Trapped in Time

Dark Star -> It’s Up To You > Dark Star -> My Favorite Things -> Mississippi Half-Step, Bird Song, Terrapin Station > Down With Disease > Dark Star
Phil Lesh and Phriends
April 17, 1999 - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA

This is a Dead Phish jamwich of some seriously large proportions!

(via jamwich)

Uncle Johns Band > Playin’ in the Band > Uncle Johns Band
Grateful Dead
March 30, 1988 - E. Rutherford, New Jersey - Brendan Byrne Arena

Welcome to Jamwich, a blog for those special jams that contain two slices of the same song with a lot of tasty treats in between.

The first band to introduce me to the jamwich was the good ole’ Grateful dead. This is from my favorite show of 1988. Love the return back into UJB.

(via jamwich)

Grateful Dead Tie-Dyed Empire State Building Tonight (via)

The Empire State Building will burst into tie-dye lighting October 19 in honor of the Grateful Dead. The special lighting ceremony is in celebration of the opening of an exhibit at the New York Historical Society honoring the band. The tie-dye color scheme harkens to the iconic group’s original imagery and psychedelic influences.

On October 21, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh will attend a charity fundraiser to celebrate the opening of The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New York Historical Society, an exhibit cataloguing the career and accomplishments of one of America’s most socially influential bands. Through an extensive variety of media, even including fan mail, the exhibition explores the history of the band from 1965-1995. A section of the exhibit chronicles the social phenomenon of the band’s most dedicated fans, the Deadheads.  Most of the exhibitions materials were contributed from the extensive collection of the Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Recently, the Empire State Building was lit red and yellow in celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the Republic of China.  Tonight’s tie-dye lighting, though less controversial, is sure to be a sight to see and one not soon forgotten.

(via American Songwriter)

This week also marks the 35th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s Winterland shows that closed out the first decade of their career together.  I’ll have to post some stuff from those shows, because they were some of their best ever (also featured on the Grateful Dead Movie).

Indio, CA is getting ready for the influx of Phanners

Looks Like Rain -> Jam - Grateful Dead
3.28.85 - Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

1985 is one of my favorite Dead years, and with good cause.  It is one of the last years to find all members still reasonably on top of their skills, creating truly innovative and interesting improv, and the sets featured a wide variety of material.  This 16 minute Looks Like Rain features a really great jam.

Enjoy this as well as some great picks from April and June of 1985.  We’ll revisit this year later in the summer with some more choice picks.

(via thebutterroom)

Love this tune and this jam!

Grateful Dead - “Death Don’t Have No Mercy”

Seems like death has just been at the forefront of things lately, whether it be the personal death of our family dog or the growing number of celebrity deaths, or the senseless death of one of the nation’s top high school football coaches. Death certainly doesn’t have any mercy.

Grateful Dead - Hard To Handle
8.6.71 - Hollywood Paladium, Hollywood CA

The best Hard To Handle ever. Listen/download the entire show here.

(via thebutterroom)

Grateful Dead - “Easy Wind”
2.21.71 - Capitol Theater, Port Chester, NY

One of my favorite aspects of the Grateful Dead’s long and illustrious career is the early, blues-driven material.  Much of this holds a special place in my heart, largely because of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and his wonderful vocals, harmonica, and work on keyboards. A founding member of the Dead, Pigpen grew up with strong R&B and blues influences.  His father was a R&B disc jockey, a rare thing for a white guy from northern California in the late ‘60’s.

Pigpen quickly caught on to all aspects of the blues lifestyle, especially drinking hard. His last show with the Grateful Dead was in 1972, and he died of internal hemorrhaging due to his excessive drinking on March 8, 1973. Yet his desire for the Dead to be a rock and roll band is very much ingrained in the sound Jerry, Phil, Bobby, and Billy carried forward after his passing, and his playing on their late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s material is outstanding by any measure.  His vocals on this rather rare Dead tune (written by Robert Hunter) are stellar.

(via thebutterroom)

Nothing feels more right on a Sunday evening than listening to The Grateful Dead. Maybe it’s because WXRT in Chicago always had the Dead Hour on Sunday nights at 10, but I think it’s more than that.  Like I said in this post, their bluesy roots really do it for me.  There’s something uniquely American about their music, something that just rings home for me on a Sunday evening (preferably out on a porch in warm weather).

Grateful Dead - “Jack-a-Roe”
5.18.77 - Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA

Here’s another one of my favorites from the famed May ‘77 run. These guys really knew how to package all of their sounds without making it too crowded. I believe the sound crew was just as responsible as the musicians. This recording is a great example. Enjoy!

(via thebutterroom)

Great post from Graham

(via toddwickersty)

“Maybe that’s the best one can do at the highest level of engagement. Not to try to listen for the best night ever; not even to listen for the best period ever. But to try to figure out why we’re listening at all.”
Ben Ratliff, “Dissecting the Grateful Dead, Forever Live”

(via toddwickersty:newspeedwayboogie)

wideeyedhippiechild:

thebutterroom:

Friend Of The Devil - The Dead (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Warren Haynes)
3.30.09 - Live Appearance on ABC’s “The View”

How can this not put a smile on your face?  All these years later and they’re sounding great. The Butter Room has definitely not forgotten about their upcoming tour and we’ll keep bringing you Dead tunes throughout the spring!

15 days…

Tickets look like they’ll be going for less than face thanks to the idiocy of scalpers.  May 4th and 5th in Chicago?  Think I’m going to have to catch at least one of these shows.

Dark Star - Grateful Dead

10.9.89 - Hampton Coliseum, Hampton VA
photo by Jim Anderson
The last Hampton Grateful Dead show in the 1980s might be their most memorable. Billed as “Formerly The Warlocks” to circumvent a ban placed on the Dead at Hampton the year before, the October 8-9 run at Hampton had quite a few bust-outs. October 8 featured the first “Help > Slip” in over 4 years. The “Attics” encore on the 9th was the first one since ‘72, but the biggest bust-out of them all was the first “Dark Star” in over 5 years: last played on July 13th, 1984.
For more photos from this magical musical weekend, check out Jim Anderson Photography.
(via thebutterroom)

Further proof that Barack is going to be a badass POTUS.  Picking the Dead to be his band is a great way to get us all dancing again.

Just a week after confirming their first tour in five years, the reunited Dead are booked to rock the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. on January 20th. “A DJ will open up — it’s a long, strange trip!,” Mickey Hart jokes to Rolling Stone (the DJ in question is celeb spinner DJ Cassidy). “[Barack Obama] picked us specifically,” he adds, “so it was quite an honor. There was a short list and we made the cut.”

Grateful Dead - “New Speedway Boogie” (7.3.70, Alberta, Canada)