Reviewer:
natwashboard
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favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
March 24, 2021
Subject:
Joint was Rockin'
This was a tough ticket but I had to go because it was going to be my friend, Bicycle Bertha’s first show. I had gone to Hampton and only one Hartford b/c the whole tour was very sold out. And so I caved and drove down to Hartford (again) to the Connecticut-legit ticket scalper office and paid 100 bucks for a ticket well before people stopped blinking an eye at such a ticket price.
So I had unrealistically high hopes for this one and I was probably not as open-minded as usual because I wanted a certain kind of show for the bicyclist and another for another (RIP) friend of mine who could only physically make the one show. I wanted a big celebratory one for her and was kind of hoping they’d redo 6/10/73 for him but they didn’t. It wasn’t really his kind of show but it was prob a good first show for a person. (That said, my understanding is that she “got it” night 3. Shine on me…)
This is a rockin’ balls to the walls show like a spring 87. They do not let up even in the “ballad”, which is like the Celtic Thunder version of Row Jimmy. A weird vehicle for the quadraphonic speakers at the corners of the hall. The opening Touch of Grey is one of the greats. Bobby in particular is playing inventive, forceful lines and riffs and brings a unique gruffness to the chorus, which becomes a sort of theme to his singing this evening. (There’s always something unique or quirky about a Dead show. The Mysterious Grateful Dead.) This type of vocalizing continues in Stranger and later to great effect in Stuck Inside of Mobile which is almost perfect. Bobby’s falsettos are spot on and I had never noticed how he stabs at the high tonic note on the instrumental part between verses. Bobby! Around and Around takes everybody else off guard so Bobby starts it again. Everybody, including Bobby, is caught off guard by how to end Around and Around so it just ends…Bob announces the break and then uncharacteristically Bob and Jerry do a flourish ending for twenty seconds and walk off.
Second set opens with another great, classic and slow Sugar Magnolia that also goes into Scarlet but here Worcester gets the short shrift b/c unlike Hampton, there is no transition into Fire. (This is a trend that persists when Sugar Mags opens a 2nd set I find. I don’t endorse it. Scarlets that don’t go into Fire are usually not worth the novelty.) Estimated benefits from that gruff Bobby vocal though; right out of the gate he’s aggressively pressing his case for prophethood to the masses with vigor. It’s one of those fast Eyes that are about to become extinct. More electronic drums in Drums. They finally take a little bit of a breather in Space and into an almost introspective Wheel. An off-kilter Gimme Some Lovin’ leads into a truly frantic All Along the Watchtower that Bob attacks maniacally like he’s nailed to the cross himself. Back in the shack in the middle of the woods, we are taken to another death bed scene; Jerry has more or less gotten over the cold he picked up in New Jersey (I won’t give this virus a pejorative name though. I suppose he could have picked it up in Virginia.) and Black Peter is given the muscled, rockin’ treatment into (bang!) Sunshine Daydream. Box encore is solid. Again, a great show for a first timer and on this Friday night, I’m pretty sure there were more than just Bertha (Tina Touch Head was there) experiencing their first go-round this night.