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Set 1:
Help On The Way
Slipknot!
Franklin's Tower
Wang Dang Doodle
Althea
Black Throated Wind
Ramble On Rose
Eternity
Don't Ease Me In

Set 2:
Mississippi Half-Step
Picasso Moon
Lazy River Road
Corrina
Drums
Space
The Last Time
Attics Of My Life
Around And Around

Encore:
The Weight

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Comments:

worst dead show ever with most promising songs, anyone?
-Nick

wasn't there, but i can see what you're talking about, they're almost ambitious-looking
-louis collins

I was at this show.

You know it isn't a very good show when the highlight is "picasso moon"
-

bruce hornsby sat in for this show on acordian, if i recall correctly....
-mikeyspyce

I was 8th row Jerry side and I remember Bruce as well. The boys would have to try hard to sound bad from where I was sitting/shakin' it.
-Bill

Review I wrote immediately afte rteh show.

Nassau Coliseum
Friday March 25, 1994


SUMMARY: "...but there is no joy in Mudville..."

Now friends, if there's anyone reading this who saw the show, AND you thought it was greatest show of your life, I want you to promise to stop reading right now. We love you. No; really!


are they gone?

OK, the truth is that tonight's show had its problems. Here we go; but, as Bette Davis (?) said, "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a BUMPY flight!"

Help on the Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower to open the show. A great strong opener, and intelligently played, but the sound system, which seems OK for now, just wasn't dialed in for me yet (just in front of the soundboard -- maybe better in other sections?) Yes, Healy is gone, but in his place there was a full-size cardboard cut-out of Marilyn Monroe tonight. (Honest!)

Bruce Hornsby played the entire show tonight on accordion. I think he's great, and loved the shows he played with the Dead on the big grand piano, but I had to wonder where the accordion was going to fit in on Help on the Way, etc.

Wang Dang Doodle was fine but uneventful. Althea, followed by Black-Throated Wind, with Bobby playing the acoustic. (As he picked up the acoustic from its stand there was a brief loud feedback/banging/electronic noise. Those with sharp ears heard Jerry quip, "Was that MUSIC Bob?")

The Black-Throated Wind was tremendous. They've already played it on this tour, so others might believe they've seen a better version, but this song has eluded me for 18 years in concert, so it was a high moment for me.

Ramble on Rose was good. Eternity -- the song everyone loves to hate -- is still lackluster, but the jam at the end was fine. Don't Ease Me In was, well, Don't Ease Me In.

So far? If you saw this band for $3 at your local bar, you'd be having a fantastic time; you might even stagger to the pay phone and call your friends to come down and hear the new band in town. But it was a long way from transcendent, which is, regrettably, what we (me) have come to expect (demand?) from the Dead. Oh me, oh my.

Now I have a friend whose dad is a really big San Francisco 49ers football fan. He's pretty high strung, and gets too excited over the football games. Now he tapes the games with his VCR and ONLY watches the tape if he's already heard that his team won. The family is afraid that if he saw them lose a game, he'd have a heart attack.

SO... if you're still with me, and you're thinking "Ah... they'll save the show in the second set," well you better stop reading right here, Jack!


Still tuned in? You say you have courage and fortitude? Let us press on.

Mississippi Half-Step to open the second set. A wonderful song, well played, with Bruce Hornsby's accordion delightful on the "Across the Rio Grand-e-o" portion of the song. It was well played and beautiful, but not challenging or unusual in any way.

We used to crack that Dead Set was a recording of the Grateful Dead on an "OK night"; not a great night, not a bad night, just an...OK night. Well... that's where Mississippi -- and the rest of the show -- was at tonight. Besides, with the first sets getting scarily short, it feels like "first-set material" such as Mississippi, is being carried over to the second set. The first set is getting dominated by fatter tunes, which is good, but when will they fit in lesser, but wonderful songs such as Jackaroe or even Beat it On Down. (Yea, I know they just played it, but you get my point...)

After Mississippi was Picasso Moon -- the first time all night where I thought the band really rocked out. I must confess this ain't exactly my favorite tune, but they played hard and it was loud, i.e. good.

Lazy River Road was barely there at all. Painful to trudge through for us and them.

Corina is a tough call; perhaps Deadheads can be divided roughly (VERY roughly) into tapers and dancers (but THAT is an entire different essay) and I happen to be a dancer. I still love Corina's hook, and it was played well. The drums/space were better than Wednesday night. As the guitarists left the stage, Bruce Hornsby hid behind the stage and jammed with Mickey and Billy for awhile in Cajun inspired rhythms. Then the drummers gave us a delightful full-color guided tour of pre-historic outer space (it was different back a million years ago, ya know...). Coming out of the space, several of the folks sitting near me heard two notes of St. Stephen. I'm sure they were the only ones who heard it, and, no, I don't think it even qualifies as a tease, but it was fun to hear them moan!

The guitarist's space was better tonight, but not particularly inspiring. By the time we rolled into The Last Time, we all knew that time was running out for us this night, and the lyrics were poignant:

It doesn't take that much to please me
With what you know it should be easy

Attics of My Life was the other truly sweet spot of the show (along with the aforementioned Black-Throated Wind). A great song sung beautifully.

Around and Around, which we used to think was played every night back in the late '70s and early '80s was somewhat of a surprise. After a couple verses, we thought maybe Bobby might try a verse the way he used to sing with Donna -- that is, barely whispering, "Well they never stopped rockin', rockin', rockin'; goin' round and round " We don't know WHAT happened tonight, but the song collapsed. Goin' Down the Road? No. Another solo by Jerry? Uh... no. Hmmm. Jerry did slowly put it back together again, but it was definitely time to go.

A lot of folks headed for the exits, figuring they were due for either Liberty or I Fought the Law, but anyone who left early missed a great version of The Weight, with Hornsby playing the accordion, and even getting to sing a verse. Great to hear Phil sing a verse alone too. A wonderful end to a troubled show.

Now before I start getting hate e-mail, I can assure you that given a choice of ways to spend a Friday night, I'd rather be at a Dead show than most places, and I'd like to think that if we start to think that EVERYTHING is wonderful, we lose our ability to tell "good" from "bad", SO... I will sleep well tonight, and relax tomorrow on the day off. I'm blowing off the Trios show at the Beacon and, while I hope I'm wrong, I bet Jerry skips it too, and look forward to Sunday's show.

Peace

Glen

- (12/22/2009)

This was the only dead show I ever went to. I was never that big of a fan, I particularly didn't care for listening to bootleg cassetes (especially "Space").

I did acid for this show, and boy was it great. I thought they did a great show, though I recognize that it wasn't "Cornell 5/8/77" or whatever you folks say is the best show ever. But the deadheads I went with on the way from the city to LI were like, "Hey Rick, what do you want to hear them play?" ANd I was like, "If they play 'The Weight', I'll be happy." And they were like, "Oh they NEVER play that."

Well they did, for an encore, and Bruce WAS on accordion the whole show.

The ride home was a bit of a challenge...
- (03/13/2011)

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