And while there were much better Dead shows in 1969, their set at Woodstock is pretty hot, as you can hear here. They opened with an excellent Stephen that is, sadly, cut short on the recording. The Mama Tried that comes out next is bright and ecstatic. Then an outstanding Dark Star bursts forth after a long period of tuning as the boys rake through a mysterious textured corner of the universe, bringing their classic jamming sound to the 400,000 at Woodstock in the waning minutes of the second day of the festival. The High Time is subdued, but still tasty with Jerry’s vocals providing the real substance along with some subtle keys from TC. The set goes out with another standard for the Dead in ’69, Lovelight. This one is smoking with Pig fronting and the rest of the band – especially Jerry – just wailing. Ken Babbs lays in some spoken word that is distracting and does not hold a candle to Pig, but does offer up a great window into both Woodstock and the Sixties in general. The Lovelight, at forty minutes, is finally cut not because of the band, but because the stage amps overloaded. All told, the boys delivered an admirable performance on one of the biggest stages of them all while staying true to themselves as they did it.