Jerry

Grateful Dead | January 15th, 1978 | Selland Arena Fresno, CA Photo Credit: Ed Perlstein“The net effect of going from ‘worst Dead set ever’ to ‘most far out jam I have ever seen’ had a dramatic effect. Physics tells us that dramatic acceleration leads to escape velocity, and we definitely burst through the ionosphere, swirling in orbit far above the earth. The lengthy ‘Playing’ was followed by an intense ‘Wharf Rat.’ Garcia's nearly broken voice was used to great effect, and his emotional solo was the capstone to the intense ‘Playin’ jam that had preceded it. When it ended, a relatively brief ‘Sugar Magnolia’ ended the show, and the band left the stage. The crowd was too small to cheer for an encore, as many of the locals had left, but in any case those of us who had been listening were too stunned to care. This was a clutch performance by the Grateful Dead: a mostly-empty venue in the middle of nowhere, no excitement from the crowd, and still delivering a show for the ages.” – Lost Live Dead*from the Jerry Garcia page on fb