Search - Grateful Dead :: Fillmore East 2/11/69

Get this for the jam on disc two

Dark Star-The Other One | The Bus To Never Ever Land | 10/13/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I's always nice when the Dead release a '60's show from the vault and this one is no exception. However, the early show, while not being bad, also has really no standouts other than the rare Hey Jude set ender by 1969 standards. This could be due to the fact that the band was opening for Janis on here first New York shows after leaving Big Brother. Thankfully and not unusually, the late show has more to offer. First, Bill Graham is given a bronzed cow bell that he used when joining the Dead onstage at another show. Dupree's is it's usual self for this time. Mountains Of The Moon finds the show hitting another level and Dark Star while short and nowhere the best of the year, is nice. Saint Stephen rocks but it's the jam of The Eleven->Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) that is THE standout of this release."

Good but could have been a little better with some editing

kireviewer | Sunnyvale, Ca United States | 04/28/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Grateful Dead was the warm-up band for Janis Joplin at the Fillmore East. They did two seperate 1 hour shows with mostly different audiences. (Bill Graham used to schedule two complete shows a night to maximize profits). Being the Grateful Dead, they did not do any repeats from one show to the next.



Being constrained to a one hour show, the Dead played a little bit differently than they would do in a normal concert. Some of the songs are a little truncated. But, in some cases, it turns out to be a good and interesting thing. I love the long, rambling jams, but it is good to sometimes hear the band play in a tighter, more concise mode.



The one song that really benefits from the shorter time is Turn On Your Lovelight. It is very energetic and there is a searing guitar that is highlighted. Many of the other songs are also very good.



The sound quality is fair to good (by professional standards). The sound is a little rough in spots. The audience noise is a little to high at times (the other Grateful Dead live albums were great, because you almost never had audience noise interferring with the music). There are other Grateful Dead live CD's from this time period that have much better sound.



The thing I really don't like is that they included the complete concerts. Each concert has a couple of minute introduction. Included is all of the chatter between songs. They even included the whole time the band was down while a guitar string was being changed, so there is a long period in the middle of the CD of just silence.



at the end of the second show, after We bid You Goodnight, there is a several minute pause, and then the band breaks into Cosmic Charlie. About 2 minutes into Cosmic Charlie it sounds like the tape went bad, the song is cut off and the CD ends.



Some people love thses complete concerts, with everything kept in "to give you the feel of the concert". Me, I just want to enjoy the music."