Dead of the Day: 03-18-1967

This night is a quintessential, elemental piece of raw, primal Dead that just cannot be missed. The show opens with a fast and off-kilter Me and My Uncle, only the third one ever played. By the time the band gets into the next tune, though, they have found their feet and begin to really bust it. Throughout the night, the band switches from a pop sound on songs like Next Time You See Me to downright blues on Smokestack Lightnin’ to rock and roll with the likes of Dancin’ in the Streets, which includes a blow-your-socks-off early Dead jam on the backside. There is also more than enough psychedelic sound coming through at different times, pointing in the direction they would be heading down over the next couple years. By the second half of the show, the Dead are absolutely firing. Golden Road is fast and furious. Cream Puff War is transcendent, moving off into some truly mind-altering space. Same Thing comes in as over-the-top Pig blues but then morphs into a trippy, sweet jam with only a hint of the blues remaining. And the Dead just keep driving through to the end or, at least, the cut in Death Don’t Have No Mercy. The whole show makes you appreciate just how powerful the Dead were, even at this early stage.