Rather than focus on a specific year this week, we’re going to listen to some music from one city, specifically Rochester, NY. The Grateful Dead always performed exceptionally well in Rochester, and that goes for all of upstate and Western New York.

We’ll play some music from 1973 first this week, from the penultimate show of the Spring Tour of 1973, during which the band was working in a lot of the new Wake of the Flood material, such as Row Jimmy, Here Comes Sunshine, China Doll and Eyes of the World. From 3/30/73 at the War Memorial Auditorium in beautiful downtown Rochester, we have Truckin’>Eyes of the World>Not Fade Away>Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad>One More Saturday Night.

Next we’ll hop back a couple of years to the Palestra at the University of Rochester on 10/26/71. This was Keith’s first week in the band, and he sure did sound great at these early shows. From the middle of the first set, we have this quartet of songs: Big Railroad Blues, Me and Bobby McGee, Cumberland Blues, Cold Rain and Snow. A classic batch of 1971 Dead.

From the second big tour of 1976, we have the first set closing quintet of songs from 9/27/76 back at the War Memorial Auditorium,Lazy Lightning>Supplication, Brown Eyed Woman, The Music Never Stopped. This tour had so many great nights, with Rochester being one of the best.

Next up, from the magnificent Dick’s Picks Vol. 34, we have the second set opening jam consisting of Phil Solo>Take A Step Back>Eyes of the World>Samson and Delilah from 11/5/77. As the saying goes, when Phil’s on, the band’s on!

Finally this week, we have the pre-Drums sequence from 4/16/86, consisting of Far From Me>He’s Gone>Jam. The jam is a precursor to the Other One that would come out of space.

Check back in next Monday for more great tunes. Feel free to write the email address below with any questions, comments, suggestions or requests.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net