The morning after the Unbroken Chain breakout, I was at the Philly Amtrak station headed back to work in NY. Suit, tie, the whole look. I saw a bunch of younger tie-dye wearing folks standing outside the magazine store/ newsstand, staring in. I walked over and Phil is inside! this is at 9am in the morning!

He had an " adult" magazine in his hands , glancing though it. Since I didn't look the part of someone who was at the show the night before, I went right up to him and said" Great breakout of Unbroken Chain last night. Thanks!"

Phil barely looked up. So I ask " Phil , what are you doing here?"

His reply?

I'm buying a magazine..."

True story...

3/17 3/18 3/19 at the spectrum were my last 3 show. It was The Grateful Dead play, how can you criticize The Dead? It was a lot of peoples exception on Jerry that brought him down, when all along he just wanted to have fun. I'll never forget these show. Thinking and writing about this brings tears to my eyes, I miss him so much!

I'll never forget hearing the first notes of Unbroken and the energy that filled that place. Hearing the crowd again brought me rite back to that moment... Have the tape locked away with the other ones (pun intended) so its nice to have access to it on here... 5 stars for the experience. Love & Light

was definatly not one of the spectrum smoking shows that ive grown accustomed too, was weird i thought too that only 5 song first set when i heard dont ease was cool to see the unbroken chain, thought crazy fingers was good. i take the good with the bad so i give it middle of the road rating, thanks for putting it on , continued success to all gd family

Quite a lackluster show. But people will say: "they broke out Unbroken Chain"! Too bad it was years too late and Garcia couldn't hack playing the song, especially the solo section. When I saw Unbroken Chain I was embarrassed for the band and Jerry inparticular. It didn't make the show I saw any better.

One of the previous reviewers is right about the 2nd set song selection, especially before drums. It was bad enough they could barely play as a group competently anymore, but all these new songs were quite bad. It all started with Dayjob, Victim and Foolish Heart. Then it went downhill from there with Wave to The Wind, Corrina, etc... You can salm me all you want, but that's the truth.

Just because someone is a fan doesn't mean they're blind (or deaf). You can critique the balls off of any given show (whether you're responding to the show itself, or just being contrary), but the final truth is that sound quality and even musical quality doesn't always paint the whole picture.

Yes, I prefer by a wide margin 69-77 to nearly everything after, but this show moves me. Period.

That makes it a five-star show in my book.

.

to add one more thing to the review below....

Take out unbroken chain and you have 30 mins of music before the band takes the hour break. 35 plus if you add the UC. That doesn't seem to bother people but it disturbs me. This is the time when i fianlly said no more. When i cared more about the music then the band did. WTGH Corrina, matilda in the second set? Brutal

I had seats way, way, way up in the rafters for this one, and yes, the show wasn't all that great, but it was a Dead show none-the-less, and Phil was finally able to play his "baby" live.
Anyway, for the folks (such as myself and others) that were fortunate enough to attend a great number of Dead shows (and Jerry shows, for that matter)over the years will all probably agree upon this one point- after 89', you pretty much went to a show not expecting a "whole" hell of a lot. That is, the "whole" show itself was not anything to write home about, but there was always something, somewhere during a set that left a smile on your face as you were strolling back to the parking lot, and that time, it was "Unbroken Chain."
For example, the previous night (3/18) the "Visions of Johanna" they played was the most incredible thing I had seen them do in years... still smiling about that one. Another one that I remember very, very well was the opener at Shoreline (7/2/94) Music> Sugaree> Music... another "grinner."
The point is, Jerry's gone, The Dead's gone, JGB's gone, and we should all be thankful that we got the opportunity to see them play, even if it wasn't "all that great" because we will never be able to again.

I just listened to this show for the first time. I downloaded it to hear the first Unbroken Chain. From the first beat I knew this was a special show and I only wish I hadn't been 10 years old when it happened. The energy in the crowd is so amazing. This is the first recording of a show I hadn't been too that actually brought me to tears. The reaction of the crowd when they heard those first notes of Unbroken Chain was so emotional. I would love to hear a show like this live. Kudos to anyone who was there for this. Magical.

I once said " They could do estimated>My Way (frank Sinatra)>estimated and I wouldn't care".
My first show was Baltimore May 26th,1977 and my last was Pittsburgh 1995. I have logged well over 1000 shows all over this wonderful globe. I just want to ask a few simple questions -What would you do to hear Jerry one more time preform? What will you tell people who never got the opportunity to see the Grateful Dead? How will you spread the spiritual energy that Jerry freely offered for so many years?
As a great author once wrote - "The Critic" who stands on the sideline is the true loser, for he/she will never know the feeling of winning or losing, and the greatness it takes to pick oneself, skinned knees and continue to struggle onward to the finish.
Jerry picked himself up so many times and in his own way carried us all thriugh ,amy tough times. How many of you put an old tape into the deck and let his playing ease your own souls. It is up to us now to shed light and not to master.Time to join the heart of gold band. Time to stretch out your hand to a stranger and help fill their cup with love.
I hope that as all things change and evolve that I continue to experience all the great deadheads that have shown me the light for so many years.
Peace and be well
Jeff
rukind920@gmail.com

