Some comments after listening to "San Diego 8/5/70": >From the audience noise, no, this can't be Golden Hall, San Diego (cap. 3800) -- and it can't be the Matrix either. Maybe the Euphoria Ballroom though.
To judge from the relaxed first set it has to be a Bay Area venue, and the material and performances are summer 1970. The soundboard tape reflects careful micing and the mix -- with wide separation of instruments -- suggests Bear. And Bear was especially into the acoustic material at this point. Also if it's Bear during this period it has to be Bay Area. This argues that the tape is Euphoria Ballroom San Rafael 7/16/70. I disagree about the sets. During the first set Jerry is subdued, his vocals and guitar uncertain. From Deep Elem on it's a whole 'nother Jerry. The fact that the micing, mix and ambience don't vary implies that it's all from one date. Both set-lists are short compared to most acoustic Dead sets from 70 which tend to run over 50 minutes but a 2-acoustic-set format was already unusual (compare New Orleans 1/31/70). Candyman was never an opener but from there the 1st set is plauisbly complete. Swing Low was always a closer. Deep Elem was often an opener and again from there the sequence is plausible but it can't be a complete set; there must have been at least another 1-2 tunes after Ballad of Casey Jones. Marmaduke's vocals and Nelson's mandolin make at least one NRPS set seem likely on the bill. This could easily lead to abbreviated acoustic Dead sets. How many guitars are there on Mama Tried? How many on Dire Wolf? Is there a 12-string in there? Would that be Crosby? -- From: owner-deadlists-dig...@eecs.berkeley.edu (deadlists-digest) Reply-To: deadlists@nemesis.CS.Berkeley.EDU Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:25:41 -0700 (PDT) To: deadlists-dig...@eecs.berkeley.edu Subject: deadlists-digest V9 #31 Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:35:53 -0700 (GMT-07:00) From: Caleb Kennedy <thehor...@earthlink.net> Subject: Re: 8/5/70 The deadessays "acoustic sets" post is a little out of date - along with the JGMF post comments, this post has some discussion about 8/5/70: <http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2011/03/hartbeats-july-1970.html> A lot to read, so these are the main points. (My conclusions, so others may disagree.) 1. As far as I know, we have no proof there even was an 8/5/70 San Diego show aside from this tape label. 2. Soundwise, it is evident the tape comes from a small club and cannot possibly be from the Golden Hall. 3. I do not believe the Dead would have gone to San Diego just to play an acoustic show, unless it was billed as such. (Like the "Thee Club" shows in LA at the end of August, which were advertised as "acoustical Grateful Dead and the Riders of the Purple Sage.") 4. That being the case, I think this tape most likely comes from a Bay Area club show. The Dead were playing local acoustic shows on several dates, with the New Riders. 5. It's very likely there was more to the show that we don't have. Our tape seems to me to be edited down to fit on a 60-minute tape - the cuts between songs sound too clean to have been done by the taper. (My suspicion is that the traditional division into two "sets" comes from the split between two 30-minute cassette sides.) 6. I think it very likely there was an NRPS set as well, as we have on 7/30/70. Beyond that, there's no way to know. (My own suspicion is that there was no Dead electric set, or it would have circulated as well.) It's been pointed out that it's very strange for a tape to be falsely labeled "Golden Hall, San Diego" (especially if there was no San Diego show!) - this I can't explain. More research in the San Diego papers that week is needed.
