In the early years of their career, the Grateful Dead sometimes played as a support act and on February 11 1969, they were the opening act for a fairly big name: they were the support act for (solo) Janis Joplin! Artists performing at Fillmore East often did two shows in one evening, and although Joplin's concert isn't that easy to find, the good ladies and gentlemen at Rhino did release both shows the Dead played in a single release in the late 90s. So Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69 contains both the early and the late show.
And as is often the case with the Dead, these are two completely different shows, which is why they get two separate entries from me. I'll start with my favorite of the two shows, and that is the late show. Perhaps even one of my favorite performances from all of 1969, because Mountains of the Moon has never sounded so beautiful. Here you also get an enormously impressive jam that starts with Dark Star and only ends with Feedback. In between, you are treated to a number of Dead classics (the combination of St. Stephen and The Eleven remains great, but Pigpen also gets to show off his skills again in Caution), and And We Bid You Goodnight might happen to be my favorite closing track of all. A fairly extended version, with Garcia who just keeps on singing and the band (and the audience) just keep swaying along to the melody. Interestingly, however, you should not turn off the album after the audience starts cheering and the show seems to be over, because you get an encore with Cosmic Charlie.
The strange thing, however, is that this is not indicated anywhere on the CD, nor is that song mentioned in Gary Lambert's liner notes. In hindsight, this turns out not to be illogical, since the song was never fully recorded. Apparently, the tape simply ran out at the time (you can hear that on the CD as well), and this is, of course, from a period when audience recordings did not yet exist, such as those from the shows in Egypt. I still had hope that in the more than 25 years between the release of the CD and now, a recording might have surfaced somewhere, but unfortunately not. It's a shame, because Cosmic Charlie is a song they haven't played all that much in comparison, and what remains actually sounds really good. I also find it funny how you hear the band discussing which song to play, until someone (Weir?) suddenly shouts Cosmic Charlie. It is these kinds of unplanned moments that always make it fun.
The introduction is also quite weird, by the way, with Bill Graham as MC receiving a cowbell as a gift (referencing a previous show where he supposedly played with it) and some back-and-forth teasing. If you want to introduce someone to what the Grateful Dead is all about and you don't want them to struggle through a 3-hour show, this seems like the perfect way to go. Go full throttle for an hour, and you get served up all the aspects that make the band so appealing. Spoiler alert: strangely enough, the early show is a bit weaker than this one...
Tracklist:
- Dupree's Diamond Blues
- Mountains of the Moon
- Dark Star
- St. Stephen
- The Eleven
- Drums
- Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)
- Feedback
- And We Bid You Goodnight
- Cosmic Charlie
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