Grateful Dead
Dave's Picks 52
The Downs at Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM (9/11/83)
*** out of *****
Standard disclaimer: When reviewing any Grateful Dead release at this point, it needs to be noted that a lot of the truly great shows from the band have already been professionally released. (If you are new to the band, check out RtBE's Beginners Guide to The Grateful Dead Part's one and two.) With their vast back catalog on archive.org and all of their previous releases, the band's selections are running thin when it comes to must own, professionally released shows.
That said, the band still release shows because rabid fans (RtBE included) will listen to everything they put out. So let's dive in...
In the early 80's the Dead archivists moved to cassette tapes for arching purposes, so the quality of these years is not up to the best that they have offered in th4e past. However, those years have some excellent playing mixed in, and some not so great shows. This one from The Downs at Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM (9/11/83) is pretty damn good. The quality of tape is a mess to start with a patched in "Alabama Getaway" into a smoking version of "Greatest Story Ever Told". That starts a theme where the band's more upbeat, rocking tunes are done well and fast (sometimes too fast) on this night.
The first set has a bit of everything, "Dire Wolf" is one that is too fast, "Hell In a Bucket" is a solid ride, and "CC Rider" features some excellent keyboards from Brent Mydland. The two best tunes from this set are a sweetly grooving "West L.A. Fadeaway" and a gorgeous version of "Althea" that for some reason has a splice at the end to a version from 3/9/81, which is confusing.
Jerry Garcia's guitar is in the background for the majority of show sonic wise, which is disappointing but not a deal breaker. On the flipside Phil Lesh's bass is very prominent as the drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann push and push faster during this show.
Starting the second set the band is really pumped up, perhaps a bit too pumped up as "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!"> "Franklin's Tower" is well played, however the whole band is moving pretty fast with the percussion leading the charge. Things start spinning off the rails a bit on the super sonic "Let It Grow" as Garcia's riffs are scalding hot and flaming fast. Things are not bad, just a bit crazy, and the band took a break post song to exhale.
The Dead locked it back in for a languid groove as "He's Gone" fits back into their more natural tempo, stretching out with ease and beauty as the band explores sonic delights before dipping into their "Drums > Space". Garcia starts some twinkling guitar during "Space" as the band moves out to pretty version of "Truckin'" which motors along. The most interesting section of the show follows with Bob Weir, perhaps coming in at the wrong time on the blues jam, starts singing "Wang Dang Doodle". The group seems to drop out of the song and Bob stops singing, but then they start it up again, confusing, but certainly a cool listen.
The boys get it all together into a huge version of "Morning Dew" that borders on greatness as sonic heights are hit. Weir pumped up a cover of "Around and Around" which slammed into "Sugar Magnolia". This version was good as well with more loud keys from Mydland and a longer jam that cooks to close the show before a "US Blues" encore that keeps the energy to wrap up.
Dave's 52 also includes a few songs from the previous night (9/10) and the three songs are also worth a listen as "Cumberland Blues" keeps the moving very fast theme alive while "Playing In The Band" finds the drums pushing on while Lesh's bass is banging and all over the place in an exciting way. The track spreads out over 12 minutes before dripping into a gorgeous Garcia ballad "China Doll".
While 1983 might not be everyone's favorite year in Grateful Dead history but the Dave's Picks series is here to give fans good shows from all years and while others from '83 might be a bit better overall than this, Dave's Picks 52 certainly holds it's own and is better than a few others. For 2024 the Dave's Picks series was average at best, but Dave and company ended the year strong with this release.
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