Grateful DeadGrateful Dead Live at Capitol Theater on 1970-11-08 (November 8, 1970)

Collection: GratefulDead
Band/Artist: Grateful Dead
Date: November 8, 1970 (check for other copies)
Venue: Capitol Theater
Location: Port Chester, NY

Source: Audience
Taped by: Ken Lee and Marty Weinberg
Transferred by: The Wizard
Keywords: Live concert

Description

Dire Wolf, I Know You Rider, Dark Hollow, Rosalie McFall, El Paso, Operator, Ripple, Friend Of The Devil, Wake Up Little Susie, Uncle John's Band Morning Dew, Me & My Uncle, Mystery Train-> My Babe, Around & Around, New Orleans-> Searchin', It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Casey Jones, Truckin'-> Dark Star-> The Main Ten-> Dancin' In The Streets, Not Fade Away-> Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad-> Not Fade Away-> Good Lovin'-> Drums-> Good Lovin'

Individual Files

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Reviewer: Brontis - - October 5, 2007
Subject: Marty Weinberg speaks ... he speaks the truth

Is that the "legendary Marty" who actually taped these shows???

If so: Hat's off to you, buddy!

Outside of the early 69 shows -- these Portchester's are my VERY FAVORITES. I'm more partial to 11/5 and 11/6 -- but as you say, the salient point is: 11/8 contains the "Dew of Dews."

None better. Ever.
This self-proclaimed Dead Head of impeccable taste agrees with you!

Reviewer: Wally Gator - - May 24, 2007
Subject: Question?

These port chester shows were the tapes I grew up on. These jerry notes imprinted the soundtrack of my existance.

I remember back in the 70's listening to a Grateful Dead tape of a PigPen and Janis Joplin duet singing Lovelight. Most of my tapes back then were either Fillmore East or Port Chester. Does anyone know the date of that show so I can look it up on the Archives? Absolutely love the archives!!!

Reviewer: Stargazin - - October 4, 2006
Subject: Download the other version

AMAZING show! It's funny that two rare performances of the Main Ten jam, which later became Playin in the Band, occur exactly a year apart on Nov. 8. The 1969 show was released as a Dick's Picks... this one never will since no sbd exists. But this show tops my list in the very strong year of 1970. And this whole run at the Capitol Theater was amazing... download every night of it!

The other copy of this show sounds much better!

Reviewer: Jac from Tucson - - June 21, 2006
Subject: How can this murky sound rate 4+ stars?

OK, I don't doubt the significance of this show, and it's truly a shame that it wasn't captured on soundboard for posterity.

I took it at face value, 4-1/2 stars, and DL'd the show, then as tracks were being converted to wav., I listened and, hey, this show sounds HORRIBLE. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 1970 is a crucial year and this is a great show, but performance-wise this may be 4-5 stars, audio-wise it is 1-2! Go listen 9-20 show at the Fillmore East for decent sound. This is just bad, bad, bad.

So, crucial to the legacy blah, blah, blah and all that, this baby gets three stars from me -- and THAT'S BEING VERY GENEROUS!

Reviewer: A Dude - - October 29, 2005
Subject: The New Ken Lee version is much better

Since there are 3 versions of this show available on Archive.org, and it is a big download, and an important show, I decided to compare an acoustic song (first one) and an electric song (Truckin) on both of the newer versions - this Owens composite version and the March 2005 version of the Ken/Judy Lee tape.

My conclusion is that the March 2005 version of the Ken/Judy Lee tape is unquestionably better, and is likely to be as good as this show ever gets in terms of sound quality (failing access to a Tardis :D ).

I'm a professionally trained studio engineer, and the first thing that I look for in comparing these sorts of recordings is the sound of the hall in the recording. Not the instruments, the hall. After an instrument sounds, whenever there is a brief space (silence), in a good recording, you can hear faint reflections - the sound of the hall. Millions of dollars are spent in designing halls to get that sound just right.

Anyway, to get back to the point, this Owens version has very little hall sound at all. It has less sound of the audience, applause, etc. Most of that has been lost.

The new correction of the restoration of the Ken/Judy Lee tape, which can be found here at Archive.org at:

<a href="http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=26743" rel="nofollow">upgrade version from March 2005 </a>.


has good hall sound, it has good audience sound, applause sounds natural.

But you don't have to take my word for it - there is an easy way to compare yourself.

In the new version at the above link, the third track of that version is "I Know You Rider (acoustic)". However, they were missing the part after 03:52 - so they used *this Owens version* for the missing last minute. Go there and stream the VBR M3U link, and listen to the third track. I guarantee that at 03:52, you will say "Bleh !". That is what you would have gotten had you downloaded this version instead ! Be thankful that it is now after March 2005, and you can listen to the better version.

