45 years ago today, November 25th, the Grateful Dead were nine shows into the west coast leg of their 1973 fall tour when they rocked and rolled their touring caravan into Tempe, Arizona minor league baseball park, Feyline Field at Tempe Diablo Stadium. The band was fully energized with the then-recent release of their sixth studio album, Wake of the Flood, which had just arrived the month prior on October 15th. How energized, one may ask? Apparently enough to power their way through a 24-song hit-filled performance for their Tempe fans, which was revisited with a photo from the concert shared by Jerry Garcia‘s Twitter account on Sunday morning. If its good enough for Jerry to revisit, it’s certainly good enough for us.
The show featured a very pregnant Donna Jean Godchaux, and marked the singer’s last performance with the band until February 1974, as Dead archivist David Lemieux pointed out in response to the Garcia tweet on Sunday. The performance’s setlist also includes a mix of then-brand new songs which had appeared on Wake of the Flood, including “Row Jimmy”, “Eyes of the World”, and parts of “Weather Report Suite”.
The first set began with the band’s cover of Chuck Berry‘s “Promised Land”, followed by some early Dead setlist staples in “Sugaree”, “Beat It On Down the Line”, and “Don’t Ease Me In”. The band then opened up into a performance of “Black-Throated Wind” from Bob Weir‘s Ace solo album, which was also released the year prior. The loaded first set continued into plenty of early fan-favorites including “Mexicali Blues”, a very strong “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider”, “Me And My Uncle”, and “Brown Eyed Women”, before wrapping with a respectable 17-minute “Playing In The Band”.
The second set started out hot with some lively solos courtesy of Garcia during “Eyes of the World”, followed by “Weather Report Suite Prelude” and “Weather Report Suite Part I”. Weir then took the band into “Let it Grow”, which was followed by some uptempo anthems including “Casey Jones”, “Sugar Magnolia” > “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad”. The set closed out with “One More Saturday Night”, although it’s worth noting that the show took place on a Sunday, not Saturday. The show would come to a close with the band’s a-cappella lullaby, “We Bid You Goodnight”, which features some lovely and soothing contributions from Donna Jean to go with the male harmonies.
Speaking of Grateful Dead, its also worth noting that the popular Dead spinoff band, Dead & Company, looks like they’re heading back out on tour next year with some initial 2019 summer concert dates beginning to leak online. Until then, fans can revisit the show’s audio stream from the 1973 performance seen below. The stream only takes listeners up to “Casey Jones” halfway through the second set, but is filled with a mix of other live recordings including “The Other One” and “Wharf Rat”.
Grateful Dead – Feyline Field – 11/25/73
[Audio: Jonathan Aizen]
Setlist: Grateful Dead |Feyline Field | Tempe, Arizona | 11/25/73
Set One: The Promised Land, Sugaree, Beat It On Down The Line, Don’t Ease Me In, Black Throated Wind, Tennessee Jed, Mexicali Blues, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Big River, Row Jimmy, Me And My Uncle, Brown Eyed Women, Playing In The Band
Set Two: Around & Around, Eyes Of The World > Weather Report Suite Prelude > Weather Report Suite Part 1 > Let It Grow Casey Jones, Sugar Magnolia > Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad > One More Saturday Night
Encore: And We Bid You Good Night
The post The Grateful Dead End A Mini West Coast Tour At Tempe, AZ’s Feyline Field, On This Day In 1973 [Listen] appeared first on L4LM.
