Dead of the Day: 10-21-1978
Winterland Arena
San Francisco, California
The Ollin Arageed that opens the show builds into an amazing thing of beauty as Hamza chants and plays the oud, the boys come in subtly one by one, and the crowd adds in their own percussion. At the end, the band dives right into a rocking Promised Land with Hamza still going strong. The Sugaree is more of the same inimitable, achingly magnificent magic that only the Dead could concoct. The rest of the set is stellar stuff, but, aside from those first few tunes, pales in comparison to the mind-melting ridiculousness of the second set.
In the latter half, things really go off the hook with the Estimated as the band plays a hypnotic series in the interlude between the first two verses. Then Jerry and Phil saunter around in the background while Bobby toys with the vocals for a bit before they all head into full-on face-stealing jam mode the rest of the way into He’s Gone. He’s Gone contains some nice vocal harmonies with Donna at her best. And the Drums that follows is out of this world; we are not sure what the horn sound is in the latter half, but it is awesome. Then we get a tremendous Mojo jam with Lee Oskar of War joining in on harmonica giving it a real bluesy, open feel. The segue into The Other One is so smooth you cannot tell where the Mojo ended and The Other One began, but suddenly you realize that it is indeed that unmistakable theme steaming toward you. And watch out because it gets super head-exploding hot and funky before dropping into an unbelievably sumptuous Stella Blue. A few different folks on Archive said that this version actually brought tears to their eyes, and we do not doubt it for a second. Fortunately, the band washes away all the misty melancholy loveliness by sending out the set with a wild Sugar Mags. Go, listen, now!
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