For the week of 2/10 - 2/16 we are jam-packed with some epic concerts as well as another mystery show: 2/12/70 Ungano's Night Club, which is probably the most debated and contested mystery show in Grateful Dead History. We'll get into that and a lot more in this week's listening guides:
2/10/79 Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
2/10/89 Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA
2/11/69 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY
2/11/70 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY
2/12/70 Ungano's Night Club, New York, NY
2/12/89 Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA
2/13/70 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY
2/14/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
2/14/69 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
2/14/70 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY
2/15/73 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI
2/16/82 Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA
So grab your copy of my book if you have it to follow along and let's jump into it. Here's the highlights for Issue 6, for the week of February 10th, 2025 so check it out:
Interesting historical facts for this week:
The Ungano's Night Club show, probably the most debated and contested mystery show in Grateful Dead History
First performance of Dark Hollow, You Ain’t Woman Enough
Final performance of How Long Blues, Monkey And The Engineer
Opening night of the short-lived but infamous Carousel Ballroom venue and the first FM broadcast of a Grateful Dead show
Bob Dylan and Spencer Davis guest appearances
Epic February 11, 13th and 14th Fillmore East run
By the way, if you're new here, this is my weekly listening guide that brings you the most interesting and significant facts from Grateful Dead History, along with reviews of the music for the week ahead. The idea is to give all you Heads a "Heads up" on the interesting and cool stuff the Grateful Dead were up to on this week in history. So hit the Subscribe button below to go to the top of my blog page where you can enter your email to get this delivered to your email every week!
February 10th
2/10/79 Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS – This is an excellent, high-energy heater of a show from beginning to end, and you’re going to love it. The band is just "on". 1st set highlights are a rare first set Don't Ease opener, They Love Each Other, Minglewood, Brown Eyed Women, Deal, and a fierce Jack Straw to close the set. 2nd set highlights are Scarlet > Fire, Estimated > Eyes > Drums > Space > Jam (14+ minutes!) > Other One > Wharf Rat > Sugar Magnolia. They double encore with One More Saturday Night and Miracle (the second of only 3 times ever performed as an encore).
Music link: 1st & 2nd set Aud: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/02/10?source=338098 2nd set SBD: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/02/10?source=337865
2/10/89 Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA – If you're a Phil phan, this show is for you. Phil is on FIRE and there are Phil Bombs everywhere! The entire 1st set is excellent, but the highlights are a smoking Stranger > Franklin's opener, and a rousing Let It Grow closer. 2nd set highlights are Just a Little Light set 2 opener (the only time they ever did that), a very nice Truckin' outro jam, a peppy up-tempo Playing, Wheel > Gimme Some Lovin’, and that Baby Blue encore is... so perfect. Definitely worthy of a listen.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1989/02/10?source=343921
February 11th
2/11/69 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY – 1st of a 2-show run. Officially released on Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69 and unfortunately, this is the only place you can listen to this fine show. If you’re lucky enough to have this one, this is your reminder to pull it off the shelf and give it a spin. Early Show highlights are Schoolgirl, Cryptical > Drums > Other One > Cryptical > Doing That Rag, King Bee (Last known performance 6/6/67, 257 shows), Lovelight. They close by playing the first known version of Hey Jude. Pigpen certainly puts his heart into it. Musically they do a fine job, for the most part, and same for the vocals. There are a few flat spots but what really can you expect from the Grateful Dead doing a Beatles cover? Well, they only performed this song 3 times, and I wouldn’t exactly say they “nailed it” for any of them, but each rendition is a fun, unique experience. My personal favorite is the final version with Brent signing from 3/22/90 that has Dear Mr. Fantasy sammiched in the middle. The Late Show is a continuation of this splendid show. The whole thing is only an hour of music, but they don’t waste any notes and pack a lot of classic song selections into that short set. Highlights are the entire set: Dupree’s Diamond Blues, Mountains Of The Moon > Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Drums > Caution > Feedback > And We Bid You Goodnight. They encore with Cosmic Charlie which is appended to AWBYGN as a hidden track on the CD because the tape runs out a couple of minutes into the song. Too bad because it starts off great.
