On February 26, 1977, 42 years ago as of today, the Grateful Dead played the first show of their 1977 touring year at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California, and what a show it was! This show has some gems and holds quite the significance for the history of the Grateful Dead. Recently this show has also been commercially released in the Dave’s Picks series as the 29th volume in the series, released on February 1, 2019. I’ve personally played the hell out of this one ever since getting it and consider it one of my favorite Dead shows.
The set list of the show is as follows:
Set 1: Terrapin Station, New Minglewood Blues, They Love Each Other, Estimated Prophet, Sugaree, Mama Tried, Deal, Playing In The Band > The Wheel > Playing In The Band
Set 2: Samson & Delilah, Tennessee Jed, The Music Never Stopped, Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower, Promised Land, Eyes Of The World > Dancin’ In The Streets > Around & Around, E: U.S. Blues
Not only is this show significant in the fact that it was the first show of 1977, one of the best years of live Grateful Dead shows, but it is also the first live performances of Terrapin Station and Estimated Prophet. Terrapin Station and Estimated Prophet are two songs off of the Grateful Dead’s studio album Terrapin Station that would be released on July 27, 1977. This debut of the two songs comes 6 months before being officially released and the song Terrapin Station serves as a magnificent show opener! In addition to the live debut of these wonderful songs this show is special in the fact that it blends aspects of Grateful Dead shows of the previous year and it’s where we begin to see aspects that would come to be indicative of 1977 Grateful Dead.
Along with the excellent execution of Terrapin Station and Estimated Prophet there are as always more songs from the show that deserve some attention. From the first set the stand out sequence is of course the Playing in the Band > The Wheel > Playing in the Band that brings the heat to close the first set. Overall this is a very tight first set of the likes which includes superb performances of Sugaree, New Minglewood Blues, and Mama Tried.
The second set is no different when it comes to bringing the groove and continues where the band left off. Here we see a fantastic Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower, how can you not love this sequence? So laid back and just overall great! This set also has a killer Eyes Of The World > Dancin’ In The Streets > Around & Around, with a tasty bass solo from Phil for the transition from Eyes to Dancin’ I might add.
Overall this concert is marvelous, great jams, great tunes, and the Dead seem to all consistently be together. This show is undoubtedly terrific and warrants many listens!
Check out and listen to the show here: https://archive.org/details/gd77-02-26.sbd.alphadog.9752.sbeok.shnf
The Music Never Stopped 