I am shocked to hear all the bashing of this show. This would have been somewhere betweeen show 400 and show 500 for me... and it is, to this day, one of the highlights of my life... While sell shirts in the lot, someone came by and showed me a newspaper article with Vince saying that they wanted to get Unbroken Chain out in Philly. Being the last night of Philly, I pack up my stuff and headed in... Telling people on the way in... "What about an Unbroken Chain tonight"? Most laughted and said some like... "I Wish". Within a few songs of first set, I had forgotten what I had read and was just dancing away, when they went into Don't Ease.. I was bummed, thinking... what a short first set.... Don't Ease being the first set closer of so many shows.... Then... after Don't Ease.... I hear a note or two and I remembered what I had read... When they started playing Unbroken Chain... I have never felt so much high energy... the place went wild...people were hugging each other and jumping up and down... It was the fact that they were playing it... finally.. and we were there to experience it... That was one of the greatest shows I have ever experienced.... I still get high just thinking out it...I feel blessed to have been there.

Dancing wolf gives us a prime example of why most other music fans hate deadheads (The Dead are gods and you cant say nething bad about them or you offend me personaly)....this is a bad show...sorry...compare to anything from 89 on back and i think you will be hard pressed to say this show stands up.

Come on. Be real. The only thing sillier than the applause for this very tentative and tepid Unbroken Chain was the applause in Oakland the time Jerry "teased" the first few riffs of Cosmic Charlie...
How do you expect Jerry to have CARED enough to clean up his act and health, and practiced, or anything, if his fans a. always boo'd or talked real loud all through any opening act; b. would cheer and clap like a Pavlov dog for the most obvious ticket-selling hype move, such as breaking out a studio experiment...
Didn't anyone notice that the song was mostly played and sung by everyone EXCEPT Jerry? They were getting ready, boys and girls...

The way I see it Skzzlbutt was just expanding on something someone else said, he's not alone in his opinion, quit whining Dancingwolf.

This show isn't very good, it's cool they played "Unbroken Chain" but that one fact doesn't mean they're playing well. Sound isn't bad.

What I find amazing is that spend all that time lecturing someone you don't even know for being overly harsh, about how they need to find love, etc....then accuse them (again, without knowing them at all) of being a gate crasher and/or drug dealer! What a short-sighted hypocrite you are!

Yes Skuzzlebutt's review is pretty pointy and he's hard on the audience but I have noticed that he and a number of other certain frequent reviewers are known for being brutally frank in their dislike of the mid-90s Dead sound and the scene in general. The criticism that the Dead audience was ruled over by an "uncritical majority" is nothing new and has been commented on by numerous people both inside and outside the GD organization. This shouldnb't be new or suprising news to you. Get over it.

As for this show I will be brief and say that while I do not find it to be truly bad, I do think it is strictly mediocre and will likely not listen to it again.

Seriously. The Chain is no more "difficult" than a lot of stuff like Slipknot! that the boys did for years. Maybe Phil was the perfectionist, maybe Jerry didn't rehearse a lot, who knows.
Better late than never. It's an ok show even without the surprise breakout.
Mostly I'm mad I wasn't there; I used to see lots of Spectrum shows. Oh well
Better "memorex" than nothing :)

what i find amazing is that some people go out of there way to write a review calling a show or a spectacle or an event or a group of people... "sad" ... on our own turf.

what you will obviously never understand is that by the end... we all knew the end was near... and it was a family get together, by then, more than a "rock concert."

it does not matter one iota, one speck, what you think of the "sad" scene, because what you don't get, and may never understand, is that the band was our house band by then. you were probably one of the idiot gate crashers or nitrous salesmen who came to binge on our fun but never found love in your heart and so you have to criticize the rest of us who, for at least a while... truly had a home. it just happened to be in a different city every night. i remember thinking, sometime in '94, when i was already on to a career and not seeing the dead much... that i never really needed to hear Stella Blue again or Brokedown Palace... 'cause I saw them, heard them so many times... and now... I'd give anything just to be back in the room with Jerry on his worst night playing even the most over played songs.

i guess, because i did go on to a career and even opening my own software business and had to sacrifice the last few years of shows, that i'm a little bit bitter when i read some of these reviews. i don't mind so much when people are critical of technical aspects of the performance, 'cause, c'mon, i was there, too... but to call the crowd "sad" for cheering the boys when they took the stage... man, get a life and find a woman and learn how to love and be loved... because you obviously have some issues to resolve. the only thing "sad"... is that Jerry isn't at the party any more and it just ain't the same without him.

and yeah... i was at this show. and eternally grateful for this one and every one. thank you, Jerry!

