4/26/69

This show is an absolute mess of psychedelic mastery. “A beautiful racket” if you will.

Starting it off with some extremely passionate acoustic numbers.
Dupree and Mountains have so much heart. But they find something at the end of Mountains. The Dark Star jam is when they tap into what i like to call the “it”. Perfectly imperfect melodies. You know its going to be one of those days. They know they’re close.

Jerr then plays a G note which sparks the “it”. Fueled with the energy of the earth, they play THE China Cat Sunflower. The heaviest most technical China Cat they will ever play. I can hardly put into words how good this China Cat is. They probably scared themselves shittless playing it cause of how good it was.

Following this massive exertion of energy they slow down for another lysergic tune. So now we’re in Doin That Rag which again, is so very passionate. Towards the end we find ourselves in a F# to G# (i think) jam that goes on for a while until the band, in perfect telepathic synchronicity come to an abrupt halt. Truly amazing.

Now its the Pigpen hour haha. the slidiest, screechiest, most unique Hurts Me Too ever. They are so good at finding the weirdest way to play and making it sound out of this world. I love how Pigpen doesn’t even care too haha. hes just there to sing his songs😂.

After a solid Hard to Handle we are treated to an okay Cryptical Envelopment. I think that Hard to Handle threw them off. But they were determined to find the “it” again.

The “Drums” was Bill and Mickey searching for the groove of the “it”. They are so in tune with it today, it doesn’t take long. You can hear exactly when they find it. The band hears it too. Its like the drums are the band finding the worm hole to transport them into the realm of musical perfection. (The “it”)

As soon as they found it they all squeeze right through the tiny hole and rip it wide open. They are back, and they aren’t slowing down. The Other One that starts out with furious steam shortly turns to a train wreck. I cant tell if they’re on another plane of musical mastery or if they’re just losing their minds.
Regardless, Phil is sick of it and points the band towards The Eleven. And boy is it a rockin’ one. One of the most triumphant Elevens they’ve done.

After about 5 or 6 minutes of immaculate jamming they’re back into The Other One which quickly feeds into a great It’s a Sin but nothing really noteworthy here.

The “it” soon returns with one of the heaviest Morning Dew’s. The ending jam is the band playing like it’s their last performance. This show just has so many magical moments.

This Sittin’ On Top Of The World might be their best. So friggin groovy. Everything is just perfect. Just an unstapable force of energy. Once again i am unable to properly put into words how insane the musical precision and layering is on this one.

The momentum doesn’t stop there. Another all time performance of a song. This New Minglewood Blues is as heavy and precise as can be. I love this band so fucking much. Towards the end they all have a simultaneous urge to stop and jerry is like “wtf lol” and starts it back up for a proper ending.

Not my speed but a phenomenal Silver Threads and Baby Blue. The band might have just needed a breather. But its not long before they get it going again.

A superb St. Stephen. it starts out like they aren’t really feeling it that much. It seems they were just waiting for the balloon pop. This balloon pop is special. Such a powerful crash. Overwhelming energy and beauty fills the air. I dont think they were prepared for how strong that would be cause they slip up on the outro.

Wasting no time at all they jump into a thunderous Love Light. I cant speak much about this one cause i did skip it during my trip. I just wasn’t in the mood for a 33 minute Love Light haha sorry guys.

So now we have arrived at Viola Lee Blues.
And let me just say, this one is fucking nuts!
The following 35 minutes is complete and utter chaos. Starting off with a freaky loud jump, they dive right into that heavy Viola Lee groove. After 2 great build ups/drops with the choruses, its time for the wildest jam of the night. Moving like the polar express on the ice they take this train into a Caution Viola Lee hybrid which takes the music to a whole new realm of human consciousness. Its almost like everyone is playing completely different songs at times. They are having an all out war with one another. But then comes THE buildup. Its so chaotic and Phil is just unleashing demons freaking the whole band out until they just completely fall apart. Jerry keeps everything on track but god damn was that freaky. The band is just done. They can hardly keep it together.

A Feedback that literally made me turn off the music. This shit is so scary. I never understood Feedback but this genuinely terrified me. Sounds like they are just trying to scare the crowd away.

Finally we end on a And We Bid You Goodnight and the crowd claps with so much hesitation after the nightmare they just endured.

I cannot comprehend this show. The energy they expelled was bar none. They were really tapped in. If anyone has some insight on the “it” i would love to hear it.
Anyways, thank you for reading.

Long Live The Grateful God Damn Dead!