Dead of the Day: 04-23-1977
Springfield Civic Center
Springfield, Massachusetts
Our Dead of the Day brings us to Springfield, Massachusetts and the early part of the storied Spring ’77 tour. Jerry’s pregnant guitar licks and resonant, pleading vocals in Sugaree are a great way to get the show off to a rousing start. A lovely Cassidy arrives next with Donna complementing Bobby’s vocals, intensifying the emotional impact of the lyrics. The rest of the set sparkles with that incredible ’77 lightness and beauty, producing great versions of just about every tune. But, then, the first notes of Scarlet Begonias bursts forth, which sends the crowd into a frenzy, which is fully understandable given what comes next. The Scarlet is an incredible show of force that then mellows out into a relaxing transition into Fire. The Fire builds from there with a strong cadence coming from the bass and drums that Jerry paints over majestically before heading into the first verse. Later in the song, the boys come together for some steamy jams, making the suite the equal of Barton Hall.
The second set begins with some take a step back banter and then launches into an excellent Estimated. The Bertha that comes next shoots along with some really bright and airy jams. From there, an awesome dance-a-thon Music Never Stopped rocks before the band tumbles into a scintillating Help> Slip> Franklin’s, one of only nine shows with both this suite and Scarlet> Fire, and surely one of a very few that have such an incredible series of jams in Slipknot. The Dead keep the dancing going the rest of the way out with an Around and Around> GDTRFB> NFA that comes in at over thirty-five minutes, all of it breathtakingly rocking.
The Springfield show marked the second of the hallowed Spring ’77 tour that would bring so many epic performances. There is no doubt that this show is a full member of that legendary crowd. Tighter and just a little more disciplined from their time in the studio recording Terrapin, the Dead stormed into the tour with the added backing of some relatively new tunes. As Donna would say about the tour, “Everyone wanted to say, ‘All right, this is the time to make a statement and not just be a psychedelic weirdo hippie band.’” Well, they still retain some of their psychedelic weirdo hippie-ness in ’77, but they are also so much more, perfectly rounded and capable of anything. You can bet we will be returning to plenty of ’77 shows over the next seven weeks.
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