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Last year we shared a few compilations of classic Grateful Dead shows put together by longtime HT reader Joe Kolbenschlag. We were overjoyed to find Joe’s latest Steel Cut Oats compilation in our inbox this week and wanted to share this 37-track set from a pair of 1973 shows in Denver…

Steel Cut Oats : Volume VII : A Mile High in ’73
Grateful Dead, November 20th and 21st, 1973, Denver Coliseum, Denver, Colorado

One of my all-time favorite live performance periods from the Grateful Dead is Fall 1973 – specifically, the shows beginning October 19th and running through December 19th. Those two months offer an overabundance of the X-Factor that quite possibly was never matched again for that long of a time frame. The noted bookends above have been officially released as part of the Dick’s Picks series (10.19.73, Oklahoma City, OK – Volume #19, 12.19.73, Tampa, FL – Volume #1), and several other shows have also been liberated to the masses in their two-track form by GDM/Rhino – all are worth seeking out.

Steel Cut Oats #7 focuses on the most glaring omission from a release perspective – the two stunning shows of November 20th and 21st from the Denver Coliseum. I would argue that these two gigs carry more collective fireworks than any of the other multi-night runs of the Fall – St. Louis, Winterland, Boston, and Tampa all cart excellent passages along the way, but these Denver shows really smoke from front to back. Oats #7 illustrates a band riding an incredibly high peak of performance – after five excellent home state shows in early-to-mid November (Winterland x3, San Diego, Los Angeles), the band begins to move eastbound for the duration of the year. The first stop is the Denver Coliseum…

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD STEEL OATS #7

The opening portion of this compilation concentrates on first set material that had become classic live staples of the Dead’s Americana vision – Ramble On Rose, Jack Straw, and Tennessee Jed to name a few. The set is also sprinkled with a particularly feisty Big River and a wonderful, but ‘not quite Tampa’ version of Here Comes Sunshine – still very powerful, yet slinky at the same time.

READ ON for more of Joe’s thoughts on SCT #7 and a tracklist…

There was plenty of live music last week that didn’t take place in Mexico at Mayan Holidaze, but since the taper Z-Man supplied more than enough material to dedicate this entire piece to this festival, I thought why not? We’ve got audio and video from 30db, the rarely taped act The Album Leaf, a 30+ minute segment from the Disco Biscuits, a tune from STS9’s “axe the cables” acoustic set, and an Umphrey’s McGee staple translated into Spanish.

If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

30db – Liar, The Good Times Are Killing Me
Date & Venue: 2011-01-21 – Now Sapphire Resort – Mayan Riviera, Mexico
Taper & Show Download: Z-Man

Our first segment of music is Liar from 30db’s 2010 album One Man Show followed by the set-closing cover of The Good Times Are Killing Me by Modest Mouse. While Brendan Bayliss and Jeff Austin already have plenty of tour dates on the books with their primary bands, 30db doesn’t have any future scheduled dates. They are both scheduled to play at Summer Camp 2011, perhaps that will be the host of the next 30db gig.

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/mayan30dbsauce.mp3]

Wilco’s Handshake Drugs earlier on in the set:

READ ON for tracks from The Album Leaf, tDB, STS9, and Umphrey’s…

Today we present what will probably be the shortest video we ever feature in our daily 10AM ET/7 AM PT slot, but we thought it was cool and rare enough

Yesterday, we shared the disturbing tale of Ween’s tour opener in Vancouver, which quickly turned into a trainwreck of epic proportions due to Gene Ween’s visibly unhinged condition. The band’s

I feel like one of the last remaining Americans whose phone isn’t “smart,” but there haven’t been many apps that make me jealous of those who have embraced iPhones…until today.