1994 Spring Tour Boxed Set: Guide to the “Save Your Face” Mixes

I have now posted mixes pulled from all the currently circulating soundboard recordings of The Grateful Dead’s 1994 Spring Tour – February 25 to April 8. If you include the year’s first three shows in Oakland, the band played 23 shows that Spring, 5.75 of which do not appear to circulate as soundboards. 

From those that do, I have pulled 111 tracks, totaling 14.5 hours. Aside from two tracks that appear on two mixes, there is no duplication across the mixes. For the record, the only official release from this tour is the "Liberty" I have included, and the only official 1994 concert release is a single show from October, on the "30 Trips" boxed set. It's a shame that this period of Grateful Dead is so ignored. I'm glad that my efforts have made people who used to think like me sit up and say WTF - WOW!

I have made and posted these mixes over a year’s time, so it may not be clear how they map onto the tour or relate to each other. You can find all the original posts, with detailed notes and links to mp3 downloads, under the tag “GD 1994 Spring Tour.” 

This post is simply an overarching guide to the combined mixes. It provides a complete track list, so you can more easily see how the mixes cover the tour and what songs are represented. I’ve appended my Deadbase annotations, so you can literally see when and where the songs I’ve chosen happened during the tour and shows.

The titles above each mix’s track list, below, are the actual mp3 tag album titles of the downloads. I take no offense if you want to true up the outliers with my usual date-sortable format, or whatever titling format suits your listening and file management needs. I never imagined I'd do the whole tour when I started...

Pre-Tour: Oakland CA (February 25, 26, 27)

Of the band’s first three shows of 1994, only the 27th circulates as a soundboard.

Shortlist: 1994-02-27 Oakland, CA (54 minutes)

  • Row Jimmy Instrumental (4:16)
  • Uncle John’s Band > Supplication Jam > Uncle John’s Band > (14:28) 
  • Corrina Jam > Jam > (11:21)
  • Howling Drums (9:58)
  • The Other One > (9:48)
  • Cosmic Chwharf Rat Jam (4:28) 

Phoenix, AZ (March 4, 5, 6)

A week after the Oakland openers, the band played Phoenix, and all three soundboards circulate.

Shortlist: 1994-03-04/05/06 Phoenix, AZ (110 minutes)

  • Feel Like a Stranger
  • Loose Lucy
  • When I Paint My Masterpiece
  • Bertha
  • Brown Eyed Women
  • Let It Grow
  • Playin’ in the Band
  • Saint of Circumstance >
  • He’s Gone
  • Bird Song (instrumental edit)
  • Little Red Rooster
  • Estimated Prophet
  • Iko Iko

Chicago, IL (March 16, 17, 18) and Richfield, OH (March 20, 21)

After a week off, the Spring tour began in earnest in Chicago, followed by Ohio (in the vicinity of Akron and Cleveland). All the Chicago shows and one of the Richfield shows circulate as soundboards.

Shortlist: 1994-03-16 to 21 - Chicago and Ohio (100 minutes)

  • Don’t Ease Me In (3/16/94)
  • Beat It on Down the Line (3/16/94)
  • Bertha (3/21/94)
  • Ramble on Rose (3/19/94)
  • Stella Blue (3/21/94)
  • Queen Jane Approximately (3/21/94)
  • Looks Like Rain (3/16/94)
  • High Time (3/16/94)
  • Peggy-O (3/21/94)
  • Wharf Rat (3/18/94)
  • Around and Around (3/18/94)
  • Deal (3/18/94)
  • Standing on the Moon (3/16/94)
  • The Wheel > (3/17/94)
  • All Along the Watchtower (3/17/94)

Dark Star Flashes (March 1994) (102 minutes) – posted as two mixes that act as two discs of the same album

  • Feel Like a Stranger > (3/18/94)
  • Scarlet Begonias Jam > Fire on the Mountain (3/16/94)
  • Eternity Jam (3/17/94)
  • Playin’ in the Band > UJB Jam Conclusion (edit, 3/17/94)
  • Eternity Jam (3/21/94)
  • Dark Star (3/16/94, verse removed)
  • Victim or the Crime Jam (3/21/94)
  • The Other One (3/18/94)
  • Playin’ Jam > (3/30/94)
  • Dark Star (3/30/94)*
  • Jamming Down the Road (3/21/94)*

(*Note that the only material that appears twice on all these Spring Tour mixes is the “Playin’ > Dark Star” from 3/30/94, Atlanta. That’s included above to pair up the month’s two “Dark Stars" – the last two ever – and also included in the survey of the Atlanta shows themselves.)

New York City (March 23, 24, 25, 27, 28)

Approximately half of the material from the Nassau Coliseum shows circulates as soundboards (one whole show, one show with the heart of the second set missing, and an additional second set). 

Shortlist: 1994-03-23/27/28 Uniondale, NY (131 minutes)

  • It’s All Over Now
  • Jack Straw
  • Jack-a-Roe
  • Queen Jane Approximately
  • Johnny B. Goode
  • China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
  • He’s Gone >
  • Goin’ Down the Road, Feelin’ Bad
  • Might as Well
  • Truckin’
  • The Other One >
  • Morning Dew
  • All Along the Watchtower
  • Samson & Delilah
  • Standing on the Moon
  • Victim or the Crime
  • Rain

Atlanta (March 30, 31 and April 1)

All three Atlanta shows circulate as soundboards.

