The Grateful Dead - Kresge Plaza, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 6, 1970
Show #5 in the Dead through the years project — one show for every year, 1966-1995. Though the band started regularly playing acoustic sets in 1970, this one is all electric. Pretty loose, probably due to the guerilla aspect of the gig, but awesome nonetheless. Definitely a pleasing raw thing happening to the guitar sound here.
Choice cut: The closing “Not Fade Away” is 12 minutes of gnarliness. I kind of chortled when an Archive.org commenter compared it to the MC5 and early Ash Ra Temple, but whaddaya know, he’s totally right!
That’s right—comparing Jer Bear to Manuel Gottsching. God bless you, Gloom&Doom. Y’all must follow this blog.
