Agree,this is one of the best "He's Gone" I've heard so far.Some of the usual SQ problems and fluffed lyrics in 1st set, but the 2nd set is magic. Overall a 4 star night

Me & Bobby McGee, great rendition. This new source needed to be turned up a bit, but has less hiss. Comments show to expect some problems due to mold/water damage to master reels used to create this source.
Loser goes back and forth between slow and sweet, and interesting and not interesting.
Playin' In The Band does not pack the punch I would like. It sounds pretty, melodic, but not a driven, mind melt. You may now tar and feather me.

Set II Intro
Promised Land, SQ issue! Loud Bobby, low instruments! The song is plagued with SQ issues, probably due to the previously mentioned mold damage on the reels.
China Cat Sunflower -> MLB Jam(?) -> I Know You Rider
China comes out with a great energy, and sound issues seem to be resolved. We get into the transition and this thing is at full tilt. I love this transition, however, I think calling it an MLB jam is misleading. Bob, for one, never does the chord progression associated, and Jerry just does typical licks for this period. During Rider Bill y throws in some extra flourishes. Nice work.
Big River maintains all energy as expected.
Stella Blue takes a while to deliver a nice punch, but it does. I think this song is better places out of a mind melting jam so you can regroup.
Me & My Uncle has a bit more of a polka theme to it than I generally like, otherwise fine.
He's Gone has some nice buzz to it. There was a nice build up well before the vocal jam at 7 minutes in. Just after 10 we get the outro jam with a misstep in there. It quickly recovers and we have a nice bluesy jam.
Truckin' -> Jam> Spanish Jam -> Space -> Dark Star -> Sing Me Back Home
I consider it to have transitioned in Truckin, personally. There was no full break out of the silent ending of Gone we got the explosive intro of Truckin. Nice energy here, as to be expected in this solid 2nd set. The explosion build up at 5 minutes goes through the roof and the post-explosion jam is solidly fast yet bluesy. We leave the them and go into the 17 minute track called “Spanish Jam”, which is also misleading, because it isn’t for most of the track. A good portion of it is just Billy and Phil jamming. Jerry and the rest of the gang rejoin for some noodles, and then a couple of minutes later we get a solid Spanish Jam, starting around 11:50. Energetic and focused, this is one of the better Spanish Jams I have heard, and I love Spanish Jams. This is more remarkable as it is apparently the first Spain since 2/11/70! After this we journey into space and a short little Dark Star theme/verse chucked in for good measure.
Sing me back home welcomes us back to earth.
Sugar Magnolia = rockin’!

E: Johnny B. Goode = rockin’ encore!

Overall… it took a bit for the 1st set to get going, and it was still inconsistent. That being said, the HC Sunshine and Cumberland were clear highlights, but TLEO and TN Jed take the cake.
The 2nd set is a serious winner.
Great show, 5 stars overall.

I am glad to see someone feeling this particular show like I do... Granted any 5-star show when listened to in the right time&space could be "the best." I stumbled on this one early in my GD searches, because it is on my birthday(11years before I was born). There were so many shows I figured I had to start somewhere. I originally thought that I had heard "the best" show, but thought I better not get carried away. Even since then I have still not found better versions of a lot of these songs. I hate 'date dropping' but check out 1974-05-19. If we have similar tastes you will love it.

This is the King Ghidorah of GD shows right here. He was a genetically mutated, lightning breathing three headed dragon from outer space that is capable of interplanetary travel that kicked Godzillas ass. After paying very close attention to this particular show, I realized the monster in the movie and this show were virtually one in the same. I have listened to it many times before, but I don’t think I really heard it until this past weekend. A 31 song powerhouse of mythical proportions.

The first head of this beast consists of the fourteen songs that start the first set, Bertha>>El Paso. Pure swagger in these near flawless renditions of their cowboy rock standards. Right away I noticed Phil and how heavy his shit was this evening. He and Billy are really on point this evening and keeping perfect time. I enjoyed every one of these tunes and Jerry really set the tone during the first solo in BIODTL. He immediately starts trading with Keith and it is ON! I really dig the fact that all of the tunes have very heavy, albeit smaller jams throughout. Even Ten Jed and LLR worked for me here. You can hear the confidence they are playing with coming right through on the recording. Just phenomenal stuff right here.

The second head of this beast starts with Sunshine and ends with MAMU. HCS is damn near perfect and clocking in under ten minutes. Every aspect is present here and pulled off beautifully. The anticipation is palpable and Jerry’s vocals are as good as they ever were. The jam is significant and not drawn out too much. I think this tune needs to be under ten minutes to be right. It is and it is! Killer! Now we come to Playin’ and this would definitely be the highlight of the show if not for the third head of this lightning breathing beast. This one clocks in under twenty minutes and is executed with vigor. Bobby’s vocals are on point and even Donna’s harmonies sound great to me this evening. This one drops in at the three minute mark and immediately throws you in the deep end of the pool. Underwater licks from Jerry melting into a waterfall of harmony accentuated front and center by Phil once again. He is dropping bombs left and right and he downright owns this part of the beast. This is about the point I started to really notice Bobby’s work here. Incredible. The last significant portion of this ‘head” is the China>Rider. It follows a very quick and well executed TMNS, and it seemed like they wanted to get to this one right away. More of the cowboy swagger from the first set is evidenced here right away. This one is about as tight as they come and again, every element is present and accounted for. Everyone contributes and as usual and Bobby’s rhythm really controls this one nicely. They follow this one with one of the finest Big Rivers’ I have ever heard. A dynamite speedball with Jerry breathing lightning the whole time.

