That was a Friday night. My friends and I practically lived at the Family Dog every weekend, and preferred the venue over the Fillmore. Much more casual, and no Bill Graham screaming at people. Before the shows, we'd head across the street to the cold windy beach and toke up. If you parked a few blocks away, you walked past the Bull Pupp. (Hot dog stand and SF center of heroin sales). If you valued your life you walked fast. The Family Dog's saying for the venue was "A different kind of magic at the edge of the western world." A great thrill was hearing Easy Wind while you were on the actual Great Highway! At this point, it was all informal and I loved it when the Dead were the local kings of garage bands. This recording is illustrative of the sloppy but fabulously raw sound of the early Dead. The vocals illustrate that well, but for us locals this era was the height of Deadness. Later that same year, I attended one of the "lost Dead" concerts at the Pauley Ballroom at UC Berkeley. That night with the Hog Farm et al was later mentioned by Garcia as the last "real" Dead concert of the early times. There were no back stage passes then. There was no backstage! Jerry and I and a couple of others chatted while we smoked cigarettes on the balcony overlooking Sproul Plaza. I can't make any claims of sharing a joint with him. ;-) We'd already partaken of substances during the performance. There were only a few hundred people present. We never guessed back then that growing up in the SF area was so meaningful and memorable.

This was the first show after Bear's legal problems put him out of commission for running the sound and Bob Matthews is just starting to learn his way around the system -- which accounts for the quantity and persistence of technical difficulties through the set and probably also for some of the shakiness in the band's performance (from poor monitor sound). The show makes good listening anyways, with better to come over the next two nights. The Dead on a bad night were always still in a league of their own -- "not the best at what they do, the only ones at what they do," as BG put it.

peak Pigpen. some extra unique raps.
despite lots of off notes etc this ones a keeper, if only for the backing vocals in Lovelight.

Sorry dude, he got it right...the correct phrase is "fair to middling"

There are times here when the Dead sound somewhat agitated but gratefully they decide to channel their collective angst into some great music.
I can't really comment on each individual song although i do remember thinking what exactly are the Dead doing now??? more than a few times-- like in the middle of Cumberland Blues ---but I got into this set and by the time the Dead played LOVELIGHT it was complete pandemonium.
It seemed like the backing vocals behind PIG were pretty unique and then Weir and Pigpen just go nuts! (This is one of my favorite versions of Turn on your Lovelight)

With this show, I have now added an Easy Wind to my collection. Sweet. Same for Mason's Children, but that is from the 28th.

I enjoy the way Weir sings Me and My Uncle during this period. It's more melodic than later versions.

Great job crossfading Black Peter so that the missing lyrics are hardly noticeable! I assume that is the work of Mr. Charlie Miller.

I, too, am proud of some crossfading I did with this show. If you care, here's my experiment:

This show ends with Lovelight.
The next show opens with Lovelight, but it is missing the beginning, so I crossfaded both versions into one, which resulted in the following track: NFA>Lovelight>Me and My Uncle, or more specifically:

NFA>Lovelight (from 2/27)>
Lovelight (from 2/28)>
Lovelight (2/27)>
Lovelight>Me and My Uncle (2/28).

I didn't want to miss much guitar or vocals, of course, but I also didn't want repeated lyrics (such as when McKernan says, "She's got box-back nitties, and great big noble thighs, workin' undercover with a boar hogs eye" --so I had to make more than one crossfade. Other than my personal copy not being true and pure to what happened, the only downside is that it does not have the intense ending from 2/27 as I could not smoothly keep the dynamic ending before moving from Lovelight into Me and My Uncle on the 28th.

It's pretty sweet, otherwise, though.

Thank you Mr. Charlie Miller and archivists! Apologies for rambling.

PS-- @njpg: When you say, "fair to middling," do you mean "fair to midland"?
PPS-- this may be only a fair to midland show to some of you, but I love every bit of it. I love the quality, the jams and the acoustic and the banter and--oh yeah--that CHINA > RIDER > HIGH TIME is wonderful. Check it out!

There's nothing off kilter about any of this. It's got the same things going for it as the Warehouse and Fillmore East shows and better than the Fillmore (SF)from early in the month.
The boys are on their way and by May it doesn't sound like late '69 and Jerry's playing his finest stuff ever.
5/2, 5/15, 6/24, 11/5-8 (and plenty of other shows within this time frame presumably) are the kind, not to digress.

Easy Wind.

NFA->Lovelight is just great as well.

Great show.

Thanks for not cutting up, and thereby corrupting Good Lovin. (A separate track for 'Drums' is absurd!)

The Family Dog was a great venue, and Charlie Miller is a great sound man.

Great recording.

Most unique (weird?) beginning to Cold Rain and Snow I've heard.

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5 stars for the mix
5 stars for the recording
5 stars for the performance
5 stars for Charlie Miller Transfer

A "MUST HAVE" for all collectors of 1970 GRATEFUL DEAD.

Get it while you can, get it while it's free, get it now or you'll be sorry.

Eat, Drink, Be Merry, and Listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.

Thanks for the love.

PS: Click on Charlie Miller's name and collect all his GRATEFUL DEAD shows, he has impeccable taste. The IA recommends RealPlayer for streaming and downloading for users of Windows XP.

I first encountered this one on Dead Hours. The whole show is great, as so many from this era are, but the extra super kind highlight is the NFA>Lovelight! One of those amazing coincidences in the Dead's history - the master reel runs out of tape right as the show ends, cutting off the last 2 or 3 seconds! Nothing short of Amazing!