Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To

One Two

January in New York City is a dark time. Days are 20 minutes long at most and there is not even Christmas to look forward to: just another ten weeks of gloom, snow, and bitter windy cold.

But the Dead have work to do and, fresh from their New Year’s run at Boston’s The Ark, they played the Fillmore East on 1/2/70. For unknown reasons, the tracks are repeated on all the streamable versions of this show so you’ll have to figure something out or just give up and turn the car at a tree and hit the gas: choice is up to you.

But I would advise sticking around for a little longer; give this one a try. Mason’s Children opener, nice Easy Wind, and a great Live/Dead sequence (with a tragic cut removing the very end of Dark Star and beginning of St. Stephen.)

7 Comments

  1. Anchovy Rancher

    Thanks for hipping my Old Guy arse up to RElisten! I’d never heard of the site before. Just what I needed was another place to hear these guys… I mean, with Winter in the quasi-Pacific Northwest coming on and it being an El Nino year and whatnot, the more diversions the better…

    Does this site have an affiliation with Archive or something? I noticed the reference at songlist’s end.

    • Anchovy Rancher

      O.K., got it. The affiliation part. Thanks again.

  2. Drew

    Totally changing the subject here due to an Archive rabbit hole: How about the Ark, anyway? 4-22-69 is always talked up, but 4-21 is a lot of fun too. Jerry plays slide on HTH, and there’s a nice late Viola Lee Blues.

    That place got torn down and is a House of Jim Belushi now. Ever feel like you were dropped into the wrong universe?

    • thoughtsonthedead

      Where was it?

      I’ve never dug into that run: could be a good excuse.

      • Drew

        Lansdowne Street, behind Fenway Park and next to all those clubs full of bachelorettes from Reveeah. As I understand it, what was The Ark (and the Tea Party) ended up as part of The Avalon which closed right after I moved here.

        They tore it down and put a House of Blues there, which has strangely terrible acoustics for a new building made specifically for bands to play in.

  3. Steven

    A bit of history: one day earlier Hendrix and the Band of Gypsies competed the second of two shows and their first gig on the same stage. Quite a start to the venue’s arguably Golden Year, which also saw the incredible four-show “Dead at Midnight” run in July.

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