A spitfire Samson and Delilah starts things off out of set break and sets up one of the most magisterial Eyes ever. The Eyes floats along splendidly with epic, jazz-infused, and MIDI-heavy jams over its twenty-three minutes. Then the boys launch into a Playing that ends in a heavy Dark Star tease, both of which also come into play the next night as they came out of a Dark Star into the Playing reprise. Tonight, though, the boys head into Drums, emerging from Space with a tight, rocking Wheel. An exceptional, jazz-powered Around and Around follows, keeping everyone dancing into a strong Johnny B. Goode.

Having Bruce back at the show really seemed to unleash some frenetic creativity and solid playing. In fact, the Greensboro run – this night and April 1 – is probably the strongest of spring 1991. The Dead had such a magnificent jazzy, lofty sound at this point in time, which this show is sort of the epitome of. This sound had began evolving in the late eighties, but had become fully formed – and oh so good – in 1990. The sound survived the transition to Vince with a good deal of help from Bruce. Both of them infused their own proclivities into the music, but they also managed to keep the keys in the featured place that Brent had carved out for them over the previous year. As important as the keys are in this spacey, jazz mix, though, we think the MIDI on Jerry’s guitar was the main catalyst to the sound’s origin and continued evolution. Unfortunately, the MIDI could be a distraction at times, compounding the problems of the later 90s. However, on this night in 1991, there were no such issues, just pure bliss.

The Samson> Eyes appeared as filler on Dick’s Picks 17.