Today's Thirty Dead Shows in Thirty Days Takes Us Back to the Wall of Sound and the marathon shows of 1974. Grateful Music Presents 6-18-74, Freedom Hall in Louisville, KY

  1974 was a big year for the Grateful Dead in all ways. Following the success of 1973 and using that to build the gigantic Wall of Sound, the Dead played some of their best, and longest, gigs to date. Today we take a look at one of those. It has been released as a Road Trips but with all due respect, they butchered the production on it. Here it is in all it's glory.

One of the best of a wonderful year. 6-18-74 Freedom Hall in Louisville,KY

The whole band was on fire for this excursion near the Mason-Dixon line. With a rare-ish first set "Eyes" that melts into a "China Doll" and a hard rocking "Around and Around", the whole first set is just magic. I'm not going song by song because this is one of those shows that should be listen to as a whole piece of music because each song has a strong showing by everybody.

Like normal, the meat of the show is in the second set. It really kicks off with a "Weather Report Suite" that Jerry slays during the "Let It Grow" segment and after a ten minute jam melts into "The Other One". After going on a psychedelic bus ride for about twenty minutes the band returned to Pigpen territory with an,"It's a Sin" jam that drifts into an absolutely gorgeous "Stella Blue". The band could have stopped right there but they were on a roll and so they finished up with a "TN Jed" and a "Sugar Magnolia". The Sugar Mags was were they said there goodnights but the real end of the show was when they came back out for the encore and tore the proverbial roof off the sucker with an absolutely breathtaking "Morning Dew" that got the rare call in the encore slot. Jerry didn't pull a punch and the band followed suit. This show is one of the highlights of 74' and listen to Phil during the Dew and you'll yearn for the Wall of Sound.

Set 1:
d1t01 - The Promised Land
d1t02 - It Must Have Been The Roses
d1t03 - Black Throated Wind
d1t04 - Ramble On Rose
d1t05 - Beat It On Down The Line
d1t06 - Loser
d1t07 - Mexicali Blues
d1t08 - Eyes Of The World ->
d1t09 - China Doll
d1t10 - Around And Around

Set 2:
d2t01 - Loose Lucy
d2t02 - El Paso
d2t03 - Row Jimmy
d2t04 - Weather Report Suite ->
d2t05 - The Other One ->
d2t06 - It's A Sin Jam ->
d2t07 - Stella Blue
d2t08 - Big River
d3t01 - Tennessee Jed
d3t02 - Sugar Magnolia

Encore:
d3t03 - Morning Dew

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