How good could The Grateful Dead be on a bad night, or across a string of mediocre shows? This mix answers that question for the Florida shows that closed the band’s 1994 Spring tour (April 4, 6, 7, and 8).
The tour from late February through March was strong, with great traditional and MIDI performances. However, by the time they hit Florida in early April, Garcia’s voice was shot, and the band just sounded tired. Easy songs were lazy, and tricky songs struggled.
Nonetheless, as is true of other periods of live Dead, sloppy songsmanship doesn’t correlate to the quality of the collective playing once the song structures are left behind. In these Florida excerpts, you can hear the musical health and adventurous spirit of the 1994 band, in the midst of shows that I don’t recommend you listen to in full.
There are no fancy segues on this mix, though I’ve tried to make a decent listening arc out of the pieces. It’s basically a big jam, with some song-stops – most notably a very nice “The Wheel.”
80-minute mp3 mix zipped up here
- 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