Best JGB show of all time?

Not sure about best but Hempstead/NY '80 holds a special place, perhaps due in part to the fact it was one of the better boards I had in my possession in the mid 80's. Wore that tape out. 

'89 to '92 also has consistently fine playing.

I'm partial to Feb. 7, 1992

but I was drinking the kool-aid

I like the Merl era best, w/ Vitt or Kreutzman, and preferably Martin.

No favorite show - usually the one I'm listening to. They all blend together at this point.

I have many fond memories of 12/09/83 at the Beacon, including overcoming gravity during the early show-ending Deal, and getting snuck in for the late show.

Early: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7JkG4gDBhA

Late: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srz2EUd9Td8

On April 30, 1992, as on other Thursdays before, at least a couple American cities were in flames as protests over racial injustice turned violent and disorderly in the aftermath of a Simi Valley jury's acquittal of four LAPD officers accused in the March 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King.

The Garcia Band played the Warfield, part of an extraordinary run of 11 Jerry appearances there with three different bands in 13 days: JGB April 29-May 3, Bob Dylan on May 5th, and Garcia-Grisman from the 7th to the 11th. Selvin provided some context:

With looters and police clashing on the street outside the theater, for the Jerry Garcia Band at the Warfield Thursday night it was business as usual. Background vocalist Gloria Jones traveled from her East Bay home on BART and, with Market Street stations closed, was forced to exit on 16th Street and take a bus back downtown, barely making it before show time.

An attendee posting at JGC remembers, too:

Riot police surrounded the theatre and there were reports of gunshots in the streets. An announcement was made from the stage warning patrons not to leave the theatre.

As Selvin titled his piece, "The Show Goes On."

I have historically thought that 1992 was absolutely the worst, most boring and useless year for the JGB. I remember *hating* 2/7/92 at one time, despite a luscious Marcus Buick tape. I might still think the year is the most boring, but it's not all bad. 8/1/92 pleasantly surprised me. On a first listen, this 4/30/92 didn't move me much, but then I revisited it and I found plenty to like. As has been the case lately, I find myself especially fond of the second set. My bottom line note reads as follows:

Garcia sounds tired, but he probably *was* tired. After his August collapse, he described his state earlier in the year: "I wasn't ill. There was no pain. I just had zero energy. I was always tired. I'd always been able to get through a concert, but now it was getting hard. I hadn't realized how run-down I'd got" (Carroll 1992). As was often the case for late era Jerry, weariness suits the material pretty well. This isn't one you'd give to a newbie to turn them on to JGB, but aficionados may just be able to appreciate the OG perspective is really setting in at this point. The segment that goes R&C, Gomorrah, DLG and The Maker is quite excellent. First listen DLG didn't kill me, but this time I found it to be very strong.

There are a few songs at interesting points in their lives: last "Throw Out the Lifeline" (with a spotty performance history note"), penultimate "Let's Spend The Night Together" (5/2/92 the last, IIRC), newly arriving, the third "Maker", which would become a late-era favorite. I also note Our Hero playing some slide in "Gomorrah", which I don't recall having heard before, which is not to say it wasn't always there. 

Hard to pick, but whichever it is it occurred between 1974 and 1982.

>I like the Merl era best, w/ Vitt or Kreutzman, and preferably Martin. No favorite show - usually the one I'm listening to. They all blend together at this point.<

I agree with your sentiments. 

>89 to '92 also has consistently fine playing.<

as that's my era with the band, i'll go with that.

nothing like seeing a missisippi moon live

i mean it's all amazing, but the legion material is not my favoite. feel free to stone me.

I certainly think Ron Tutt was the man on drums with Jerry, so anything from that era. I love the Warner Theater shows in DC from March 78, the Palm Sunday shows. 

But probably most of all I love the 1975 quartet with Tutt and the great Nicky Hopkins on piano. The "Let It Rock" release documents it well. They're doing great stuff like Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder, and in general it's just an incredible band with Tutt on drums and Hopkins on piano. 
 

