I knew a Deadhead kid in the dorms who had this tape. The novelty factor made it a must-hear. "Egypt, eh? It's gotta be way cool, man!". I didn't know enough about boots yet with my green Dead ears to know if it was a quality gen or show! Over the years I heard people dis this run as worst-ever, and the band so often compared it to Woodstock and Monterey as a flub, that I never collected it (aside from filler). All '78 Dead shows have their highlights, right? Well this is the one - the king of you-had-to-be-there. If you want the history, skip to the last show. If you want summer '78 look at Red Rocks. If you want a run, go with the Winterland homecoming.

First Set. After the segue from opening act, they play with Not Fade Away a bit at the end. S'cool. The vibe is already different. Bobby says the monitors sound like telephones, which does not bode well for the set, as it turns out. Or the show (or the run). Me & My Uncle finds 'im lying there by the side of the road. They Love Each Other kind of drives into the mud. Minglewood is average (but aced on the final night). Peggy-O comes together by Jer's solo - the first sparks. BioDtL-14 is not at all tight. The Dead portion of the 1st set is 45min of Weir keeping things afloat and shoes in the dryer. This improves a couple times in the second set.

Second Set. Sugaree is sloppy as fuck yet still has a couple thrills - a not uncommon Dead dichotomy. Jer now has a stubborn persistence to pull shit together and Bobby's Samson & Delilah is the first show spike. Scarlet is no outright trainwreck...until after the solo. There's a 15sec repeated loop @3:00 on the Dauria AUD. It's not a bad Fire on the Mountain and the best all night from the drummers. Truckin' is a trainwreck off a trestle. Jer goes to the chorus too soon and when he then tries to go back to the missed verse, Bobby fights to sing the third verse. Bobby gives in the next time, when Jer misses the Bowling Pin verse, singing Buffalo instead. They mostly fall back into respective places for the jam. Played much better the final night. It does have a unique tranny into The Other One, the second/final show spike and really the first time the machine hovers above ground. Not a top '78 but worth hearing. Drums has a few seconds missing @9:12 from Dauria. Along with Space it's pretty bland and dry. The power of the pyramids doesn't make it onto tape. The rest is average with Around again better the last night. Guess there was no need to encore.

1st Set:  D+
2nd Set: D
Overall = 1 star

Highlights:
A boat ride to Luxor

Run:
14th = D
15th = D
16th = C

SOURCES: Wisely missing from Rocking the Cradle and no good SBD source. The AUDs sound better and the best is the dauria.6032. Unlike the SBDs it has Jer and Phil. (The SBD has BioDtL mixed wrong, Donna is missing on Deal, the mics are out on Sugaree, Jer is missing from most of the show and it's muffled. The Bobby songs aren't as bad.) The miller.88171 updates the miller.22169. It probably needs a matrix - though it may still not be better than the Dauria AUD. The porray.motb-0107 is best for Drums>Space and if you don't want to fix the digiloop error in Scarlet. It also has the first few seconds of Deal (missing from Dauria).

I give the show 5 stars because the quality is really good for 1978. The intro is AMAZING with the traditional folk music jam into Not Fade Away! Now I'm not a "Donna Hater" because I respect what she does and what she brings to the band...But to listen to her wailing is almost unbearable during Scarlet Begonias.

The first track, which runs over half an hour, is worth hearing. It starts with an Egyption band (composer and performer Hamza el-Din), then Jerry and Phil join in a jam, then they all join in. Jerry, in particular, "gets it," and the result is enjoyable. (The Dead played the jam, called Ollin Arrageed, several times during Fall of 1978.) There's also a nice transition into Not Fade Away, in the unusual spot near the beginning of the first set.

The rest of the show is average '78. There's a nice They Love Each Other. Samson is a highlight.

Bob's vocals are low in the first set, and some of Jerry's are low on the second, so you have to pick and choose the cuts to find complete audio. But Ollin Arrageed -> NFA seems to be free of problems for the most part.

I'm not sure what happened to the previous reviewer's download but mine turned out quite nicely. An Egypt show from the master reel, hiss barely noticeable and with lots of jamming, the vocals aren't that big a deal. It's not THAT great a show, however. Nerves, disorientation, whatever... Stream it, download a track and check it out, whichever you like. This IS an interesting show.

Microphone issues render the bulk of this show practically an instrumental. Combine that with massive tape hiss, and you have a very unpleasant listening experience. Don't download this unless you have every other show available.