Music link: No circulating tapes available as of February 2025
2/11/70 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY – 1st of a 3-show run. The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers and Love sell out the Fillmore East for 6 shows over 3 days. The band had a huge following by this point, and as David Davis points out in his groundbreaking book The Economic History of the Grateful Dead, 1970 would finally be a year that the band would leverage their popularity and make some good money touring. This is because Lenny Hart wasn’t around to steal from the band any more, but also due to Sam Cutler’s more efficient tour scheduling that minimized mileage between shows. The 2/11 Early Show only has a small circulating snippet so it kind of lives in the shadows of all the other shows in the run. But what we do have is nice. The tape cuts in most of the way through what appears to be a standout Other One that builds up and winds down into Cryptical and then lands gently into a brisk, countrified take on Dire Wolf. The vocal harmonies are very well done, and the song is musically well executed. After that, they waste no time and launch into a fine reading of Casey Jones. The 2/11 Late Show has some truly spectacular moments. We get a monster NFA. It's furious, hard driving version, and ranks up there as one of my favorites. This rendition of High Time is as good as they come. But my favorite segment is Dark Star that segues into a rousing, inspired Spanish Jam breakout (3/30/68, 309 shows!), fueled by guest appearances of the Allman Brothers and members of Fleetwood Mac. This is another Deadology II Jam Anthem version. But Pigpen was not to be outdone. The Lovelight is one chaotic Pig-stravaganza with a classic rap about getting busy with his woman. It does kind of drag out a little, however. After all that electric noise, they decide to cool things off with Uncle John’s Band encore featuring only a single acoustic guitar. Before they get started Phil logically pleads with the audience to be quiet and to not be wasteful. “If you’re going to throw dope up here, throw it so we can see where it goes”. It sure sounds like a fun time was had by all!
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/02/11?source=335657
February 12th
2/12/70 Ungano's Night Club, New York, NY – February is a mysterious month for Grateful Dead music over the years, as we’ve seen with Neil Cassady’s mysterious death, uncertain setlists, and Jerry eating Valiums before a show and totally tanking it. But at least we now have a tape for the 2/6/79 show and can say for certain what songs were played there. But now we turn our attention to 2/12/70, which is one of the biggest mysteries of them all. I love reading about the various theories behind whether this show actually took place - and if so, why was it shrouded in mystery, and how did it take place? This one has a lot of evidentiary twists and turns, and is the ultimate case study in how difficult it can be to confirm details (or whether the show even happened for that matter) when it comes to early Dead shows. Unfortunately, it doesn't help that a popular recording which purports to be from this show continues to circulate to this day as 2/12/70. Let me be clear: THERE IS NO KNOWN AUTHENTIC RECORDING of the 2/12/70 Ungano's Nightclub show. The Jay Serafin tape (SHNID 5932 and 88908) has been proven to be an audio recording of the 2/13/70 Early show, and nobody debates that any more. So why does Etree and Lossless Legs still list that recording as 2/12/70?? It's unfortunate because newer generations of Dead Heads stumble upon it, and don't have the background or take the time to read the "fine print" so it perpetuates the lie, so to speak. That said, what people do debate is whether or not the show took place. There's a ton of really intriguing stuff here that will give you a glimpse "inside the machine" when it comes to the control Bill Graham had, how (and why) secret gigs were booked at places like Ungano's in NYC, and how record companies took advantage of their signed acts when they were on the road touring. Please read Corry Arnold's Lost Live Dead blog article to get all the details. Be sure to read all the comments after the article, that's where the updates are.
Music link: No authentic recording of this show is known to exist.
