Dead of the Day: 03-30-1968
Carousel Ballroom
San Francisco, California
The show opens with a monstrous Morning Dew that has the boys starting off with a heavy jam that suddenly takes flight and soars with Jerry and Phil leading the way. The Other One that follows is grinding and chunky, in the best way possible, throwing off little nuggets of tastiness. Then the Dark Star goes off ambling and noodling along, sending out pings of reserved, but ever so pure, bliss into the ether, in search of something. In the mellow ending, the band seems to find what they were looking for as China Cat bursts onto the scene, spinning off psychedelic pinwheels and starbursts, dripping with Technicolor and lorded over by Jerry’s guitar and vocals. The Eleven goes off to worlds unknown, driving headlong into the farthest reaches of the universe. That last jam in the tune is so perfect it could go on forever leaving the heads dancing in the aisles, but the band transitions rather abruptly into a full-on ripping Lovelight. Coming next, Born Cross Eyed is a revelation as the Dead’s own beat boxing vocals intermix with an incredibly driving jam. Then the Spanish Jam comes out, languid and beatific before a clipped Death Don’t Have No Mercy ends the night.
If there is a knock against this show, it is that most of the songs are short and attenuated, not allowing the boys to really stretch their legs and fully explore the space. Even so, the Dead pack a massive amount of spectacular jamming into these shorter versions. It seems the reason the Dead’s set was so spare – though it was undoubtedly longer with the clipped Morning Dew and heavily truncated Death Don’t Have No Mercy – was because they were sharing the bill with Chuck Berry and Curly Cooke’s Hurdy-Gurdy Band. Jim Curley Cooke – his middle name was “Curley” but he often went by “Curly” – was a blues guitarist originally from Madison, Wisconsin, who came to San Francisco sometime in the 1960s and became one of the founding members of the Steve Miller Band. He also played backup for Chuck Berry and a few other musicians. One can only wonder if Curly, Chuck, and Jerry got together and blazed through a Johnny B. Goode on this evening.
Yesterday’s Dead of the Day:
Other March 30th Shows and Recordings:
- 1973 – War Memorial Auditorium – Rochester, New York
- 1980 – Capitol Theater – Passaic, New Jersey
- 1983 – Warfield Theater – San Francisco, California
- 1986 – Providence Civic Center – Providence, Rhode Island
- 1987 – The Spectrum – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1988 – Brendan Byrne Arena – East Rutherford, New Jersey
- 1989 – Greensboro Coliseum – Greensboro, North Carolina
- 1990 – Nassau Coliseum – Uniondale, New York
- 1994 – The Omni – Atlanta, Georgia
- 1995 – The Omni – Atlanta, Georgia
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