The Grateful Dead

Date: April 22nd, 1979 
Venue: Spartan Stadium, San Jose State U 
Location: San Jose, CA
1st Show with Brent Mydland
1st Show of 1979 Spring Tour

After only a brief 2 month hiatus, the band returned with new keyboardist Brent Mydland. 

The show starts with Jack Straw. The band sounds quite hyper and rambunctious as the chord changes are intently attacked. Jerry’s first solo is quite expansive. The main jam starts with a huge Lesh bomb and is a voracious attack. Jerry reaches a few different scalding fannings with Lesh dropping bombs galore. This was a statement by the band – Keith may be gone, but the band is here to stay. Brent actually didn’t stand out on this version, but he must have been very relieved to get that first tune under his belt in an exceptional manner.

Even if the rest of the show was a flop, the show was a success for one of the finest Jack Straws around.

Tennessee Jed is next. Here we can truly hear the blending of Jerry’s and Brent’s voices. The effect is remarkable. While Donna had her moments, she couldn’t highlight Jerry’s voice past 1975 in the same manner Brent could in 1979 to around 1983. The band still sounded quite tight during the song portion, and the jam obtains some nice momentum – but not delirious momentum.

Weir next breaks out Mama Tried. Another tight version from the band with a solid but unflavored Jerry solo.

Mama flows into Mexicali. Again, the band sounded tight but Jerry’s solo lacked in flavor and sounded quite standard.

Jerry opened things up next with Sugaree. The first jam from Jerry reaches a nice plateau. The second jam starts very slowly but builds into a quickly paced jam but doesn’t turn ferocious. Nicely done, but not incredibly memorable.

Weir reawakens the band next with a downright mean version of Minglewood. His screaming is omnipresent, and Jerry provides loads of note rippings. Jerry’s solo after the first verse is very tight and raw with echoey and bleeding notes. Here we get Mydland’s first real solo of the night during the main jam which a bit redundant and careful. Weir’s slide solo follows and it too was a bit tame. There was no second Jerry solo. A second Jerry solo would have been great, and its absence tarnished this version.

Next was Brown Eyed Women. This version soars as the band put forth a very energetic performance. Near the conclusion of the song Lesh was nearly grinding his bass notes it was so intense. Jerry’s solo was interesting, but as stated, what stole this version was the very intense rhythm.

Looks Like Rain was next. Weir does a very solid singing job, and Jerry and the band fill the gaps nicely. But, there wasn’t the overly intense finale this tune is capable of.

Stagger Lee provided more high energy, but Jerry’s solos didn’t quite soar in flavor. The band was quite tight, but Jerry just couldn’t break free. A strong version, but not exceptional. Weir’s slide solo during the finale was sinister (for the best Stagger Lee of the tour, see 5.7.1979).



Next was Passenger, and as indicated during the 4.16.1979 rehearsals, the band was ready for this tune. Indeed, the pacing is incredibly fast, and Jerry’s solos soar. Additionally, the mixing of mydland’s voice with Weir’s was well taken. Jerry’s final solo is scalding and exceptionally flavored. Lesh, as well, drops some huge bombs on this version.

Deal ends this first set. Again, the band sounded quite tight during the song portion. Jerry’s first solo meanders and has some flavor but not a lot. The vocal finale was definitely enhanced with the Mydland vocals.

Overall an impressive first first set for the Grateful Dead with Brent Mydland. His decade with the Dead had begun. The clock was ticking.

The second set starts out raucously with huge Lesh bomb leading into I Need A Miracle. This was a very strong version with excellent Weir screaming and great Mydland backing vocals. But the exit jam, despite having a fantastic plateau, is very short and diminishes the momentum. Instead of opening into an extended and ripping blues solo, Jerry quickly crafts the disgusting Miracle jam into a cute Bertha transition. This was the epitome of triteness.

Bertha is pretty standard. The band was still tight during the song portion, but Jerry couldn’t escape into flavored jamming during the solo. Lesh, however, stood out during the jam for providing a healthy load of bombs.

Bertha rolls into Good Lovin’. This is a pure cocaine Good Lovin’ as Weir really is outrageous in his vocals. Brent does a fine job with his harmony. Jerry’s solo is pretty tame. The vocal finale is pretty interesting as the band gains a healthy amount of steam and Weir slams out some awesome screams.

Scarlet Begonias was next, which gave Jerry a chance to spread his wings a bit. The first Scarlet jam within the song is pretty tame. The transition to fire starts with a funky Mydland solo that was somewhat interesting. Jerry delivers a flavored filled Scarlet jam that twists and spins. Jerry, however, slowed his progressions to a near stand still and permitted the transition to Fire without much input from him. Instead he simply began strumming the B and A chords.

