STILL A LITTLE GAS IN THE TANK: Grateful Dead 1993 Chapter 1

1/24/93

After their usual holiday break at the end of 1992 The Grateful Dead resumed live concert touring on January 24, 1993 with a three-night stand at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

The opening show does not sound like anyone's first night of the tour. The band sounds warmed up, well acquainted and already gelling. There's a strong possibility the band had not even rehearsed since their last gig on December 17th of the previous year. Their first set of 1993 is not rusty, tentative, or rickety. Ending the set with a performance of “Bird Song”, Jerry Garcia sounds as young and vibrant and exploratory as a guitarist as he ever did in his career.

The second set is not so much marred as it is somewhat enhanced by Bob Weir's floundering for an agreeable guitar tone. Unexpected noises interrupt even in the middle of a vocal line or just anywhere at random and the band feeds on Bobby's intrusive guitar stabbing and slashing. Purely unintentional I am certain but they make it work.

Personal aside: Some have said that Bob Weir singing the blues is the cheesiest thing they've ever heard. He's got no business. Or Merle Haggard tunes, for that matter.

The band’s second set improvisations a well-established tradition by this time, the exploratory third frame tonight sounds like a well-oiled machine tinkering with itself. And with that this trio of shows is off to a promising start.

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1/25/93

After opening this 3-night run in such a grand fashion, the Dead kicked off night 2 with a smoking version of “Shakedown Street”. Kicking off the evening with an explanatory dance jam just goes to show that the band was itching to play, chomping at the bit, eager to get gone. Vince Welnick brings some funky rhythms to the mix here that really fuel the fire.

This show explodes out of the gate with “Shakedown” but damn near comes to a dead stop with the slow blues “Same Thing” in the number 2 slot. Jerry’s fiery soloing saves the song from being a complete waste of time as it’s still a bit too early in the show for a bathroom break.

I’m not sure “Althea” and “Mama Tried” get the job done if the band was hoping to get their momentum back on track because neither song really goes anywhere. Then again, I am certain there were tens of thousands in attendance happy to be right where they were with no need for these two tunes to transport them somewhere else! Some of the energy is regained with “Maggie’s Farm”. It cooks and all four men across the front of the stage take a vocal turn which always riled up the crowd. Again and as ever it is Jerry who elevates the performance above the mundane and with “Loose Lucy” we are finally back on the right track.

Vocally, Bob Weir brings nothing remarkable to this performance of “The Music Never Stopped”. But very often the band could whip up some weird soup with this jam to close out the first set and this night is a good case in point. Again we hear some questionable guitar tones from Bobby and surely some must have been wondering and worrying if this would be a trend in the new year. But, that said, it’s only the second night of the tour and Bobby sounds like he's been listening to AC/DC. This is a good thing. His forceful rhythms propel the closing jam of this first set.

In fact this version of “Music Never Stopped” comes stumbling out of a glorious jam only to lurch unexpectedly into a brief second frame of improv before coming to a close. The one jam was more than sufficient and this unexpected second round was just icing on the cake. So strong not even Welnick’s twinkly synth can ruin the moment.

One of only a handful of tunes co-written by Bob Weir and Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, “Corrina” appeared in early ‘92 and quickly established itself as a reliable jam vehicle. Indeed, this is where night 2 set 2 really starts to get interesting.

I could do without Bobby’s screeching on the set closing “Around and Around”. Much like his sketchy guitar tone, Bobby makes some ill-advised howls and yelps part of his vocal attack here and it just sounds jokey. The band makes a rare pass at a truly inspired set closer by taking Chuck Berry’s simple Blues changes through a number of repeated choruses with some surprising and unexpected dynamics. They basically bring the volume down for a few minutes to quietly jam on some Blues. No false hype boogie romp here. They bring it down to play quietly in a basketball arena and it works surprisingly well. Will wonders never cease?

The death rattle Frankenstein frog voice of Phil Lesh is almost enough to derail the “Box of Rain” encore. The crowd seems to love it but I’m not the one who could really explain why.

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1/26/93

Only confirming this writer’s suspicions that Bobby is ready to rock the fuck out, night 3 opens with a rather rambunctious “Picasso Moon”. Say what you want about his relative effectiveness or lack thereof as an interpreter of classic Blues tunes, to say nothing of his struggle to stay on top of the bucking bronc of Midi guitar tones, but the man hit the ground running in January of 1993. Hot to trot for the Chinese New Year celebration, Weir required no time to warm up.

With the sloppy storm swirling all around him, it is Garcia who elevates the entire 3-night run to legendary status with the guitar solo in "Ramble On Rose". Among the many serious peaks of this run, the trumpet effect triggered on Jerry's guitar for several glorious choruses makes this performance one of the band's finest from their final years.

Bobby frequently seems overly desperate to show emotion, screeching and howling occasional lines from the many classic Blues songs he attempts to breathe life into as well as barking random syllables through “Desolation Row” as if the lyrics of Bob Dylan fall short of conveying enough meaning.

