Grateful Dead – 3/9/81 & 3/10/81 (Madison Square Garden); 6/17/91 (Giants Stadium); 5/2/70 (Harpur College): I keep coming back to the intangible magic of 3/9/81, and the acoustic first set of the 1970 show is amazing. I’m hoping to branch out into a few other shows in the coming weeks, but these have consumed most of my listening time. Hania… Read more »
Grateful Dead – Madison Square Garden, New York, 3/9/81 | 3/10/81: This week was a deep dive into these two shows. Some things that blew me away:
Grateful Dead – Madison Square Garden, New York, 3/9/81: After discovering this concert last August, I planned to use some airplane time this week to dig into the In and Out of the Garden box set. Instead, I took a deep dive into the 3/9 show. The first set blows me away: the tempo is laid back but the energy… Read more »
Taylor Swift – Folklore: One of only three TS records I own (or want) on vinyl. By far, this is the best format for Folklore. Grateful Dead – Saint of Circumstance (6/17/91): I read the liner notes as I dug deeper into this one, and it gave me insight into why the show is special. Good liner notes are so… Read more »
Hollie Kenniff – We All Have Places That We Miss: This is, by far, the record I listened to most this week. It’s a gentle record with a sense of hope. It makes me imagine a quieter and more subtle Explosions in the Sky. I’m a sucker for songs that build around a repeated motif, and I absolutely love the… Read more »
Grateful Dead – Dick’s Picks 8 (5/2/70): Last week, I listened to the first set from this show, an acoustic set that is absolutely amazing. I dug into the second set this week and was struck by both its highs and lows, sometimes in the same song. “Dancin’ in the Street” is so dull that it feels more like shuffling… Read more »
Laurel Halo – Atlas: I wrote some useless comments about this record last week, so I committed to spending some more time with it. It’s far more intricate than I realized, and the first analogy that comes to mind is a story that is written so superbly it works for multiple audiences on multiple levels. Yes, the record can easily… Read more »
I took a break for a few months, mostly because making the thumbnails and spam comments became a barrier. I’m going to see if skipping the thumbnails makes it easier to post these weekly. Moderat – Moderat II: These guys are contenders for my “10 favorite electronic artists” list, but I rarely listen to them and this is the only… Read more »
Grateful Dead – St. Louis 12/10/71; Baltimore 9/17/72; NYC 3/9/81: It’s been a couple of months since I stumbled back down the rabbit hole of the Dead. In the process, I’ve uncovered a few of my own misconceptions about the Godcheaux and Mydland eras, and I have a new appreciation for those years. These three concerts are fun to hear… Read more »
Grateful Dead – Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO, December 10, 1971 and Madison Square Garden, New York, March 9, 1981: My go-to era for the Dead is the Pigpen years, so I picked the St. Louis show to kick off a recent road trip from Baltimore to Long Island. While it was everything I like about early ‘70s Dead, it… Read more »