8/6/74 - Jersey City, NJ - DP#31 ********** (One of the greatest Eyes ever)
An excellent and groovy Bertha opens the show. It's very smooth. The sound mix is kinda weird though. It seems that Jerry is still ON tonight. Check out that killer solo! Mexicali is hotter than southern Texas and all kinds of powerful. Jerry's solo is ridiculously perfect.
Same goes for everything else in this set. Jerry is ON, the energy is high, the mix great. Nothign to say except it is AWESOME tonight! :) Sugaree and Jack Straw are particularly gorgeous. Jack Straw is really freaking good, guys!!
This is then followed up (this soon?!) by a 19 minute Eyes of perfection! One of the best Eyes ever, hands down! Everything about it is just perfect! From the tempo and the vibe to the playing and the energy. It begins with a subtle bass solo from Phil. Jerry's first solo after the first verse is to die for. Oh, so wonderful!!!!! Same goes for the solo immediately after the second verse.
JERRY'S PLAYING IS STUPIDLY AMAZING TONIGHT. AS PERFECT AS YOU WILL EVER HEAR IT!!!!!!
This is easily already in my top 10, maybe even 5 Eyes. Jerry is THAT good tonight!! At around 8 minutes, Phil begins one of the best bass solos I've heard him play. It's the Phil equivalent of Jerry's soloing tonight. Unbelievable. And it's one of the longest bass solos I've heard Phil do! It lasts for several minutes until the mood change and Jerry resumes his soloing of the gods. This continues all the way to the end of the song.
Ok, this Eyes has won me over completely – along with Atlanta '74 and Greensboro '91, this is my new all-time favorite Eyes. IT IS INSANE!! Eyes eventually winds down into a rocking Promised Land and a fiery Deal.
Just when you think that's it for set one, it's bang into a 37-minute PITB>Scarlet>PITB!!!! HOLY CRAP GUYS!!! The wah-jamming begins promptly at 3 minutes in. Some beautifully mellifluous soloing from Jerry. This goes for awhile. Sit back and enjoy the ride as we slowly begin the ascent into deep space.
Around 7:30 the vortex begins to swirl, but we are not into the wormhole just yet. Around 8:40 the intensity begins to slowly build further. Instead of going down, though, around 11 minutes we realise we have avoided the workmhole and decide instead to coast jazzily on the outer limits instead.
Unfortunately the gravitational pull of the vortex is too strong and around 16 minutes time begins to slow. We are sinking into the mire, the dark path less travelled. Phil bombs away! At 19 minutes we have successfully survived entrance into the portal and the jamming resumes. Coasting on the seas of psychedelic supremity.
This results in some of the absolute greatest jamming I've ever heard the guys do. Jerry's soloing is hotter than the sun! All of a sudden out of NOWHERE we take a sharp left turn off a cliff into Scarlet. That left turn makes us lose all momentum and unfortunately Scarlet suffers, imo. It's a great version from top to bottom but it's just a little bit light on it's feet. I don't know – it's like it's a tad bit hesitant or something, like they don't know how to transfer the amazingness of the previous PITB into this Scarlet.
Thankfully they build the momentum back up towards the end and they shift gears back into PITB. This is easily one of the Top 10 Jams Of 1974, imo. The slip right back into PITB like Scarlet never even happenned and resume the space jamming before returning to the song proper. Wonderful. And that's it – the first set is over.
Set two begins as perfectly as can be with an insanely gorgeous-as-all-hell UJB into a great Black Peter. Up next is a rocking trio of Loose Lucy, El Paso and Big River before Row Jimmy and Ship Of Fools take things down a notch, but not without a hot MAMU to make a sandwich of the two.
An album-perfect Sugar Magnolia ends the easy-listening portion of set 2 before the Main Course arrives. A chill-as-all-hell He's Gone begins it all. It's fantastic and long and bluesy and chill. The sing along portion is wonderful tonight. And then it seues perfectly into a raucous 14-minute Truckin.
Around 6 minutes in the real jamming begins. The beat and tempo is just wonderful tonight – foot tapping nirvana! At 8:45 the wormhole has sucked us back in and the drums stop completely. Just Jerry noodle-cheffing his way around background atmospherics via Bobby and Phil. This lasts for a long time.
Eventually around 13 minutes, Phil begins his distortion-laden bombing raid. Billy finally begins contributing again with some soft brushings on the snare. It's at this point that the Spanish jam promptly evolves out of the ether into reality, courtesy of Bobby. Bobby keeps it going and let's Phil take the lead for a bit until Jerry decides to get his noodle-chef hat back onto his head and rejoin the party. Very subtle and well-picked series' of notes adorn this Spanish Jam.
This is fantastic!!! It almost sounds like a rehearsed rendition or something! This Spanish jam is SO FREAKIN' COOL GUYS!!!! This is the kinda jam you sit through three hours just to hear! Eventually the tempo picks up and they do one of those awesome spontaneous transitions into The Other One.
About 6 or 7 minutes into TOO the Tiger Jamming begins and we get shot straight into deep space of the darkest order. Whew! That was fast! Just as quickly as we hit the dark side of the moon, we are back around just in time to see the light with a wonderfully nice GDTRFB to bring us back to reality. With Sunshine Daydream and US Blues this incredible show comes to an end. Wow. Just....wow!
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