2/12/89 Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA – Overall this is a well-played, high-energy show that features an unusual set list and guest appearances from Spencer Davis and Bob Dylan. The 1st set starts off normally enough with a nice Cold Rain And Snow, and that’s usually a sign of good things to come. The next few songs are all good but standard renditions, but then a real hot curve ball: Beat It On Down The Line > Promised Land. This was the 5th of only 5 times they played this song sequence. Other highlights include final performance of How Long Blues, which is a hot, dirty blues number featuring Spencer Davis on vocals and guitar (1228 show breakout, last played 11/7/70) along with a rousing Gimme Some Lovin’ (also featuring Spencer Davis on vocals and guitar). The 2nd set opens with Bob Dylan joining the band on stage for all the songs up to Drums > Space. His guitar is barely audible in the recording and if it wasn’t for this Christopher Hazard video, you probably wouldn’t even know he was on stage. Anyways, they launch into a spunky Iko, followed by another curve ball: the first Monkey And The Engineer since 4/13/82 (468 shows). This version features a slightly different arrangement, where Bobby waits a bar before the chorus “Big locomotive, right on time...”. This would also be the final performance of the song. They play four more excellent songs with Dylan including Alabama Getaway, Dire Wolf, Cassidy, and Memphis Blues (I find it a little disappointing that Dylan doesn’t sing on his own song). The rest of the show has great song selections and renditions are good but standard and also on the shorter side. There’s a nice double encore of NFA and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, but Dylan doesn’t even step out on stage. I guess he really wasn’t in the mood to sing any of his songs.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1989/02/12?source=343809
February 13th
2/13/70 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY – 2nd of a 3-show run. Parts of these infamous concerts were officially released on Dick's Picks Volume 4 and Bear's Choice. These were some of my first tapes, and will always be some of my most favorite. Early Show highlights are a hot Beat It On Down The Line, Good Lovin’ > Drums > Good Lovin’ (Bear’s Choice version), a soft and poignant Black Peter, a punchy Hard To Handle (I love how Bobby and Jerry attack this song on their guitars with a very sharp, fierce attitude), a powerful St. Stephen > NFA and a perfect reading of Casey Jones with all the ingredients to make this song work: tempo, energy and finesse. The band is in complete control of the music for the Late Show. It’s just one of those performances that gives you everything you love about early Dead shows – two hot, energetic electric sets full of extended jamming and a nice intimate acoustic set in the middle. What’s not to love? Highlights are China Cat > I Know You Rider, Smokestack Lightning, Little Sadie, Wake Up Little Susie > Black Peter, Uncle John’s Band, Katie Mae. The entire 3rd set is the big highlight of the entire show: Dark Star (Jam Anthem version) > Cryptical > Drums > Other One (Jam Anthem version) > Cryptical > Lovelight (Jam Anthem version).
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/02/13?source=88525
February 14th
2/14/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA – Officially released on Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2. This concert was the first "official" opening of the Carousel Ballroom, which was a short-lived business venture that tried to offer an alternative to Bill Graham’s productions happening over at the Fillmore Auditorium. The epic events that took place at the Carousel Ballroom are the stuff of hippie legends despite the short 6-month time span that the venue was in operation. Unfortunately, too much fun was being had and the venue wasn’t managed properly as a business. When operations at the Carousel Ballroom folded, it was the perfect opportunity for Bill to snatch up the venue and move into a better location. He did just that, and renamed the venue to Fillmore West. You can see some historic photos and read more about the Carousel Ballroom here. But before all that happened some great events took place at the Carousel, including this one, which also happened to be the first live FM broadcast of a Grateful Dead show. The 1st set is a fast and furious rundown of classic primal Grateful Dead selections with performances that are typical of the time period including Morning Dew and Schoolgirl. Dark Star is fast tempo and short. China Cat is fast tempo and chaotic. They just can’t find the beat on it however. They segue into a rousing but short Eleven, followed by a powerful Lovelight. It’s all enjoyable but for me the real highlights are found in the 2nd set. Jerry dedicates the set to the memory of Neil Cassady, who passed away mysteriously in Mexico 10 days earlier. I wrote about his death in last week’s listening guide if you want more information. They launch into a perfect reading of Cryptical, and then for a change there’s no drum segment and they segue directly into a really short, compressed Other One and then it’s back into Cryptical that crackles with controlled energy. I especially like TC’s organ sound on this version. They rip through a nice New Potato Caboose that begins softly, working their way through the verses. It builds into a short but perfectly executed Born Cross-Eyed which segues into the hottest part of the show: an epic Spanish Jam that’s raw and powerful. It starts with a bit of feedback and builds over the course of several minutes into a marching beat. Bobby and Phil lay down the foundation and Jerry adds the spice on top. It builds and falls into a cacophony of sounds, and finally decays into a break with a lot of stage banter. The rest of the show is filled with deep muscular jamming: Alligator > Caution > Feedback, Midnight Hour
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/02/14?source=1277638
