Short and sweet... Jerry could not sing this night and kicked it with his Guitar. This show is so awesome. You get to hear JG focusing solely on his guitar work. This is a rock show, which I like the best, and it is the GD at their best playing Rock. The jams are second to none.... listen closely to the Dancing, the NFA (Probably the best of all time) and the Around and Around.

I would say this is definitely good. I would not say one of the best. The recording is OK, a little heavy on Lesh & light on Garcia. The fact that it is a stream-only recording with probably no transmissible track info, as with so many of these early-uploaded SBDs, will probably knock it down to a 2 for me, but for the moment I'll give it the 4 it would deserve otherwise. Unlike some other reviewers, I do think the Dead lose something in not having Garcia's voice in the mix, but at least he plays some pretty hot licks here.

Everyone on this page seems to be only so-so about this concert while I found myself majorly impressed with the majority of this show. Sure first set is a lot of Bobby filler till Let It Grow, but the second set jam sets the stage for some of the finest Jerry guitar of 1978. The 24-minute Dancin is exploratory and sees Garcia and Lesh focused and displaying some of the outright greatest jamming of the year, YES compared to the Iowa and Milwaukee shows, YES compared to the Red Rocks shows.

the NFA is simply the best ever version (at least for the slower tempo late 70s arrangement), never have I heard a more jammed out or energetically psychoactive NFA.

For Jerry not having vocals this night, they totally make up for it by having a Jam-tastic second set. Unbelievable.

5 Stars for weirdness and performance and sound.

I really like this whole month of shows, the second night of Shrine in particular (which was one of my earliest tapes).

We all love Jerry, but this is cool. Its interesting to hear him focus strictly on his playing. He definitely steps it up and I like the Dead-as-rock-band. Passenger is underrated IMO. Good stuff.

I was definitely in the minority regarding my review of the 01/07/1978 show, so I'm hardly surprised that I'm in the minority here as well. This show has it's moments of brilliance (after all it's hard to find a Dead show without at least a dozen or so of those) but the whole show feels pretty aimless to me. Stats out promising with a great "Minglewood", but slows down in a hurry. "Passenger > Mexicali Blues", and "Me & My Uncle" are good, but seem a little rushed. Not that we're used to or particularly need extended jams on either of these, but they just feel hurried to me.

"Let It Grow" is EPIC and definitely the highlight of the entire show, at least for me.

"Dancin'" starts off good and during the main vocal section is incredible. The rhythm section bring the funk big time, and Jerry's guitar work early in the song is amazing. However, after the jam section his "quack-tone" is a little overdone and gets a bit annoying. You would think that with a 23+ minute "Dancin'" there'd be a lot to get excited about, but sadly, not the case here. Wanders about, but never really goes anywhere. "Playin'" is good, but again, the jam seems a bit aimless. Not as much as "Dancin'" though, because there are some interesting moments. "NFA" is great as always. Not the worst, but with the exception of Let It Grow....nothing to write home about either.

Great show despite Jerry's laryngitis, which is only why I gave it 4/5 stars. His guitar work makes up for the lack of his vocals. It's weird hearing Bob sing Jerry's parts on Jack Straw but that doesn't diminish it's quality at all- it's a smoker!

Dancin is a keeper as well with Jerry's extra funky Mutron madness progressing into a jam with an atypical spaciness for the song.

NFA is also a rocking powerhouse of a jam with heavy drumming reminiscent of October '77 performances.

solid show.

But calling this a 5 is a reach...

The NFA is epic and brings this to a 4.

Jerry wails on the guitar but is definately absent in the lyrics.

I had this on tape. This is a great upgrade. Sounds great!

good sound

Every tune feels crisply played here. During Minglewood, you can appreciate how lucky Jerry was to have such a fine rhythm section to work with, and what a flat out rock band the Dead were. In Cassidy, it's hard to imagine Garcia getting into much more of a lather before they head back to "flight of the seabird." Even Sunrise, probably features Donna at her vocal best. In Passenger, Garcia becomes one hot slide player. At the top of the second break, where he would usually move back to his pick, he gives us four more runs of some fairly smoking slide playing. In the Mexicali couplet, you can hear lots of unusual fills and filigree.

The real fun begins with Let It Grow. Lesh is featured prominently. And if you love the usual warble that Garcia lets fly on this tune, you are in for a real treat. I count five of them, plus a quick latin statement at 9:38ish. At 11:47 he unleashes a grand master warble. Promised Land is taken at just the right tempo. On the first break, Garcia's very first statement is a thought out phrase. You know he is completely on his game. The second break goes to Keith, but Garcia is so excited to get going again, he jumps right in and starts another one. After two lines, they beeline back to the verse. After this one, it's all Jerry: two great warbles, two huge classic Chuck Berry bends, and a slew of phrases.

And that's just the first set. Garcia is just getting warmed up, I kid you not. Just one highlight: after the "Dug for him a shallow grave" line in Jack Straw, he uncorks a totally rare, rocking fill.

I won't even go into Not Fade Away. It's worthy of its own chapter. Words are a poor substitute for music.
(BTW most of the Tuning files logged here are duplicates; they all seem to be identical to the one Tuning they do before they launch into Cassidy. This is a shame, because on one of the true Tunings, Weir explains to the audience about Garcia's laryngytis --- on the tape I've had since 1979, I believe the explanation occurs right before they do Jack Straw)

A great high energy show with some surprises and nice playing throughout. To make up for no Garcia vocals, the band (all of them) 'put their backs into it' and rock the whole show. Even the drummers are slammin' through this one. They do take some moments to slow down though, LL Rain is a nice reading with some sparse instrumentation on the jam.

That said, if you're only gonna download 1 nite of this run, get the 8th. The recording is much better the mix here is lacking and although a soundboard, this one is muddy and doesn't have the spatial feel of the next night.

Jerry had laryngitis this night so he lets his guitar do the singing for him. Absolutely blistering! The Not Fade Away has one of the widest array of sounds and effects of any I have heard. One of my favorite tapes of all time. Simply incredible.