This is, I think, one of the best shows I've ever heard. Round it off to 5 because we love Pig+Keith shows! Just check out all the stuff that looks good because it is good. Even the classics, such as Big Railroad, are really expanded upon from the versions you heard on Skull-Fuck. Comes A Time finds Garcia in fine vocal form. Great renditions of all the then new material. Other 1 hits all the familiar themes that they were doing historically, getting further away from the raw-stready psychedelia of 69-70 and closer toward the avant guard acid attacks of 72-73. I know they did this sandwich a few times and this version is just killer. The transition from Other 1 into Sitting on top of the World is phenomenal. A little distant and hissy at points, but totally forgivable especially considering the quality of the performance. Miller's transfer of the 1st set is much better sound imho, but this is fine.
It really isn't until 72' that Keith gets fully into his groove with the band, but these December shows are all really strong powerhouse playing energy wise.
Keith's settling in on keys more, not trying so hard to hammer the lead melody all the time, getting real jazzy with Garica and Lesh, hinting at greatness to come. I listened to them many years later - they were really good shows. Consequently I was not in a state of mind to really appreciate their Oct '73 shows at Kiel Auditorium or maybe the hockey arena. We ended up living together for 3 wonderful years, but she had the good sense to dump me in late August/early September of '73. Also a memorable show because a woman that I knew from the town where we both were living was there and it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we were going to connect. I also remembered the "wait a minute - hold everything" moment because the piano and organ were not in tune with each other ,as well as Bobby's comment about Truckin' ("straight to the top of the charts in Turlock") but over the years I had forgotten which shows they happened at. When he hit the first chord of Bertha you could see the cones jumping. The stage lights were bright enough that you could see the speakers through the grill cloth. He had four Twin Reverbs, 2 JBL 12" speakers (K120s?) with the aluminum domes in each amp. Garcia was on the left side of the stage and I was maybe 20 feet from him when they hit it. I think this was the show I was at where I came walking down the left aisle and was about 10 or 15 feet from the stage when they launched into Bertha. I was at this show and had a tape deck that I managed to get to a friend of a friend who didn't go to the show and agreed to tape it.
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