http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/gd1972-05-07nrps.asx

Guys like La Prima who dis recordings like this make me laugh. What does he expect from 1973 in the middle of 600,000 people? I'm shocked the sound is so damn good!

As for the performance---insipid? What the hell does that mean? Is this not one of the most challenging shows the band ever played? I think they come off rather well. It's not RFK '73 but what is? It's not 3/1/69 either but it contains some superb playing. It's f@^#%$& Watkin's Glen for God's sake and between this and the other posting I now have access to the whole thing. Is this as good as some of my crispiest boards? No. Audience tapes? Some I have are magnificent. This one isn't but it's a brilliant and surprisingly good historical artifact of an era and the beats a lot of Dick's Picks and From the Vaults as far as I'm concerned. It's also more fun to listen to than the board after a toot.

I'd give the sound two stars but hell, I had a Portchester '70 triple Dark Star for years that sounded like crap but I played it all the time for the brilliant crowd ambience and band performance. I'll come back to this one too. Four stars for the sheer challenge of getting this sucker down in such primitive surroundings (if you'd told these tapers about taper sections and Nak mics back then they'd have thought they were tripping----oh they probably were)) and getting it to the Archive and us. Many, many thanks!

Now who's got my Bickershaw '72 Dark Star>Other One. I know you're out there!! ;)

It's amazing to find this show after 32 years but the music that day made the 6 hour ride, then an all night walk from Elmira, NY (25 miles) seem like it was all worth it!!! What a long, strange trip it really was!!!!!!!

Hi, this was a truly memorable show for me. Finding this show to listen to tonight is special. Yea, this is not the best version, but you got to realize the adverse conditions in that crowd of 600,OOO. Once you got in,most the day before that was it. The physical size of the crowd was immense. This was a real endurance test for the band and the crowd. This tape documents the event nicely. It all in there,I swear the Dead played every jam, riff they knew that day. Check it out!

I downloaded this show and listened to it. Pretty insipid performance, audio quality mediocre at best. Sounds like it was taped thru a very cheap tape deck. Not worth having IMHO.

There is one interesting aspect to this concert,which has nothing to do with the Dead. In America's oldest active missing teen case, Bonita Beckwit and Mitchel Weiser disappeared without a trace after leaving Sullivan Co. to attend this show. http://doenetwork.us/cases/3dfny.html

A witness has come forward claiming that the two probably drowned while swimming in a river while hitchhiking back home. This seems to be corroborated on the audio tape during the encore, Sing Me Back Home, one of the tapers says quite clearly, "I'm keeping it dry," indicating a rainstorm, and possible flooding afterwards.

This source doesn't really sound half bad. If anybody has time to check the whole mess out, it would be nice to hear what you think.

I am on the fence, but am leaning toward DLing it and burning a copy. The real rating is a 3.75.