This show is the best of a great run of February shows, 2/2, 2/03, 2/14, and 2/23-2/23 Kings Beach Lake Tahoe (aka, Dick’s Picks Vol. 22) are all outstanding shows in an outstand run of Anthem shows. This is better show than Dick’s Picks 22. Also excellent audio and mixing.
The second set is the Anthem of the Sun live: the complete album with the order of the songs as on the album. In fact, much of this show was used on Anthem of the Sun. Plus, a Spanish Jam thrown in for good measure.
If it were just the second set, this would be a great show. But the first set is also great. It starts with typically Morning Dew of the period, with Pigpen’s keyboard supplying the groundwork for the Jerry-Phil-Bob jam. Dark Star, still less than two months old at this point, and still a short, but it’s tight. DS goes into China Cat (they hadn’t written St. Stephan yet for between Dark Star and the Eleven. This is pretty rare, as the played China Cat in this sequence only for a few months before dropping it for St. Stephen. I love the sound of this China Cat, fast and raw and together, with Jerry really in the zone. It then takes off into the Eleven. Driving with energy, Pigpen’s organ pushes the Eleven along. It’s also clean and tight with great vocals. The Eleven resolves neatly into Turn on Your Lovelight, continuing the force of the set. This is only the second time they played Lovelight, but it’s a dandy.
Jerry dedicates the second set to the memory of Neal Cassady (“Cowboy Neal”), who had died the previous week. A fitting dedication. Then comes a nearly perfect Anthem of the Sun set, and it’s easy to see why they used it on the album. Cryptical>Other One is pure dynamite, and crips and clean and tight, the way performances of Passenger from 1977 are tight—everything is in the right place.
One thing great about this show is that the transitions are smooth and flawless, including the one into New Potato. This features some artful improvising by Phil after the vocals. Jerry lets Phil go at it alone and then comes in with some rhythm guitar licks, slowly building in intensity. It’s masterful. The rarely performed Born Cross-Eyed is a natural capper, but the action doesn’t end here. After all this energy, the Dead go into a spacy, long Spanish Jam that ebbs and flows, and evolves in mood.
Pigpen’s vocal isn’t loud enough in Alligator, but the Alligator jam is fabulous. Following Jerry in this jam is like following Coltrane. Things then speed up for Caution, and the Dead go off into another zone altogether. Caution and feedback are inspired, building to controlled chaos before receding into nothingness.
Midnight Hour is the encore.
There are a few different versions of this show here at archive. This best has a patch of the cut in the Alligator jam, found here:
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1968-02-14.sbd.miller.89676.sbeok.flac16