Return to tape listUSAir Arena, Landover MD, 10/10/94 Iko began with a long musical intro. In those opening moments it was clear that Jerry was enjoying himself and Phil was bopping away happily. Good news -- The Boys wanted to play tonight! The first set was short, but Eternity brought it to a satisfying end. During that song was one of those moments I go to Dead shows for, in which everyone gets into sync and starts jamming together as an ensemble, rather than as a collection of musicians. It would not be the last such moment of the night.
Tuning up for Set 2, it sounded like somebody stuck in a few notes of Day Tripper. No luck there, but nobody was complaining. Help/Slip was strong, naturally moving into Franklin's Tower. At the start of Franklin's, the band played for about 5 minutes before Jerry sang the song's first words. That set the tone for a long, jammy Tower that would leave the whole suite clocking in at around half an hour. Comparisons to 6/9/77 were in order. This would be a tough act for Bob to follow ...
... So in comes a loud and powerful Estimated Prophet. At this point, fatigue was getting the better of me, and for the rest of the set my mind started wandering to wondrous places, only to be brought back to reality by some bone-jarring note. Help/Slip/Franks/Estimated and I was getting a wonderful sense of deja vu from the classic 6/14/91 RFK show. Could Dark Star be next?
Well, not this time, but the Terrapin and subsequent jam did nothing to deflate this monster of a set. By the time anyone left the stage, the band had played for a full hour.
And then the drums. Plain and simple, Billy was a madman.
And so it went. Space/Watchtower/Stella/NFA were solid, even if not up to the peak of the first part of the two hour set. Not that it mattered. We were drained, exhausted. The music on this night had blown apart synapses that we didn't even know existed. Even the imperfections were perfect.
And so was the encore. After a mind-melt like this show, not just anything would serve as an express elevator back to reality. The encore needed some tempo, some pep, and a no-nonsense tune that could nonetheless let the band finish what they had begun. I Fought the Law was all of these. The Dead didn't sleepwalk through this either; from Jerry's singing to Bob's pantomimed six-guns they were playing hard.
Return to tape list