I have always been baffled as to why it took the Dead so long to perform this song live. They should have been performing it back in 74 when it was first released on Mars Hotel (if not before then). Some of you are going to fault me on this, but I think it is the best song on Mars. If anyone has any answers as to why we had to wait till the Dead were almost no more to hear this song e-mail me elvislover2002@rock.com

Sorry folks, I gave this show a bad rating (I was at the show, and it sounded bad, luckily I was high!

Jerry's voice on Crazy Fingers is wonderful.

If it wasn't for the audience's reaction during the beginning of unbroken chain, I would have only given this show 1 star. Other than that part, and the Stella Blue which is pretty good, this whole show is pretty dismal and should be listened to sparingly.

Looking at this show and reading some real honest reviews (very refreshing, btw) makes me a little sad, remembering 95 and how it really seemed like the end. I was secretly hoping Jerry would somehow recover and come back strong, a la 87, but he just looked about 90 years old by the Summer.

I will argue this point: the debut of the Unbroken Chain makes this not near to being one of the worst shows. I believe that distinction should go to the las Giants Stadium show... check out the Wharf Rat and you'll see what I mean. Still, one of the first reviewers made a good point: I'd really love to see a "bad" Dead show nowadays, because even a bad one could still be fun. Sigh.

Hey kids, start your Stella at 5.23, turn up the vollume, and take flight for the three minutes with St. Jerrome!. At about 7.27 a rush of energy sweeps over all those neighbourly folks down near our good tapers microphones, The soulfulness of Jerry's playing, if only for seconds, is the sound track of my life.

More dreck from the funeral march that was 1995. Not quite as awful as the truly abominable summer shows, but close enough.

Kudos to the reviewer who said that the audience seemed just to be cheering the band's presence. By 1995 things definitely had deteriorated to the point where the mere gesture was enough- every song or half hearted attempt at a jam, no matter how poorly executed, was met with an ear-splitting roar of approval. Sad, really.

I ended up inside the Spectrum on this evening, and shared in the historic crowd swelling which occurs notably at the onset of the first-ever played Unbroken Chain. It was a fun time.

And I could never say that a Dead show was bad.

I am pleasantly surprised to not be seeing a litany of 5 star reviews for this show based solely on the Unbroken Chain debut. This show is just not deserved of much merit.

It was bad

Dicky '79 was dead on in his review- this show was a mess. "Unbroken Chain" sounds horrible, no matter how well intentioned, they should have just left it in dry dock if this was the best they could do. At this point, though, the heads seemed to just cheer the physical presense of the band- it was like the mere attempt to play meant more than the quality of the music.

Although there is a fair amount of very loose ensemble, especially during UBC, I really thought Jerry was into it, fumbling very few lyrics and singing well. Loved hearing Mathilda. Stella Blue was so uptempo that Jerry could hardly get the words in. Arena sound was pretty boomy, but I think that's probably just the way it sounded out in the audience. Pretty decent recording, otherwise.

The Unbroken Chain was the only thing worthy aboutthis show.

Plus the versions that Phil did later with "The Dead" and "Phil and Friends" are better.

this show was absolutely horrendous, and although they did play the first UBC ever, it's just god awful. sorry, historical value aside, this show is one of the worst.

Is there a circulating soundboard version for this show? There certainly isn't one on the archive that I can see.

I was so happy to see this show available for download here again. It is one of the Dead shows I planned to download at some point, but didn't get to in time. Thanks for uploading this aud, everyone. This is a show that should definitely be enjoyed with the audience reaction to UBC over the soundboard anyway.

This run of shows was the last time I saw the Dead in my hometown of Philadelphia, so there are some real vivid memories of the experience for me.

I'll never forget the first set, after the band broke into Don't Ease as the fifth song played, thinking "WTF, five song first set? What is going on?" Then out of nowhere, the entire place is floored by the completely unexpected breakout of Unbroken Chain. I remember for years in venues all over the country, deadheads linking together the thin, flexible glowsticks in the upper level, and people saying if they ever got it to completely encircle the venue that the band would play Unbroken Chain. Well, they played it anyway...

If you read the reviews for the soundboard version, you'll get a general idea of the quality of this show. Most if not everyone will d/l for the historic element of the first UBC ever. They'll get a rousing Alabama Getaway and an above average version of So Many Roads as well in the first set, and a pretty lackluster second set. For those that complain about the quality of 94-95 shows, all I can say is I would give almost anything to see Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead perform a 1995 calibre show again. In retrospect, I certainly wish I had seen more of them while they were still performing, "bad shows" and all.

As for this particular recording, it is pretty good. A little hollow sounding, and I wish the vocals were more up front, but not much to be done about that. The first second or two of Alabama is clipped. Thanks again to everyone involved for making this show available for download once again.