Wiltern Theater 12/3/87

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyy-EI9Tub0

May 23, 1981

^ > I love the Warner Theater shows in DC from March 78<

talking about a tape that got a lot of play ... not only was it a a good show, it was broadcast on our local DC (Bethesda, MD) area radio station WHFS-fm so it was one of the few high quality Jerry shows around in the late 70s. 

>1975 quartet with Tutt and the great Nicky Hopkins on piano.<

My first Jerry show! Constitution Hall. Great place to hop on the bus.

The two Merriweather Post Pavilion shows from September 1st and 2nd, 1989 were latter era standouts, and were the 5th release in the Pure Jerry series.  

I forgot about the Shoreline show right after Brent died. That was hella spiritual.

I wish I could say the next one 

Music Mountain in NJ think it was 1984(maybe 82?).with Bobby and the Midnites opening.  In the rain......

> I love the Warner Theater shows in DC from March 78<

Was there, even recorded it. Just 1 show in March 78 but he was there Dec 77 and that one was fun too. 

> Music Mountain in NJ think it was 1984(maybe 82?).

6/16/82 Punchy audience recording of that one :)

There are a couple shows around that date that are killer. Maybe New Haven and Cape Cod?

Early 70s jammy w/ Merl and early 80's when the tempos were brisk.

AFAIK there is no '8/27/72' or '5/8/77' of Jerry shows that people talk about.

The two Merriweather Post Pavilion shows from September 1st and 2nd, 1989 were latter era standouts...

Next night was another real good one, 2 long gone tunes back in the rotation...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFHUDUU6Jcw

2nd That Emotion: Last time 11/16/93, Next 9/3 89, both @ The Spectrum

Lonesome & A Long Way From Home: Last Time 8/20/81 Keystone Berkeley, 1 of 5 Summer '89 tour, final versions

How Sweet It Is    Stop That Train    Someday Baby    Run 4 The Roses    I Shall Be Released   Bros & Sisters    Deal

Harder They Come    Mission    Think    2nd That Emotion    Waiting For A Miracle    Lucky Old Sun    Lonesome & A Long Way From Home    

Friends who were there keep talking about: 

The Chance in Poughkeepsie in 82.

I saw Stu and Melvin there years later and it was an amazing show.

Couldn't imagine seeing Jerry in such small venue.

Honorable mention Keene, New Hampshire from that era.

I love EVERYTING by Legion of Mary!

Yes Fish, I was at those '94 Warfield shows, Balwins first....I can't remember hearing anything about Kemper being fired before hand, but i

thought he was fine, and was happy to see him many many times with Dylan....

Good call Don.....same here. Just something about that band....on the other hand:

Keystone Korner, SF, 9-1-71 

Biloxi....Just unreal. I can't imagine why he only did this cover a few times....

Yes, the lyrics are pretty basic, but the way he sings it, along with Merl and Kahn.....

It takes me directly down there.....

  Ok, to make a short story long........I went to every JGB/Garcia-Grisman show in 1992. (It helped they were all in California),

but 4-30-92 is a day I'll never forget, unless I lose all memory.

I had priority ticket 1 or 2, can't remember....shit was clearly getting tense up Market Street,

We were waiting to go in when the Rodney King protest came down Market....

All of a sudden tons of people were running by us; a bunch of them had just looted the jewelry 

store a half block up Market.....

     In one of the more crazy things I've seen, during this chaotic scene, was an SF cop get on a bullhorn about 20

feet away from us, on the sidewalk and shout "THIS IS NO LONGER A PROTEST, THIS IS NOW A RIOT!!!!",

which everyone around took to mean they were about to start cracking skulls, whether you were "guilty" or not....

   Thankfully the Warfield staff saw what a shit show this could turn into, so they pretty much immediately made 

the decision to let us in early, to get us off the street away from the cops and the mob of  looters....

     After we were in, we had to wait for the band to finish the soundcheck before they let us in from the lobby to the floor.

   The energy in there that night was ELECTRIC..... Was it the Best JGB show Ever? Probably not, but for me and a bunch of

other people, it was absolutely one of the most INTENSE we ever went to....Nearly every other cultural event in SF was cancelled that 

night, but I guess Jerry said "Fuck it, we're playing." They actually offered to let people spend the night in the theater if they had to....

