I tend to be guilty of taking shows from January and February of 1968 entirely for granted. Special stuff. 1/17/68 is a dandy from a pretty decent handful of deliciously psychedelic, energetic, and groovy soundboards from the first couple months of what would go down in Grateful Dead history as one of their most psychedelic and experimental years.

This is the earliest available live recording from 1968. There’s a lot of similarities in sonic texture between this show and the likes of 10/22/67 and 11/10/67. While Garcia’s speedy work on the Gibson dominates this recording, the rest of the band demonstrates much of the smooth composure that you’ll find on their first studio album and live shows from 1967. It's not quite as jarring or aggressive as shows from August-October ‘68, but there are certainly moments that foreshadow the wavy wilderness that they’d wade into later in the year, as heard in Feedback and the huge Spanish Jam.

This is audio documentation of the Grateful Dead in the laboratory, inventing jam band music.

The Dark Star > China Cat > Eleven sequence is the well-known jewel. I believe these are the first recorded live versions of each of these tunes, and the performance and sequencing of this trio is fizzy and brisk. There’s also much more to enjoy, from the Pig numbers and Anthem tunes to the ripping surf-style BIODTL.

Some cool stage banter. Somebody’s kid introducing them as they begin their two sets. Home-field advantage. A generous dose of awesome early Dead. All very special. This show is a glimpse of the band crossing the bridge between their first two studio albums.

A perfect one to bump while driving around the Bronx on a sunny St. Patrick’s Day morning after a Phil show at the Cap. (~):-}

This one is bound to find its way into your rotation and come back here again every now and then.

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According to Hunter, this was the first 'China Cat' performed live.

Great show, good quality. Listen if only for Jerry's voice on China Cat. Not pointing fingers, but man it sounds acid laden or something. Love the New Potato harmonies and the raw power of this one.

I love these early Spanish Jams, I swear they're the archetype for Grateful Dawg's Arabia, they always reminds me of it so much, I can just imagine David's mandolin coming through any second. And The Eleven is always a favorite of mine, I don't know if this is really the first one they played, sounds too polished, but it is the earliest one on the archive. And how about that 5 min Dark Star! It's so fast and cluttered, you can tell they knew what they wanted to do with it, but they just wanted to squeeze it all in and didn't allow it to breathe, still great nonetheless. And the rest is of course great, I mean it is a '68.

How could anyone not fucking LOVE this!?

Not a review as such, just I felt I had to say.. The sound quality is good enough for the sheer fucking musical brilliance of the band to shine through. Several times I had to say out loud "Bloody hell thats good!", even during Schoolgirl, which i dont much like

I'm not sure what adjustments J Cotsman has performed on the later portions of this file, but this still remains a rather hissy/muddy, later-generation sourced mess.

That said, it's still pretty fucking amazing, though this show falls well short of the magical shows over the next months, both in tightness and sound quality.

The Spanish jam is a flamenco masterpiece. And as the cohesiveness of the jamming continues to improve over the subsequent shows, it's difficult to believe this is a first ever performance. Anyone know if it was performed in Bakersfield on 1/14?