Shortlist: 1994-03/04 Atlanta, GA (3/30, 3/31, 4/1) (180 minutes)

  • Feel Like a Stranger
  • Dire Wolf
  • Black Throated Wind
  • Deal
  • New Speedway Boogie >
  • Promised Land
  • Standing on the Moon 
  • Tuning Noodle
  • Bird Song
  • Estimated Prophet Jam
  • Crazy Fingers
  • Scarlet Begonias > 
  • Fire on the Mountain
  • Playin’ in the Band > 
  • Dark Star
  • Eyes of the World
  • The Other One >
  • Wharf Rat
  • Brokedown Palace

Orlando (April 4) and Miami (April 6, 7, 8)

The band’s scheduled April 3 show in Orlando was cancelled. The other four Florida shows circulate as soundboards. However, the tape from the 8th is speed-incorrect; I adjusted several songs to see if I wanted to bother, and I didn't. 

Shortlist: 1994-04 Florida Highlights (80 minutes)

  • Shakedown Street jam (4/7/94) 7:04
  • Eyes of the World instrumental > (4/7/94) 17:14
  • Playin’ in the Band (4/7/94) 9:05
  • Jam out of Terrapin (4/4/94) 3:57
  • Slipknot! > (4/4/94) 7:05
  • Franklin’s Tower (4/4/94) 11:10
  • Jam out of Terrapin (4/7/94) 9:43
  • The Wheel (4/6/94) 6:41
  • Not Fade Away (4/4/94) 9:25

Drums/Space Tour Highlights

Music for Spaceports: March 1994 (55 minutes)

  • Voices
  • Beat
  • On the Surface
  • The Workers Shall Prevail
  • Roller Rink Confidential
  • Hey, Carl Stalling
  • Spaceport
  • Processional
  • Rebeat
  • Hansa by the Wall 1
  • Hansa by the Wall 2
  • Hansa by the Wall 3
  • May You Live in Interesting Times

Just the New Songs

Liberty: Live March 1994 (76 minutes)

  • Liberty (3/30/94)
  • Lazy River Road (3/30/94)
  • Eternity (3/5/94)
  • That Would Be Something (McCartney cover 3/28/94)
  • The Days Between (3/28/94)
  • Way to Go Home (3/5/94)
  • Easy Answers (3/27/94)
  • Corrina (3/31/94)
  • Broken Arrow (3/5/94)
  • So Many Roads (3/16/94)

Deadbase Map to the Recordings

Yellow and pink highlighting indicate a performance that is included, in whole or in part, on the mixes above. 



Upvote Upvoted 10
17 responses
I was just listening to your October '94 mix again recently, and that's gotten me excited to dive into these spring highlights. I'm not sure why I love seeing your DeadBase notations so much, but those are super fun. Glad you're back!
— Tom
Tom, my initial stabs into March '94 led to my more focused October mix, which hit the spot for a lot of people. I'm glad it got you interested. You'll find plenty to love in March, and since there was no "rule" associated with my March mixes (unlike October: only pre-1980 originals, and only one version of anything), March really opens up the range of songs. I'm looking forward to exploring the 1994 Summer tour, on its 25th anniversary,, and then re-engaging with the Fall tour. Since the Dead don't release this stuff, it's all a voyage of discovery, which I love. I may care more about 1994 than any other Deadhead, but that's a cool, challenging position to be in.
— John Hilgart @4CPcomics
P.S. to Tom. The Deadbase annotations are always interesting, in any year of the Dead. There are plenty of 1972-1974 shows that boil down to a great hour or 70 minutes, a reminder that the best Dead was almost always a matter of "that song at that moment," rather than a holistically "great show." I've said before that I regard the Dead's recorded live output as a series of "takes" of songs, rather than a series of shows to be worshipped. The exact thing we like about the Dead – this version of a song might shine uniquely – requires that most versions do not shine uniquely.
— John Hilgart @4CPcomics
Hey John, many thanks for all the hard work and generosity on this site. It's been a joy to get acquainted with 94 Dead and your hard work is much appreciated. Technical question, when I click on the "GD 1994 Spring Tour Tag", it takes me to back to the post of the guide page, not to the original posts with mp3 links. Am I doing something wrong?
— Matt
Matt, the issue is that I've tagged THIS post the same way, and it's the newest, so when you click over, it's the first post on the aggregated page - and so long that you might not notice that there are others below it. I've inserted a read-more break, so I don't keep creating this confusion. Thanks for the tip/warning.
— John Hilgart @4CPcomics
thanks for everything you do. I still haven't gotten past the October 94 work you did. That material is so good. Also, I love the artwork you choose. Do you have a folder of saved images for future use? Do you search for specific images? Whatever the process is, I love it and appreciate it.
— josh
Josh, glad to hear from you! The fact that the October '94 mix keeps holding your attention is a great endorsement; I'm trying to make good albums, worth repeat listening. I choose the artwork based on intuition/vibe, once the mix is together. I figure that if it's meant to be an "album" listening experience, then it ought to have its own, distinctive visual component. I despise the endless recycling of hippie, tie-dye, rainbow, skeleton stuff - as if that expresses the music adequately, over and over again.
— John Hilgart @4CPcomics
10 visitors upvoted this post.
Add Website URL »