We walked out and there were about 15 riot cops standing on the opposite side of Market, watching us.

  There was NO hanging around outside the theater and talking, people doing a few balloons....Nope none of that on that night.

Everyone got the fuck out of there.....Crazy Crazy Night, and we still had 3 more JGB shows then 5 Garcia Grisman after Dylan...

   That was a hard run

    Those shows from '80-'84, there's some serious stuff in there....

I could nominate a "best" from each era.....- Shit my first JGB show was in Rochester

in '83....I was floored to see Garcia in a theater, and him doing a screaming version of Rhapsody in Red

probably hooked me for life, whether I knew it at the time or not.

^^^Our car had been smashed into. I was the low guy on the totem pole so I had to ride in the back seat behind the smashed window back to Santa Cruz. Coldest ride home ever...

Personal bias, but 11/15/91 for me.  

https://www.garciafamilyprovisions.com/product/JYCD79/jerry-garcia-band-...

Jerry Garcia Band

With: Nicky Hopkins, John Kahn, Ron Tutt

 Colden Auditorium (Queens College), Queens, NY 

10/30/75

Set 1:

Let It RocK

Sugaree

That's All Right, Mama

Catfish John

Pig's Boogie

I'll Take a Melody

Money Honey

(I'm a) Road Runner

Set 2:

It Ain't No Use

Russian Lullaby

That's What Love Will Make You Do

Friend of the Devil

Mission in the Rain

Mystery Train

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Let's Spend the Night Together >

Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IutcQUxMA9A

October 1986, at the Stone, first show after coma. Didn't matter if it was the best music (and some of it was great), it mattered that Jerry walked out on that stage.

Also, June 1982 acoustic Garcia and Kahn, South Eugene High School.

Nothing ever surpassed Boston Orpheum 2/15/80 in my experience. With Ozzie Ahlers on keyboards, the After Midnight > Eleanor Rigby > After Midnight  blew every mind in the house that night! There is a similar setlist available on an official CD Release from thge same Tour at Kean College in NJ.

6/16/82 is ingrained in my DNA.

>Was there, even recorded it. Just 1 show in March 78 but he was there Dec 77 and that one was fun too. <

frenchie - did you by chance attend/tape the "Emergency /Emerge and See" Robert Hunter show at the Cellar Door around that time where the sirens went off, the smoke machine went off, and a certain someone in a Bozo mask walked thru a man-sized keyhole (that Steve Parrish pushed on stage)?  I think it was billed as Comfort but it may have been the Hunter with Larry Klein duo. The place only help a hundred or so people and I've looked for years for that tape. No one believes me (sad face emoji).

October 1986, at the Stone, first show after coma. Didn't matter if it was the best music (and some of it was great), it mattered that Jerry walked out on that stage.

I was there and agree, the emotional power of that night will forever resonate with me

Alan R

 StoneSculptor on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 – 05:55 pm 

>Was there, even recorded it. Just 1 show in March 78 but he was there Dec 77 and that one was fun too. <

frenchie - did you by chance attend/tape the "Emergency /Emerge and See" Robert Hunter show at the Cellar Door around that time where the sirens went off, the smoke machine went off, and a certain someone in a Bozo mask walked thru a man-sized keyhole (that Steve Parrish pushed on stage)?  I think it was billed as Comfort but it may have been the Hunter with Larry Klein duo. The place only help a hundred or so people and I've looked for years for that tape. No one believes me (sad face emoji).

I was not there but had a now-deceased friend that was. He was always backstage etc. I do think he had a recording. I moved West in 78 and brought little with me. Sort of hit the reset button with the move West.

>I was not there but had a now-deceased friend that was.<

Yeah the guy I went with is dead, too. There was only 150 people or so in the place, and I've never found another witness. The Cellar Door always had an early and a late show and this was the late show.

The date I originally supposed it occurred could be incorrect. Because I don't remember Comfort being there. Might have been the duo shows with Hunter and Larry Klein (on bass). Or him by himself.

I did recently come across two reviews from the Washington Post of Hunter shows at the Cellar Door that are not listed in any Robert Hunter databases that I could find. One from 79 and one from 80. Neither references a band, so it's possible Hunter played solo there more often than is known nowadays.

