you will have a hard time shaking this ’69 one – shows in the venue, with the last coming on August 4, 1982.  Ten years later, the building was torn down to make way for the Scottrade Center, home to the St. Louis Blues.

As they had the night before, on February 6^th of 1969, the Dead opened for Iron Butterfly, who was then a hugely popular psychedelic act whose second album would become the first to make platinum. Stories of Iron Butterfly being blown off the stage by upstarts – notably Led Zeppelin and Duane and Gregg Allman – are legion, and based on web commentary from a few who claimed to be there, the Grateful Dead did much the same. Bear had said about the night previous, “The IB fans who filled the hall were in such a state of shock after the opening set by GD that it was nearly halfway through their beloved Butterfly’s set before they came round and starting jumping.” On the sixth, though, it was Iron Butterfly the band, not their fans, who seemed stunned into silence by the Dead’s performance if we are to believe “cool_breeze” on Archive, who says he has it on good “information from a person who was backstage at the show” that “after listening to the Dead burn the house down, Iron Butterfly didn’t want to come out. So, the Dead came back on to play a ‘few more minutes’ and proceeded to add insult to IB’s injury with the Cryptical Sandwich, Feedback, and AWBYG.” Take those comments for whatever you want, but be ready to be shocked by this powerful show.