John A

I consider 12-16-92 the best show post "medical malfunction 2" as BillK puts it. Just gold from start to finish. Check out Row Jimmy. Casey Jones was the cherry on top. Recommended source? My FOB Schoeps recording. 😊 https://archive.org/details/gd1992-12-16.140956.FOB.Schoeps.Ammons.Noel.t-flac.1648

While '93 was generally tough, December '93 is exceedingly so. But to your question, it was the ambience. The Grateful Dead were on stage. Anything seemed possible. (And as of Dec '93 I generally believed that, although that belief would erode rapidly.)

Hmmm...I've got Bob Wagner's FOB Nak 700 recording of this show. I'll have to revisit the Wise capture. The Beyer M160s are ribbon mics. Dead recording with them tend to be somewhat hit or miss, but when they hit they can indeed be fantastic.

I think that Dew might have the most intense middle jam ever. Almost makes you wonder if Jerry forget where he was in the song.

The only Dew in '79 and quite a unique one at that. Good stuff!

And on a tragic historical notes, the anniversary of Bill Graham's helicopter crash. RIP

Maybe it's not fair to call Fall Tour '76 under the radar, but maybe it's kinda/sorta under the radar? In any event, that last week of Sept/first week of October is some stunning stuff.

Fall '91 was solid, then Bill Graham's passing seemed to take another helping of air out of the sails. The October '91 Oakland run was some of the last truly excellent Dead I saw.

The Ultra-Matrix tapes of those '89 Alpines are really good. Great bass.

And, for a mere $120, you can have 5/8/77 on a 5LP vinyl set! http://www.dead.net/store/cornell/cornell-5877-vinyl-2nd-pressing?eml=2018May8/4316449/6131962&etsubid=136384719

That's one hell of a 1st show. Nice!

There's is a rocking good audience that was just put out of 5-1-88 Frost. Now I understand that the circulating board is excellent, but this FOB with modified Nak 700s is a wonder to behold.

Wow, Tea, that 1-12-79 is an interesting listen. I was unfamiliar as well with this show. For a '79 show without a soundboard source, this Jim Wise FOB with Sony mics holds its own nicely. And yes, the evening is all about the Dancin' and the NFA, both of which are stunning. Unfortunately during the final GDTRFB jam Bobby is way too loud in the mix, and he kills what would perhaps have been a huge Jerry scrub. The set list here could make one look the other way but that would be a mistake.

Are you asking about the relative merits of Joe Noel's matrix source? It's a perfectly fine listen, but Tom Darian's B&K recording is the stuff of legend. A rare tape where I think mixing in the soundboard can only hurt it. In fact, Tom's recordings of the entire run are jaw dropping. The union security guy tending to that FOB section at The Garden was a Head, and he was getting greased with cassette dubes of each night the subsequent evening. In return, not only did Tom have carte blance to put his stand nice and high on the aisle seat (the center line was the aisle), but the usher was actually making folks near the mics pipe down. Amazing, and to my knowledge unprecedented. So the bottom line is these B&K audience tapes (or somewhat interchangeably Rick Katzeff's Schoeps tapes which were made at the same seat) should be the go to for this run.

I had a session with the Schoeps 12-12-90 tonight. Dark Star>Terrapin, lights out concert level. Complete immersion. Really intense stuff. When Jerry drops into Dark Star from Iko it's game on.

Don't listen to the Sennheiser shotguns of 12-12-90! An FOB Schoeps spaced omni recording has been seeded to eTree recently. Phenomenal sound.