For this performance from Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, the sextet presents sixteen selections before any significant improvisations are made. However, to the group’s great credit, their self-restraint generates definite dividends through the economic concentration the psychedelic warriors apply to tunes like “Candyman.”
On the latter, for instance, Donna Jean Godchaux harmonizes ever-so-sweetly with Jerry Garcia, sans any histrionics on her part. And while the latter illuminates the melody of “Stella Blue” via twinkling runs of guitar notes alternating with elongated lines from the fretboard, the vocalist’s husband, Keith, supports the titular leader’s vulnerable vocal with stately piano.
The sextet’s segue from “Dancing In The Street” into “The Other One” is similarly insinuating, as befits the chunky rhythm of the arrangement that dual drummers Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart continue into their truncated (2:46!) “Drums.” Yet the band doesn’t exactly luxuriate in these instrumental transitions–even as prodded so insistently by bassist Phil Lesh–so these interludes are not exactly rife with drama. As a result, the climax of “Sugar Magnolia” lacks its usual euphoric impact.
In his essay for Volume 53, chief archivist David Lemieux suggests the Grateful Dead may have been facing a curfew this evening and thus had no time for more or more extended expeditions into the unknown. But this observation sounds like rationalization as it directly corresponds to the author’s otherwise overly-effusive prose.
Apart from James Mazza’s unusually distinct front cover art, the graphic design of this entry in the Grateful Dead vault enterprise is, like its music, borderline prosaic. Juxtaposed with reproductions of newspaper articles and tour documents in the enclosed twelve-page booklet, only a single action photo from the stage appears anywhere in the package, and it’s a blurry shot, to be sure (there are no pics under the disc trays inside the triple-fold digipak).
As a result, the revelations to be gleaned from this Dave’s arise from the ‘filler’ material at the very end of this third CD. Five culls from an appearance the following May at the Palladium in New York City are even more streamlined and to the point (to a fault?) than the main content here: for instance, “Cassidy” and “Looks Like Rain” hint directly at the now-legendary Cornell concert just days later that month.
Their inclusion correlates to the previously released material from this same Big Apple show on entry #50 in this vault series. Considering that title’s bonus disc, encompassing the entirety of the concert requires assorted selections spread across three compact discs.
It’s an awkward effort at completism that’s ‘more less in line’ with the generally methodical musicianship of the Grateful Dead on this latest Pick.
