This is sort of addressed to one of the reviews.
I was thinking of the first time I dropped.
I was 16 and my girlfriend was a year older.
Not sure how we got managed to score
but we tried to do three things;
One we went out in the woods and watched leaves 🍁 crashing to the ground.
That was the apex and we were both non- verbal until the sun went down.
Second thing we tried to do was order fast food in the lobby, that was a no go.
I am pretty sure we would not have eaten anything anyway.
Third thing was we both had sex for the first time. Two virgins on Lucy in the sky..
Can I tell you that was the one and only time I did it on acid.
Anyway, I bring this all up to say that the Grateful Dead played in Modesto,Ca the previous night and appear this night at The Ice Palace. Not sure how much experimentation was happening in 1969 with the band.
But my experience was each trip was very different and my experience was that parts of what I experienced had a building nature to it.
Like a story I could come back to.
This to say back off Garcia the man is not here to defend himself and to my ears he is more than holding his own.
Some folks say run away
Others say better stand still..

5

Excellent Dark Star. The 28th is decidedly better, though.

This is an awesome show! Jerry's vocals are perfect, and the band is on fire.

YES IT'S DEFINITELY TRUE THAT THE GRATEFUL DEAD SOUND BETTER AT CERTAIN TIMES THAN OTHERS. JERRY WAS, IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A VIRTUOSO, ONCE IN A LIFETIME GUITAR PLAYER. TO ME IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER HE SINGS OFF KEY OR FORGETS THE WORDS OR SINGS LIKE A GIRL (ALL OF THESE ARE COMMENTS I HAVE READ FROM PEOPLE ON THE ARCHIVE WHO REVIEW THE SHOWS). WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO HAVE HIM BACK!! WE MUST REALIZE THAT THE PHENOMENON KNOWN AS THE GRATEFUL DEAD WAS A GIFT - A BLESSING SO TO SPEAK FROM THE MUSIC GODS ABOVE. AND WE MUST BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT WE HAD FOR 30 YEARS - A BAND BEYOND DESCRIPTION. AND WE ALSO MUST BE "GRATEFUL" TO THE ARCHIVE AND THE PEOPLE WHO WORK SO HARD TO BRING US THE BEST SOUNDING SHOWS THAT THEY CAN. TO THE FULL BAND: YOU ROCKED MY SOUL

Jerry was still learning how to sing here. Don't kid yourself. He sounds like a 12 year old girl scout trying not to crack his voice on the Dew opener. But the shredding sick high-in-the-mix leads make me tolerate the cringing off-key shouting. It's actually annoying. Somewhere along the lines he gets his act together and finds his tone in a major way in Dark Star, which as the previous reviewer says, is a phenomenal Dark Star. If the leads were not high in the mix and jerry ddn't sound so good I might make the time to be hugely critical of this show- honestly the band sounds unrehearesed and sloppy, tired and too high to play. The only saving grace, is Jerrys leads. Fittingly, only his leads saved him at the end of his life too, otherwise his lack of ability to sing, as in this show, would be all too obvious and embarrasing to the band and heads everywhere. Thankfully, Jerry keeps at the leads- you can tell in this show he just struggles to find the sound in his voice and then gets so pissed tha he plays angrilly and tries to make up for his hideous singing by shredding leads- and he does it in spades...3 stars since only Jerry really played well and even then if not for good sound quality this show is garbage quality playing. But I am enjoying it because JG is the best guitar player who ever lived and this mix highlights his chords which slither in and out of loose chords like a hungry snake that eventually devours the entire band- experience this Dark Star- crank it up and don't be a sissy and put on head phones- crank it up and let it rip! This Dark Star deserves the power of speakers, vibration, echo and an external sound. Let it free- the music is silenced by multi-media and earphones- the spirits need to be free! Jerry once said each note he played was like an individual spirit.

This is a fantastic Dark Star!! I have never listened to this show before and I'm glad I did. The sound for 1969 is just ridiculously good. Thank you Mr. Miller.