Dead of the Day: 03-01-1969
Fillmore West
San Francisco, California
On this night, the Dead began their first set by blasting into a Cryptical sparking what is arguably the best Other One suite ever. From there, the New Potato Caboose starts out slow but gathers tremendous momentum with Jerry painting some beautiful streaks across the sky before ending the tune on a ferocious note. The Doin’ That Rag – a wonderful psychedelic trip of a song – that follows is another first set standout, surely working the crowd into a writhing mass of dancing hippies. A Cosmic Charlie closes out the first set, beginning in its calliope fashion before exploding into pure frenetic energy. The second set begins a little slower before coming to that monumental Dark Star, which takes off like an exploratory spaceship, slowly clearing the stratosphere and then setting off in search of other worlds. Coming back down to earth, the Saint Stephen erupts in splendor, rollicking through the William Tell bridge into the Eleven in the midst of explosions of joy. The band then switches gears, gaining power without giving up speed as Pigpen asserts himself with a smoking, blues-filled Lovelight. Oh yeah, not to be overlooked, there is also a phenomenal Hey Jude encore that the Dead nail. The unbelievable music makes for nothing less than an incredible night.
This night at the Fillmore West was the third of a four-night run, which constitutes one of the best stands in the long history of the Grateful Dead. In the minds of many, the March first show is the pick of the bunch. The entire run was released on the limited edition Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings and parts showed up on the highlight 3-disc set, Fillmore West 1969.
On this night at the Fillmore, the Dead shared the bill with Pentangle, a British folk-jazz band, and the San Francisco psychedelic rock group, Frumious Bandersnatch, who were actually filling in for the Sir Douglas Quintet. Michael over on Cryptical Developments relates the story of going to this show, his first Dead concert, as a high schooler, being dropped off with a friend by his folks and missing the second half of the night because they had to meet their parents again for the ride home. His telling gives you an awesome perspective on the night and, especially, on what it was like to attend a show at the Fillmore West back then.
Podcast about this show:
- Heads’ Tales – S1 E1 – Intro to Heads’ Tales and interview with Jeff, founder of Grateful Dead of the Day – The four shows at the Fillmore back in 1969, including today’s, is the favorite run of Jeff, the founder of Grateful Dead of the Day. Listen to him discuss his love for early 1969 Dead on the Heads’ Tales podcast.
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