This is one of those audience tapes where it's painfully obvious that the taper wasn't in the tapers' section. The guy whooping it up closest to the mics would have been drawn and quartered half way into the first number.

So where was this taper? FOB maybe. So many aud. recordings from the 90's are awful one really can't tell. And I'll never know why taping took such a dive in the 90's. Too many cooks? Too many amateurs? DAT? New mics that weren't appropriate?

Certain venues hated the taper and this place was one of them (this was Cap Center before the regrettable name change) and I've never heard any aud. that sounds really great recorded here (I have aud. stuff from the '88 and '91 runs from different sources)unlike, say, Pittsburgh Civic Arena.

Despite all odds, Phil Lesh is here, which was always my bellwether for an aud. tape. I can
hear him. Maybe not as clear as I'd like but, for an arena, he's less distorted here than, say... Oakland for instance. But obviously Taper Guy, you weren't somewhere where you could tell Mr. Whoop Whoop to shut up.

But that's why I'm taking this tape. Every once in a while I like to download a show where I can put it on, knock one back, and feel like I'm at the gig. I like to really hear that crowd (got a few awful ones from '72 just for that reason). And this crowd is having a great time at this one. Yes, sure it's a '94 but this is up there with a few of the MSG shows from this tour and this tour is generally regarded as the last time Jerry could still pull it off and surprise us. Perhaps what I'm hearing is relief.

The Help>Slip!>Frank is better than the MSG one, probably because it's earlier in the tour and a second set version, and our hero's not as tired (or something) and way better than any version from '95 where the song combo was slowed down to the tempo of a dirge to accommodate Jerry's deteriorating playing (I'm thinking of Seattle and Knickerbocker in particular). The band sounds like they're having as much fun as they could have. Once you accept that Jerry's only going to get so far then it becomes a nice ride but you just never know with Garcia (the Knickerbocker '95 Hell Tour Scarlet>Fire is markedly better than the one played in Charlotte in the Spring with Hornsby and much more clear-headed than Seattle's. I know there are many who will disagree but I don't think he woke up in Seattle until Uncle John's).

You probably wonder why I am even wasting my time around this era when there is so much gold to be mined in the 70's. I know. I've recently realized that I don't have nearly as much '78 or '87 as I want. '79 is, for the most part, an undiscovered country for me too.

I guess it's because this is where I left them. And I want to understand the struggle that they were having. And maybe someday I'll hear from their lips why they just didn't bag it and say...sorry folks we're not touring in '95 because one of our members has serious drug issues and we'd kinda like to save his life and not embarrass ourselves. That being said, I have fun listening to this one. And unlike other sob stories posted around this year and the next ("this was my last show and it sucked...etc...) this is one that I could wish to have been at rather than either of the first two Autzen shows I attended in the same year. I think I would have danced out the place on this night. Whoooo!

If I could make it three and a half I would. But I'll give it three.

Real Nice Surprise Clark!