2/14/69 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA – It’s amazing what a difference a year makes when it comes to late 60’s Grateful Dead performances. If you compare the set list of this performance to 2/14/68, there are a lot of similarities in song selection, yet the performances sound totally different. And this wasn’t a one-off change. This was an evolution in the band’s overall sound. They were developing and perfecting that deep psychedelic jamming. Of course, in less than a year the band’s sound would evolve again to include lots of vocal harmonies and the inclusion of folk/country songs. Highlights of 1st set include Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight. Dark Star is almost 20 minutes in length here. Compare that to the typical version from ’68 and you’ll immediately see the development that they’ve put into this song. St. Stephen is powerful, and The Eleven and Lovelight are very hot renditions. Now that the band has loosened up, they open the 2nd set with a wicked Morning Dew. They launch into a commanding performance of Cryptical > Drums > Other One > Cryptical, finally dissolving into a poignant Death Don’t Have No Mercy.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/02/14?source=1919044
2/14/70 (Early and Late) Fillmore East, New York, NY – 3rd of a 3-show run. Partially officially released on Dick's Picks Volume 4. The band wraps up what will be known as one of their most infamous runs of shows on the East Coast. The band was developing a huge following at this pivotal time in their career, and the epic performance captured on these shows highlight why they were gaining so much popularity. Of course, having these high-quality recordings has helped preserve the magic of these shows. The Early Show kicks off with a nice reading of Cold Rain And Snow. After that short warm up, they don’t waste any time and deliver the goods: Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight which makes for almost an hour and a half of epic jamming. Switching gears for the Late Show, the band sets out for one long single set that’s split into an electric-acoustic-electric format. Highlights are Casey Jones, Hard To Handle, Dark Hollow, All Around This World, Wake Up Little Susie > Black Peter, Uncle John’s Band, Katie Mae. After the short acoustic segment, we’re treated to a rousing Dancin’ that bubbles over with energy. Other highlights include a gorgeous High Time, followed by the big jam segment: Alligator > Drums > Me & My Uncle > NFA > Mason’s Children > Caution (Jam Anthem version) > Feedback > And We Bid You Good Night.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/02/14?source=335590
February 15th
2/15/73 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI – It’s well-known that the band pulled off some epic shows at this venue, and this is a prime example. The 1st set kicks off with an epic Loose Lucy opener, and Jerry is fired up! He passionately belts out the words while the band confidently shuffles along with him. This would unfortunately be the only time the band ever opened with this song. They follow up with a rousing Beat It On Down The Line. Other highlights include Box Of Rain, China Cat > I Know You Rider, Bertha, and a nicely jammed Playing. The 2nd set kicks off with a perfect reading of Here Comes Sunshine. Also worth noting, Donna debuts her performance of the Loretta Lynn song You Ain't Woman Enough later in the set. It’s not really my favorite song but it's well played. Donna sounds excited and proud to sing it and Jerry's full country riffing on his guitar with sweet melodies and bends on the strings. The real magic happens later in the second set with Dark Star > Eyes > China Doll. These are expansive versions of these songs, filled with epic jamming and soulful singing. The last part of the show is pure Rock and Roll. Promised Land, Sugaree, Sugar Magnolia, are followed up with a rare double encore Uncle John’s Band and One More Saturday Night to cap off this outstanding show.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1973/02/15?source=336422
February 16th
2/16/82 Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA – 1st of a 2-show run. This whole show is excellent and showcases the band in sync and delivering tight versions of every song. They charge out of the gate with a hot 1st set duo opener of Shakedown Street > Greatest Story. They follow up with standout renditions of Friend Of The Devil (nice vocal harmonies) > Little Red Rooster. This whole set features classic “Dead Set” song selections served up with perfection. Other highlights include pretty Peggy-O, Big River, Might As Well. The heat gets turned up a notch for the 2nd set which kicks off with a rowdy China Cat > I Know You Rider, which flows right into a perfect reading of Playing > Terrapin. They open these songs up and stretch out the jams nicely on both. After an interesting Drums > Space they land on a hot Truckin’ which contains a nice Nobody’s Fault Jam. This feeds into a heartfelt Black Peter, which morphs into a very nice Playing Reprise. Hot versions of Around And Around > Good Lovin’ and an upbeat Don’t Ease encore close out this fine show.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1982/02/16?source=339451
BTW, If you're not yet familiar with Jam Anthem versions of songs you can read all about it in Deadology II by Howard Weiner. Check it out here along with all his other great books.
And that's all for now! Of course, if you want to follow along in your very own copy of my book On This Day In Grateful Dead History: A Daily Listening Journal I still have some copies available here. Once they're sold out, I will have to decide whether or not I'm going to have more made. The costs of printing and shipping have gone way up in the last few years since I had them printed so I'm not sure if it's worth it or not. So get one now while you can! https://www.gratefuldeadbook.com/tigdh
Peace out my good people. Until next week!
Going to have to give that 2/10/89 a listen this week for sure!