Even a show not in the Top 5 of this hot tour is worth collecting. The Cap was Scher's home turf, and for their return theater tour he was finally able to put them in the venue. Shows here were an event, and ticketing was made more difficult when Scher became one of the first promoters to let the Dead sell some tix through the newsletter. The run is as consistent as the rest of the tour and, heck, this show has a Stephen into Eyes.

First Set. Music Never Stopped is a tight and exciting opener; and Donna is good. Crazy Fingers includes a jam that's part Spanish Jam, part Castles Made of Sand. Brown Eyed Women is pat but smooth, though the next couple are not in the best shape of the tour, with beats astray in Looks Like Rain and a slightly out of tune Row Jimmy (but Keith is always good on Jimmy). Cassidy may be the best example of the shorter '76 arrangement. This is the 4th of 5 versions of Mission in the Rain (played only this tour). The final one is best but this has a great ending. On Promised Land, listen to Jer behind Bobby's verses. Great choices.

Second Set. This set opens with a kinky Samson. The drummers are in the laundry room, and the ending is confused, but the 2nd Jer solo is magic. Tennessee is very languid, and though it was held off of the official release, it certainly wasn't for "technical difficulties". A St. Stephen wrapping around a Not Fade is always fun, though there's not much energy and lots of comping. Eyes comes along and ticks all the boxes. There are wondrous parts here - maybe not 9/28, but great. On the official release there's a rather abrupt, egregious edit @10:33 (~10:22>11:22 on vernon_9796) , cutting out the solo zenith. The rest is average '76, save an out of tune Sugar Mag that goes off the beat. A top flight, energetic U.S. Blues sends the punters to the showers happy.

1st Set:  B-
2nd Set: C+
Overall = 3¼ stars

Highlights:
Music Never Stopped - smooth & Donna great
Brown Eyed Women - simple but perfect
Cassidy - maybe the best example of the short arrangement
Eyes of the World - wondrous
U.S. Blues - bicentennial prepped

SOURCES: This was just an AUD for a long time. The warburton_vernon_14449 is probably the source of that trade, but the vernon_9796 is the best-recorded and is lovingly mastered. You need it for the complete Eyes. Tennessee is best on the miller_92266. All but Tennessee and the complete Eyes are on Download 4.

Whew! - One of my favorite audience recordings of this band. You can really hear especially Phil and JG working some vintage weave in the acoustic spacetime of the Capitol Theater. Some really choice geometrical Bounce here, folks.

If you're an Eyes fan, and you're about to listen to this rendition for the first time, well, I'll just go ahead and congratulate you in advance; especially its first 6 minutes are some of the best Eyes I've heard(so far). 5:00-6:00 tangibly wrinkles the space-time continuum. Check out how they could just burst into bloom at 7:35. Gosh, thanks archivists.