Now, the third head of this monster is where the heart of the beast really lies. He's Gone > Truckin' > Spanish Jam > Dark Star > Sing Me Back Home > Sugar Magnolia is a jam worthy of the mythical beast status I have bestowed upon this show. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be Astounding. Right from the jump you can tell there is a little something extra in the air as Phil bounces right along with Jerry so effortlessly. Beautifully patient and tempered, just the way a classic storytelling song should be. Jerry’s first solo is just enough to pick up the pace some, but not too much. They remain mellow and heavy right on through this one and the anticipatory energy is contained very well. The last few minutes are accented really nicely with Jerry doing some great bendy/slidy soloing and trading with Bobby. This fades right into Truckin’. Now this is the part that gets interesting right here. It starts off innocently enough but gets wound and wound and wound with jerry’s unrelenting soloing starting about halfway through this one. Phil ever present in the background pounding away even the most gentile of notes. It backs off ever so slightly with Phil coming to the front more and more every time around. It ends up slowly fading into the abyss with a gentle ease. The transition is one for the ages. Phil slinks around for about the first minute or two of the jam and then the third head of this mythical beast rises once again with Jerry and Billy going full tilt into this one. The work right here by Phil and Jerry is pure jazzy bliss inspired by the speed that Billy is keeping. Full on interplanetary travel going on right here. GD bliss without question. The question is not whether or not they are high right here, but more like how high can they take it? They answer rather quickly as I hear the first few riffs of Spanish jam coming through at about the ten minute mark of this jam. Developed very nicely and executed almost flawlessly. It meanders along and picks up some real steam until it morphs into a very wahwah space journey that lasts only for a few minutes as this is part of the journey, not a stop. Hints of tiger abound, this could only be taking us to one destination that is, Dark Star. With Phil playing the first few notes, the beast takes a moment to stop and look around, but not for long as outer space is not the destination for this one. Played in perfect time, this truncated version of Dark Star has all the makings of a piece of history. Just as quickly as they arrive to the depths of space, they are leaving in the comfort of Sing Me Back Home. This one looks out of place on paper but don’t let that fool you. Just Jerry and few thousand of his closest friends right here being comforted by the wholesome sound of the band. Perfect way to slow it down before the afterburner kicks in with the start of SugarMags. Jerry once again grabs this one by the throat with his soloing and rock star Bobby is in full effect mode. This show concludes with all three heads of this beast swinging wildly and breathing lightning all over the crowd. The finish this one off with a smoking JBG with Keith absolutely crushing this one. Wound nicely and finished off with a bang. Holy shit and the show is over and I am in awe.

I was able to listen to this 31 song bowhemouth twice during this long weekend, and man am I glad I did. I am giving this show my very highest recommendation, which makes it the thirteenth installment of the DDP series. Must Have, Must Listen. No other way to describe this one….Well, unless you like my description which is a genetically mutated, lightning breathing three headed dragon from outer space that is capable of interplanetary travel….Peace

Awesome show! MLB jam takes a while to get to but A rose by any other name...

& a great recording.

5 stars - right off the bat - it really is that good. This is a wonderful Betty-board and there are some really nice highlights to the show. However with that being said, there are also some disclaimers lol. First of all the *mind left body* jam (i hate the Mud Love Buddy title and curse whoever started that on Dozin at the Knick) is short and not very full bodied. It doesn't encompass a true Mind Left Body jam but for the whole minute plus that they play it, it's not too bad.

Secondly, tucking away that lil gem between China/Rider was pure brilliance. They should have pulled that out of their backsides more often. It really fit well. Couple of standards sprinkled in the set here (im talkin about you Big River, Me and My uncle,Stella Blue for this time) but all really well played and the sound is ....well it is a betty board and I don't think I need to sey much more regarding that. The He's Gone is as mentioned previously, outstanding. Its got great vocals at the end with a powerful punch.
A fairly jammy Truckin' leads into what is labeled as a 17:00 min. Spanish Jam. In most of my reviews I do not nit - pick on the timing and notation of most songs. However I think it should be noted here there is no Spanish Jam happening at all until a full 11:44 into said jam. There is simply no semblance of it until then, and while there are some notes of Dark Star at the start, for the most part, the first 11 minutes is a jam all its own. However once the true Spanish Jam comes alive, it is impeccable. Really nice jam that goes until approx. 16:50 before losing it's identity to a true Space. Before Space was space.

The true travesty of this show is the Dark Star. Reminiscent of the 94 Rosemont show I attended when they played a short ( i think 7 minute) first verse Dark Star, this is shorter and more poignant then '94's which is weird cuz its '73. But alas, this crowd as well would not be treated to the remainder of the song. Truly a shame considering how great they sounded on this night... as opposed to '94 lol.

Dark Star flowing into Sing me back home has got to be one of the oddest segue's the band pulled off. It is a really good rendition considering Donna is in the mix and it takes up the full 10 min. as listed. 2 rousing songs end the show and my ears couldn't be much more happier than they were listening to this awesome concert. This is by far a superb '73 show to absorb- it is worth the listen for sure. As the title of my review states - I'll give it a 5 - no problem.


~ Let the good times roll

. . . And what better way to hear it than a Betty board? Second set is absolutely smokin'! I'm a sucker for Spanish Jam.

To answer your question Hashjihad, 'Mud Love Buddy Jam' is just a goofy twist on what it was originally called, 'Mind Left Body Jam', after the Paul Kanter song. Read more about it here:

http://www.dead.net/song/mind-left-body-jam

In my opinion the most amazing He's Gone I have listened to with a sick vocal jam at the end. Also the the rest of the jam is pretty ridiculous, and while many call this a Spanish jam, I kinda disagree. Its got a Spanish feel, but drops many hints of Dark Star, maybe the whole things should be labeled Dark Star. Also Mud Love Buddy jam I thought was Feelin Groovy Jam. Maybe I am wrong anyone care to tell me the difference.