The boys played as part of – or intruders on – the Sky River Rock Festival. The festival cost a mere six bucks in advance or eight at the door for three days of music and entertainment. Over 20,000 people ended up showing up to see Santana, Muddy Waters, Country Joe and the Fish, the New Lost City Ramblers, John Fahey, Frumious Bandersnatch, and Richard Pryor (yes, that Richard Pryor!) among many others. Accounting for the plethora of Bay Area bands in attendance, one of the organizers of the festival was John Chambless, who had taken a job at the University of Washington after completing his degree at Berkeley, where had helped organize the Berkeley Folk Festival. It was held on the property of Betty Nelson, a rural hippie who had responded to an ad in Helix, which – beyond sounding a lot like Relix – was Seattle’s main countercultural rag and instrumental in the development of the festival. The Dead were not booked for the show, but they got word and came to join in. The set is ferociously hot, primal Dead, opening with a masterful Dark Star, romping through Stephen> Eleven, powerfully delivering an Other One Suite, and finishing up with an elemental Alligator> Caution> Feedback, the latter of which is epic in its proportions. In sum, this set is, like the festival itself, a down and dirty piece of psychedelic Americana and an act of splendid communalism. Oh yeah, and we got a sweet Charlie Miller remaster all cued up for your listening pleasure.