Phil Lesh and Friends 1999-08-22

Phil Lesh and Friends
1999-08-22
County Bowl
Santa Barbara, CA
(Download or Stream)

My first experience with Phil Lesh and friends was in the summer after I graduated from high school. My old friend Critical Chris and I decided to go Gathering of the Vibes in upstate New York. I was already big into Gov't Mule and the Grateful Dead, and Mule was featured one of the nights of the festival followed by Phil Lesh and Friends. We had a devilishly smart plan to fund our entire trip by selling grilled cheese sandwiches once we got inside the festival. Who could possibly turn down a delicious and competitively priced grilled cheese sandwich? Apparently a lot of people, because we sold very few of them.

I found this Phil Lesh and Friends show by accident. I was searching for something with an entirely different vibe, but was drawn in by Soulshine on the track list. Warren wrote the song for the Allman Brothers, and he took it with him when he left for Gov't Mule. If you asked me in high school what my favorite song was, I would have told you hands down Soulshine. Older and wiser now, I am no longer bold enough to answer that question with anything less than a top 25 list. This potent blend of memories combined, and I downloaded the show and made myself a grilled cheese sandwich.

Youth, large, lusty, loving--youth full of grace, force, fascination, 
Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, 
force, fascination? 

Day full-blown and splendid-day of the immense sun, action, 
ambition, laughter, 
The Night follows close with millions of suns, and sleep and 
restoring darkness. -Walt Whitman

The set is rambling and perfectly fit in with my day off today.  There is a lazy organ intro to Soulshine, and drawn out My Favorite Things. The show ends entirely within the vein of the Grateful Dead with a upbeat and loose version of Iko, Iko.  Sound quality is good.  Sorry about the lack of pictures in this post. I had difficulty finding royalty free images....

The Radiators 2011-02-11

The Radiators 2011-02-11
The Bluebird Theatre
Denver, CO
(Download)

This is the second time I posted a Radiators show on this blog.  They are one of my favorite bands to explore on archive.org. They have over 500 shows available for streaming and downloading and always seemed to be doing something interesting. I was pretty sad to read the following on their website a few weeks ago:

FOLD UP THE BIG TOP After 33 years..over 4500 live shows..and a dozen albums..legendary New Orleans rockers The Radiators are finally calling it quits. The band has officially decided to break up in mid-June following their final tour which will include one last New Year's Eve run, a MOMs Ball and also headlining their final appearance at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The band will honor all dates already on their schedule and are planning to add as many shows as possible before ending their storied 33 year career. The guys want to whole-heartedly thank their long time fans for making this ride as amazing as it has been. They truly feel that their fans are the best and most dedicated in the world and have kept their traveling circus alive. Individual band members will announce their plans in the near future.

I can only guess why the band decided to call it quits. It is not easy keeping a group of musicians moving forward on the same musical path, and it is remarkable the band has toured, recorded, and performed for so long. In the meantime, they are still putting out great music. I can never seem to get over the interplay between the bass, drums and keyboard. Not to discount the guitar playing, it's just as a bass player I enjoy listening to a great rhythm section at work.

This show is only encoded in FLAC. See my previous on how to listen to this format.  The sound quality of this recording is excellent.

Grateful Dead 1970-08-19

The Grateful Dead 1970-08-19

Fillmore West

San Francisco, CA

(Download and Stream)

I am a deadhead. Jerry Garcia may have died before I was old enough to see them, but the spirit of the band always resonated with me. I am a long time subscriber to the weekly Grateful Dead podcast, the Deadpod. My roots with the band go back as far as middle school.  I remember trading Grateful Dead cassettes with my friends.  Finding a new one at a yard sale made you a hero. Maybe I ran with an odd crew, but we passed Dead tapes around in the same way our peers passed around adult magazines. They were a glimpse into another world, one meant to be surreptitiously enjoyed.

The Dead have their own section on archive.org.  Many of the shows are either stream only (in the case of soundboard recordings) or are listed, but are no longer available (put out on a commercially available release). It is a reminder that for all their taper friendly policies, the Grateful Dead are still a multi-million dollar business. This show is available for download (only mp3!) or streaming directly from the site.

This show is divided into two sets; the first acoustic and the second electric. For me, the acoustic set stole the show.  A version of "The Monkey and the Engineer" recently appeared on the David Rawlings solo CD, and I have never heard someone else cover it.  The song "Dark Hollow" is a bluegrass standard. It's inclusion foretells much of what Jerry would go on to do with his solo projects. Fans of Old Crow Medicine Show will recognize "Cocaine." This traditional tune appeared on OCMS' self tittled album as "Tell it to Me."  The electric set contains the staples of this period of the Dead. I especially liked the version of "I Know You Rider" and "Not Fade Away."

The audio quality on this recording is poor. It is an audience recording done with an old Sony TC-124. There are tape squeals and the frequency response is compressed.  To be honest, I am totally fine with that. Sounds like a good Dead tape should.