Reviewer:
Mind Wondrin
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
September 29, 2018
Subject:
Nothing Beat a Run at Red Rocks
The start of the 6th (of 7) Red Rocks runs and 4th year in a row. The shows were changed to the afternoon after tix were printed, because at the time there was an attempt to appease the people in the nearby exurban enclave of Morrison, after a Shakedown appeared on their Main Street in '84 (the afternoon showers are over by September). Saturday started in the evening anyway. At the Greeks, a couple months earlier, Cryptical was surprisingly resurrected, and paired with Other One for the first time in over 13 yrs. They busted it out 4 more times, so of course many of us thought there would be a Cryptical for this run, and there was a bzz bzz bzz about this being the final one. By the time this run was over, we didn't get one! The show before, in KC, turned out to be the last. They did add Revolutionary Hamstrung shortly after (but dropped it immediately), and Tons of Steel had just been added, too.
First Set. An above-average Cold Rain bodes well. There's a He's Gone tuning but they veer instead into See See Rider. I'd missed it every time and finally got to see one. (I still kept oddly missing Alabama, and missed TLEO and Might as Well until the 90s!). Luckily this was the one to see; though there's a mixing problem the performance is tops (Bobby doesn't abuse his slide privileges). Candyman sounded bad on my old AUD but now I can see how great it was. The Beat it on Down-9 is average and the next few are creaky and/or sluggish until a whopper of a Me & My Uncle fires the band. Now there's a boogie in the air for Big River where Brent is given room. Peggy-O is spry and bouncy for the era and I love the solo on this one. Jer then asks for Black Muddy (wtf?!). Let it Grow improves but the band isn't tight. The AUD I had for years and years was wobbly here, but the SBD shows it's a good version, sans Bobby straining for the early verses. It's a short set (fwiw, the shortest set I ever saw -
not counting 3-set shows).
Second Set. So, this Scarlet is in my Top 5 of all time. I still remember thinking, when Jer played it, that I would have to get the tape to make sure I heard what I thought. I still can't get over the unusual way Garcia transposes several times during the solo, plays one phrase and then several measures later plays the phrasing in reverse (which I discovered when I worked it out on the fretboard), and figures out a way - on the fly- to have several peaks, including a fanfare section near the end and an ascending finish that goes unresolved, accelerating before returning to verse. The tranny into the hot Fire is also amazing. Bobby flubs an otherwise good Estimated Prophet. Eyes is Motorik and Jer is on-game. Drums is a great headphone version and in my Top 20 of all time. They had a new Line Array tower at these shows and I remember how knock-your-sox powerful it was for Gimme Some Lovin'. After a Sugar Mag sweet clover daydream, they feel out whether that's really it or not (though it was normally the set-ender in '85) but, waters tested, somebody bails. Brokedown has the best false start that I know of (it was the talk of Shakedown after the show), then they come back and nail the harmony.
1st Set: B-
2nd Set: B+
Overall = 4 Stars
Highlights:
See, See Rider Blues - best of the 15 in '85
Me & My Uncle - maybe best of '85
Scarlet Begonias - maybe it's just me, but one of all-time best
Eyes of the World - Jer is on-game and the '85 beat Motorik
Drums - unusually good, a head-game off the sandstone; try headphones
SOURCES: There haven't been great sources for this show, with dragging SBDs and swimmy, static-y, saturated AUDS dominating (though it was still a repeat-listen for me for years). But now there's a much-improved, correctly pitched and patched SBD [tobin_102034], and a great matrix [tobin_102032].