This writer’s favorite Bobby t-shirt features the Cheetos cheetah dressed as Weir and exclaiming, “It ain’t easy bein’ cheesy”. Bob’s got a great voice and in ‘93 he was still chugging along at full steam. But sometimes he tries too hard - not something anyone ever said about Jerry - and the result is often less than satisfying.

The closing out of a 3-night run is always a highly anticipated event among Deadheads. Going into the 6th and final set of this engagement, the boys opt for “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” to get things started. Jerry’s “trumpet” makes a brief return and you can bet the crowd was dancing in the aisles but nothing really distinguishes this version as a stand out. Grooving breezily through Garcia’s “Eyes of the World” we hear a band that sounds like it’s holding back more than it’s letting go. Vince Welnick offers some keyboard swells here that zip and flash through the song like flaming arrows. After a rickety transition into “Estimated Prophet” we catch our first whiff of the crew gently unspooling, finally ready to take us on a trip.

Fans have questioned some of the odd effects employed by the Dead in the ‘90s but this set is well-served by some unexpected blurts and blasts from what sounds like brass, woodwinds and other indeterminate instruments. Bobby’s floundering tonal search notwithstanding, Jerry is flawless as always and of course Lesh and Welnick get their licks in too. Vince gets weird on the keys in this “Estimated”, dialing in a bizarre horn sound, his angular accents conjure visions of a truckload of Charlie Parkers crashing through the gate. Just when you think the song will disintegrate into the evening’s second set “Space” jam we hear Garcia lightly strum the opening to “Terrapin Station”.

Surely some in attendance knew they’d hear it tonight, as it was not performed at either of the first two shows, and Jerry offers a tender recital of the tale with more tasty dynamics from the whole ensemble. Stadium shows by any artist of any era have rarely if ever featured such peaceful interludes interspersed with spikes of raging noise like the Dead were capable of on their best nights. This “Terrapin” takes us down into the calm quietude of the forest before the song slowly builds to its ominous grey cloud conclusion with some help from Jerry’s oboe tone.

The jam is a shambles, a glorious mess of sound like a robot designed to dance itself to death, strenuously shaking to the very music it is making until it falls apart piece by piece. This leaves of course the two drummers on stage for their nightly segment. Full disclosure: I’m not the biggest fan of “Drumz” as it often leaves me cold with no clear idea in my head why they set aside the time to just randomly pound on shit for 13 minutes. Every once in a while Billy & Mickey will surprise me with something that sounds a little more inspired. And I do enjoy when they incorporate unusual instruments and the occasional guest to enhance the experience. Unfortunately this otherwise stellar show features a perfect case in point, as the drum duo segment drags on aimlessly, endlessly, offering no cohesive structure or mood to give it a reason to exist. I am certain that each night was an experiment, an exploration, let’s just dive in and see what happens, see where it takes us. Here it takes them 10 minutes to go nowhere but I’m happy to report that the “Space” improv segment that follows is scary good.

One of the reasons I enjoy listening to late-era Dead shows is because I feel like they finally had some decent equipment to facilitate the long strange trips they took every night in the 2nd half of the show. So many “Space” segments from earlier shows in the ‘70s for example sound rickety and half broken to me because the band was playing on shit gear. These segments were experimental and by nature not always successful. And such is the nature of spontaneous art that my personal favorite “Space” jam might sound like absolute rubbage to you and vice versa.

Carlos Santana joins the band during “Space” and remains onstage for the rest of the show. He does bring a special flavor to the Space jam finale and then Jerry leads us into “The Other One”...

Long time Grateful Dead audio engineer and sound sorcerer extraordinaire Dan Healy brings a few tricks to the party for “Space” as well as turning Weir’s voice into a growling monster for “The Other One”. The effect is jarring, riveting, and hilarious. Buy the ticket. Take the ride. I wish they’d taken this version of “The Other One” for a longer ride but the segue into “Stella Blue” is a thing of sorrowful, heart-wrenching beauty.

All of this writer’s reservations and issues with the Weir vocal approach go down the cosmic toilet as Bobby proves himself to be the only man on the stage who can really sing the shit out of “Gloria” for the third night encore to close out this epic run. His barking, that which often seems so silly elsewhere, is the only way to put across a 3-chord barn burner like this.

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All in all, if you’re a fan of the Dead you should definitely dip into this run. I give it an 8 out of 10. A fairly high rating for late era Dead, I know. But a strong homestand to kick off 1993. Casual listeners might even find something of interest here.

Recommended tracks:

“Birdsong” from the first night

“Loose Lucy” & “Corrina” thru “Space” from 1/25/93

“Ramble On Rose” & “Estimated” thru “Stella” from night 3.

Excellent quality soundboard recordings from all 3 shows are streaming on archive.org. There is also footage of all 3 in their entirety on YouTube.