This mix provides 78 minutes of music from the two shows that made me stop attending Dead concerts.
Making this mix, I’ve concluded that a significant part of what turned me off those two nights was the mix.
I went into the shows predisposed to be disappointed (but ready to be turned on). I’d only seen Vince on solo keys twice before (and still missed Brent), I had no interest in new songs, and I was hoping for a very different setlist, based on what I’d never seen performed live.
And I also hated Garcia’s lyric lapses in the period; when a song was going great, I’d still be on pins and needles wondering whether he was going to remember the first line of the next verse.
For all those reasons, the Chapel Hill shows were disappointing. But those things don’t matter in 2021, when you’re curating tapes, and you’ve come to know and love the late-period band and memorized 60 hours of their best tracks.
However, there’s that other dependency: Is the mix any good? Pleasing to listen to?
I didn’t remember much about the music of the Chapel Hill shows, but I did remember the sonic, aesthetic experience. The music seemed insubstantial and unfocussed. It was hard to inhabit.
My pal and I attributed that to the band, but listening to the tapes, I think it was the guy at the mixing board who created the estranging experience.
There are the usual, random Healy failures. One night, Garcia’s vocals are quiet and Welnick’s keys are too loud. The other night, Welnick is often hard to hear, even when he’s soloing. Sometimes Weir’s guitar is too loud.
But even when nothing like that is obvious, there’s a hard-to-put-your-finger on lack of balance, dynamics, presence… The “Terrapin” seems to be played well, but everything delicate about it is trampled by the mix, etc. The players are playing together, but Healy has built little walls between them.
So, I had to kill a lot of seemingly very nice performances to make a mixtape that you can “get into” properly. As always, I tried to hide the defects to the point where you might not notice them (if I hadn't drawn attention to them!). I think the result is quite enjoyable, though not the first 1993 Save Your Face mixtape I’d point you at.
I post it nonetheless, as part of my journey through all the shows I actually attended. Points of interest include:
- An exquisite, entirely-on-point Crazy Fingers with a long jam
- A nice example of this period’s “Jam Out of Terrapin”
- The only Spanish Jam of 1993
- An extended jazzy zone with the Space excerpt (Garcia/Weir!) and the Eternity edit
- Garcia's “trumpet” on “Women Smarter”
78-minute mp3 mixtape zipped up here
- New Minglewood Blues
- Big River
- Lazy River Road
- Man Smart, Women Smarter
- Playin’ in the Band
- Crazy Fingers
- Spanish Jam >
- Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
- Jam After Terrapin
- Space excerpt
- Eternity (instr. edit)
- Liberty