By the way, what was done on that version - going back to the original master tape, baking and re-shelling and transferring to digital with a good A-to-D, is going to make far more of a difference than all the work done on earlier versions that started with already degraded sources.

So, I hope that I've helped some 'heads get the best version of this fine show - enjoy !

Reviewer: hyperboy - - October 5, 2005
Subject: too bad about the sound!

It's really too bad about the poor sound quality of this show (and for most of the 1970 shows on here for that matter). This show would be one of my favorites to listen to if I had a good sounding copy of it. I love 1970 but for some reason, and I'm not sure why, most of the great 1970 shows on here do not compare to other years. Even the 1968 shows sound better. Does anyone know why there are no stellar sources on here for 1970? Damn, this show would be so f-ing cool if we had a better source.

Reviewer: Lewis/Klitschko - - September 10, 2005
Subject: Re:

Can you imagine if this show were to be a future official download?

Reviewer: marty weinberg - - September 10, 2005
Subject: a great night

Sorry about all the commentary
If I had only known the whole world would be listening...

the dew of dews,
imho it defines the time

Reviewer: phl7@cornell.edu - - July 9, 2005
Subject: Scariest Dark Star?

Sound quality not perfect, but spirited performance. I agree with the other reviewer, the Dark Star gets pretty intense...you can feel the electricity in the air. The Main Ten jam sounds dead on with the intro to quite a few of the playing in the band jams of 1977-78.

4 Solid Stars.

Reviewer: phleshy - - April 18, 2005
Subject: Whoa...

You are not going to believe the electric Dead set this night, folks. In a year of many fantastic electric sets (9/19, 2/13, 2/14, 4/12, 5/2, 6/24, etc.) this one is one of the very best. The 75-minute Disc 4 of this show is an epic jamfest is nearly every bit as good as the DS>Other One>Lovelight segment of 2/13/70. Unique transitions to boot here; where else have you found a Truckin>DS>Main Ten>Dancin' in the Streets sequence?
If there is a weakness to the show, it's the sound. It starts off well, but during Dancin' the sources change to several (far muddier) sources that are nowhere close to the first AUD. But you'd be a fool to let the sound quality get in the way of your experience of this fine '70 show.

P.S. Nice xylophone from Mickey (?) during Dark Star.

Reviewer: wlmtell - - January 31, 2005
Subject: Star Chimes

This is a fine audience recording. If you're an old tapehead type, you want this tape iteration (not the other). If not, don't bother.
You'll want to listen to it on good headphones. Due to ambient crowd noise start your d/l at Truckin'. Be patient. Dark Star's chimes are crystal clear. Amazing. Be blessed with the rest while dancin' in the beautiful & groovey stars that will not fade away. For those who know...

Reviewer: oceantree - - December 25, 2004
Subject: xmas show

Much of this was featured on KBOO's (Portland, OR, kboo.fm) xmas show '04 (including a shout-out to our local crew!)... Good stuff, this, absolutely cosmic jams- what a Baby Blue!

Reviewer: Tampa Red - - October 11, 2004
Subject: Soundboards would be the Holy Grail

One of the last remaining Holy Grails of Dead taping is soundboards of 6/24 and 11/8/70. Did they ever exist at all? I know that Owsley was in jail at this particular time, but does that mean the shows weren't recorded at all, or the recordings are just lost/destroyed? Oh well, if they ever do surface, you'll probably hear them here first.

Reviewer: John Reddie - - June 6, 2004
Subject: Best copy I've ever heard of this...

Finally....a complete and thoroughly listenable version of this great show! Many thanks to those who put so much time and effort into bringing out the best in the audience recordings available. This is one of "those" nights, and the wild electric set is one of the greatest ever. If you haven't heard this one yet, don't hesitate to download it!

Notes

This does not exist in the vault so this is the best that's out there...

This was drawn from at least three audience sources, Primarily Ken Lee's (MC>C>D>CD) and Marty Weinberg's (MR>C>D>CD). Some of these sources have been mixed up a bit over the years so I am not too worried about where each minute came from, I just tried to pick the best sounding parts and make them a little better...

Acoustic Set - Primarily Lee's with patches
NRPS Set - Weinberg's - No patch source available.
First Electric Disc - Weinberg's with patches.
Second Electric Disc - Through Dancin' is Weinberg, rest Lee with patches (The second half of Weinberg had bad bass saturation...)

This show required a good bit of work. All sources needed a Continuous Noise filter to take the edge off the hiss. Each source was individually equalized to bring out the best in them. Gain adjustments were made to bring everything in balance and about 200-300 loud handclaps were removed from various parts. A lot of miscellaneous pops and gliches were cleaned up. All patches were matched as best I could to the rest of the songs sonic qualities. All editing done with Diamond Cut DC5 software.