Fire starts out with about a 4 minute soaring solo from Jerry. This is very complicated wandering from Jerry that meanders and reaches numerous peaks. During the first jam, Jerry’s intensity did not let up. He delivered an extremely deep and complex solo that truly reached very inner Fire depths. Jerry clearly was in the zone. The second solo has Jerry doing intricate cyclings while the rhythm increased to a maddening pace. As the jam reached a numbing intensity Jerry delicately dropped the band back into the third verse in a breathtaking manner. The third solo, unfortunately, was surprisingly tame and lacked a ton of energy as Jerry started heading in a finale direction but stopped short. Considering the amount of intensity built in the intro and first two solos, this third jam was a let down. Still, Jerry had some truly amazing moments during this Fire.

Estimated Prophet was next. The in-song jam soars with intensity and reaches an amazing plateau. There was no let down with this jam. The outward jam is more very fine Jerry meandering. He reached a point where there was about 5 minutes of just note tumbling that was nearly chaotic. This was consistently exceptional from the beginning to the end. The final descension landed into He’s Gone.

He’s Gone was a bit of a let down after Estimated. This version is solid but quite typical. The outward jam is quite sedate and travels short distances before being swallowed by the first drums solo with the beast.

The Space segment is quite short at about 50 seconds. Jerry and Brent noodle a little bit with an Other One twinge. In all essence, this shouldn’t even be considered a Space, but rather, the Other One.

The Other One starts with a massive bass roll from Lesh. Lesh is all over this version of the Other One dropping huge bombs around every corner. Unfortunately, Jerry’s response wasn’t too intense. He crafted some interesting jams but the exasperated “Today we kill, tomorrow we die” feel (ala 10.27.1979) is not present. Actually, at the end of the jam before the second verse, Jerry had a nice fanning, but still nothing as intense as Lesh’s bass work.

Jerry led the band into a funky little Other One-ish jam after the second verse of the Other One. This had some flavor but quickly transitioned into Wharf Rat. This transition was pretty well done and for all practical purposes was a sticky and dripping transition. This Wharf had some piercing moments. In particular, note the first solo after the “true to me” segment. The outward jam has some nice Jerry flavor but quickly blends into an Around ‘n Around transition. This a very solid version of Wharf Rat.

R&R was next. The pace is very slow at first which offers Jerry very nice platforms to explore his R’nB. Jerry’s solos are pretty good but not exceptional. The finale jam just doesn’t take off and escape the typical R&R progressions (unlike, for example, 10.6.1977 Tempe). Indeed, the finale jam stalls before reaching any interesting peaks. Perhaps Jerry was tired.

The first encore is U.S. Blues, which was particularly strong. Jerry’s solo is literally scalding but contained in a nice manner. The song gains a healthy amount of steam heading into the finale, and Brent’s harmony sounds great. Lesh as well drops a load of bombs.

Shakedown wrapped the show up as the second encore. The band must have been having a great time. This was a very long show as Brent was thrown into the deep end. Shakedown is strong and convincing until the guitar solo. Jerry’s progressions meander but fail to develop into interesting peaks (cf, 8.28.1981). His flavor had been spent for the night. Again Brent’s harmonies sounded great, but the absence of solid Jerry guitar flavor tarnished this version.

Overall this was a very strong first show for Brent and the new Grateful Dead. He and the band would have two weeks until the start of the early Summer Tour of 1979. Jerry was heading to Reconstruction for numerous, and unfortunately unavailable, shows.

Set 1: 7.62
Set 2.1: 7.56
Set 2.2: 7.63
Set 2sum: 7.595
Show: 7.6075

Jack Straw 9
Tenn Jed 7.5
Mama Tried 7.25
Mexicali 7.25
Sugaree 7.25
Minglewood 7.25
BE Women 7.75
Looks Like Rain 7.3
Stagger Lee 7.7
Passenger 8.1
Deal 7.5

Miracle 7.4
Bertha 7.25
Good Lovin 7.65
Scarlet Begonias 7.5
Fire 7.75
Estimated Prophet 8.15
He’s Gone 7.2
The Other One 7.6
Wharf 8
R&R 7.25
US Blues8
Shakedown 7.3

*wherein:
5 to 6 is among the worst versions ever
6 to 7 is below average
7 to 7.499 is average
7.5 to 7.99 is above average
8 to 8.99 is exceptional
9 and above is among the best versions ever 
Rob Goetz ©