Recently dug out the remnants of my old tape collection. Not sure if stuff is missing or not, but had just the second set of this show. It's been kind of an interesting challenge to see if I can find the sources for the tapes I've got while recording them in their raw state for posterity.

In the days when I was doing tape trades, not even the "old days," no one I was getting tapes from thought to pass on the source or lineage. In lucky cases it might say, "3rd gen" or something like that. This one was easy to spot because of the distinctive cut in the Not Fade Away//NFA Chant > NFA reprise.

This low gen transfer on the archive seems to be a little less "boomy," somehow, than the Nth generation tape in my box. Neither are exactly, "clear," but it's a very listenable recording on a home stereo system, or with neutral headphones. I was considering this as an upgrade, and completion, but source140313 manages to get the entirety of the NFA scene at, after a quick sampling, what seems to be, comparable sound quality, so at the end of the day, I think I'd go for that source simply for completist's sake.

I put this tape in the deck with some trepidation, not remembering at all what the performance was like, but being aware of the year's place in Dead history. Going through the old tapes mostly chronologically I've sat through a couple of somewhat frustrating '85 shows lately.

Having only taken in the second set of 6/29/86 so far I won't leave a rating, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance here. Mostly energetic, playful, and dexterous. Garcia does not sound like a guy who's gonna be in a coma soon. Not at all. He doesn't have that sweet 60s/70s voice by any means, but in the second set he's at least choosing material that he can handle. Gone are the days of 30 minute The Other One's, but this seems like an example of how the feedback of energy from a good audience can really have an effect on a band's performance. It's a two way street, obviously.

Due to that summer heat..?

I like this source out all of them. The opening three numbers are really solid and feature great playing. This is a great show to put on while driving to a summer festival. It will pleasantly surprise you as to how decent it is.

I'll always prefer a good aud to a sbd any day, but amphlitheater auds suck no matter which way you play them ~unless~ the taper was well away from the taper section and is aiming the mics directly at one of the stacks hanging off of the shed itself.

This tape ain't one of 'em.

The only song from this show that I am saving is the Sampson first set closer, b/c it rocks so hard

Does the title of my post explain some of the weird shit that went down in the Alpine lot in '86 ?? LOL ... Anyways , what soundboard of this show are you talking about ?? There is no board for this date ... But this is an upgrade to Shnid #12969 to my ears at least ...

Great sounding audience!! Incredible day at Alpine this was. Hot show, from start to finish. The parking lot was crazy, a lot of weird stuff went down for these two shows.

Thanks to the taper for getting these Gems out there!
Burn em! More energy then the board in my opinion.