This early-fall '73 tour had alot of great momennts. SOme great version sof "typical" '73 material, ie long playing in the band's and good versions of HCS, not the silly circus arrangement they gave it in the '90's revival. Then add in the horns which really made for some nice jams during Let it Grow. The band had been n the studio recently laying dopwn the tracks for Wake of the Flood so they were tight.
I had some neighbors go to ths show. I never spoke to them as they wrere goine by the time I was seeing shows in '82 and touring in '84-'86. I did wqant to comment on the r4eviwer below padssing along the bogus "satory" about the biys partying hard. It is pretty hoilarious how us Heads who were eactually out there on the road seeing the band never engaged in rumors about all this partying. The new fans ove the last 15 years who know them only by tapes have created an entire little subcultuirte of their own full of rumor ands innuendo. Like I said I never spoke to these guys who were at W&M '73 (they went ijn '76 and '78 also - stream both now. '78 has a great Dew.) But I can tell you the reaosn this show happened had nothing to do with partying at a coollege. A) The band stayed in hotels. B) very few people got to know what actually happened behind closed doros and frankly I don;t care, the 92 shows I saw were amazing, unmtahcable, irreplacable memories. C) They already knew they were playing th enext night during the show on the 11th. I read an article somewhere, or maybe it was in DeadBase 10-12 years ago, on 9.11. A guy who was there talks about how Lesh mentioned to the crowd they would be there the next night So whetehr or not they "partied hard" that night, nobody knows, and it certainly had noting to do wtith their decision to stay. In fact it was probably the reverse, they already knew they were staying so why not. In any event who cares, main point is please don't listen to or spread silly rumors it's gay and useless. (eauclairedan, did you actually see the band? Are you P.T, or A.T.? As in pre-Touch of Grey or after Touch era.)
Anotehr reviewer asked who sat in. That was not a guest appearance sit-in, they axctually used a sax player for the entire tour. The sax player on that tour was Martin Fierro, who would later play with Garcia in the pre-JGB Legion of Mary band. He was also on the Wake of the Flood LP so since he had been recording with them he was ready for that tour.
As great as these shows are, stream Nassau 9.7 and 8 as well, I like the later fall '73 shows better, after the album release 10.17 it was back to the standard lineup,
i.e. OK City, St. Louis, Evanston, of course November.