I'll tell the story again: Towards the end of the Hunter show, the venue lights started flickering and blinking on and off. In the partial darkness, a large guy (who I now presume was Steve Parrish) pushed a large theatrical prop onstage -- it was a man-sized keyhole. A smoke machine started up and blew smoke around the place. A siren went off sort of like those wind up air raid sirens. Over the sound system, a voice repeated "Emergency, Emergency, Emergency." And the announcement got slower and slower and eventually pronounced the words as, "Emerge and See, Emerge and See." Then someone in the now-well-known Bozo mask comes through the keyhole and starts singing. I don't remember him with a guitar, though it's possible. But it wasn't an electric guitar if he did have one. The guy was Jerry and he takes off the mask and him and Hunter sing 2 or 3 songs to end the show! What the fuck?

I  remember telling friends back in college about this (and I definitely counted it among my Jerry shows, even though I hadn't seen all that many back then) so I think it happened in the summer of 78 or 79. Or possibly during the school year when I was home on break. For some reason I think it was a weekday... I don't know why. I have not been able to find a logical time the Dead were playing nearby. (However, at another Hunter show at the Cellar Door, maybe 81? that I was also at, Jerry was in the audience but he never played.)

I wish I had an email for Parrish or knew how to call in to his radio show. Anyone?

[email protected]

877-767-DEAD

https://www.siriusxm.com/channels/grateful-dead-channel

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joy

 blackrock on Monday, February 5, 2024 – 08:15 pm 

Friends who were there keep talking about: 

The Chance in Poughkeepsie in 82.>>
 

June 6, 1983 early and late at the Chance. Not 1982. 

Music Mountain S. Fallsburg was June 1982, not 1984. Garcia as originally booked to play the Chance in 1982. The show got moved from Po-Town to a Sullivan County with the promise to come back and play the Chance another time. All those gigs were fun. Quite the time to be a DH. 

 internet says the Chance was June 4th 1983, I tend to agree one my best friends went to Marist college we used to call it Matress college , she got us tix I think the drinking age in NY had been bumped up to 19, I was under age, but had my brothers drivers liscence.. it was a tiny rinky dink bar show with a balcony with table service we had a nice waitress and Jerry Ripped.. I think Hunter played for a while too, best show? nah but pretty fucki n good, My personel Favorite JGB shoe was at the Roseland, a few days earlier..

I saw many awesome JGB shows from 1980-1992 and for me the best one of all time is my last JGB show Oct. 31,1992 it was a magical night filled with great jamming and incredible songs that fit the first gig back and incredible emotions from the stage to the top of the nosebleeds although no real nosebleeds in The Kaiser. 

https://archive.org/details/jgb1992-10-31d2t08

>>

Oct. 31,1992 it was a magical night filled with great jamming and incredible songs that fit the first gig back and incredible emotions from the stage to the top of the nosebleeds although no real nosebleeds in The Kaiser. 

<<

Jerry's final Comeback Show. I was in the middle seat of the last back row. The show was at Oakland Coliseum Arena.

Saw Jerry & Merl in the early days at Keystone Berzerkley a few times- great nights - met Jerry.

One of the best was  in 1974 at the Great American in the city - with Vassar Clements sitting in. WOW

Missed them in the 80's after relocating.

I picked up the new Cape Cod 1982 release -  it smokes --- Valerie !

This has been a 'I miss Jerry day.'  Never sure when these are going to pop up, but they still do.  I feel his loss sometimes almost as deeply as I do for actual family. I don't begin to try to understand the impact the man has had on me. This thread has been a perfect way to finish up the day. Enjoyed JGB way more than Dead in those final years. 

So did he.

Any idea where I can listen to the Garcia/Saunders 1971-09-01?  The Garcia Live series Vol. 15 is a great release of Garcia/Saunders 1971-05-21 and I just love this earlier non Dead stuff. My GarciaBase is pretty sketchy on non Dead Garcia stuff from 1971, only lists 5 shows.  Is any of it on Archive.org , I couldn't find it? Thanks!