08-19-1970
Fillmore West
San Francisco, California
The Dead’s 1970 acoustic sets are something special. And their efforts in the early going during this night are nothing short of spectacular. And the playing is so precious throughout. Pig plays a winsome upright piano, timid in places and more forceful in others, as when he adds a boogie woogie beat to Truckin’. And there is some lovely mandolin, possibly by David Nelson and/or David Grisman, throughout. Of course, Jerry delivers choice guitar, including on a subdued electric on New Speedway Boogie. But it is the vocal harmonizing, which is off the charts, that just might be the best part of it all. Regardless of the individual components, the music certainly does come together and then some. There are so many highlights – Dark Hollow, Candyman, and Cocaine Blues, but also Cold Jordan and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as well as the always welcome Ripple and Brokedown, which had just been played for the first time the night before. Really, it is all just so, so good.
Bill Graham introduces the band before the electric set in inimitable fashion, “Out of the backwoods of Marin County, sometimes known as the Kodiak woodchuck motherfuckers, the Grateful Dead.” And the Dead set off on a very fine Cold Rain & Snow. Me & My Uncle follows before Pig takes command on Easy Wind. The band seems to really come together over the course of the China> Rider that follows, which opens the way for an alternatively tight and explosive Stephen that rolls right into a short, somewhat restrained Sugar Mags. Afterwards, Pig returns to center stage on a ripping Good Lovin’ before Bobby tries to emulate him with his vocal delivery on Minglewood. A crowd-pleasing Casey Jones then follows before the final two tunes and yet another highlight of the evening, the Not Fade Away into Lovelight. David Crosby definitely sits in on these as does, most likely, David Nelson, if not others. Whoever is playing, the Not Fade Away rages before the positively incendiary Lovelight. Pig is all over the tune, rapping, vamping, and urging the audience on as the Dead and their guests absolutely crush the last song of the evening, blasting off on a breakneck jam at one point and a heady churning rush at another and leaving everything on table in a thirty minute throw-down, no-holds-barred performance.
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