73-10-25 Madison

Here’s a curious piece of trivia. Uncle John’s Band was played consistently from its debut in 1969 until 73-02-15. After an eight month break, it’s back tonight, as an encore. The curious thing is the previous time it was played in February was at Dale Coliseum in Madison, and they bring it back tonight… at Dale Coliseum in Madison. I’d bet my Deadbase X someone in the band, when they got to the venue, recalled playing Uncle John’s there half a year before, and then said “Hey, why don’t we play Uncle John’s anymore?” So they encored with it. Anyway, it’s back in rotation from tonight, and will begin its on-again, off-again affair with Playin’ real soon.

Here’s the latest on Archive, from 2016.

Various versions of the cover below, the image of which I took from Save Your Face’s edit of the show. If you’re not familiar with his site, he takes a show and cuts out the un-spectacular songs, and even occasionally cutting the verses of, say, an off-key sung Here Comes Sunshine, leaving the good stuff. Meaning the stuff you want to hear again and again.

Let’s see what Latvala has to say about this night: “Now we get to one of the all-time, out-of-this-world kind of shows: 10/25/73. I really can’t say enough about this one! The first set is very good, but it is the second set that does you in. The “China Cat->Rider” is one of the better ones from that era when they used that transition material that people call “Tighten Up” and other names [Let’s cut him some slack], and I am just as confused about this as the next guy. So a detailed discussion about that wonderful “jam” occurring towards the ends of some “Dark Stars” from 1969 and 1970, (and which is stated as beautifully as I could ever hope to hear on 4/8/72- Wembley) and which also could be occasionally intimated during some versions of “Dancing in the Streets”, that kind of discussion is something that I would like to learn more from some of you guys who have been investigating this. But not right now, since I need to finish gushing all over this Madison show. The “Dark Star-> Eyes-> Stella Blue” is where the action is! There are “jams” surrounding these songs that contain some very, very scary and unbelievable playing. A bass sound that Phil employs here will pretty much have you seriously thinking that this might be too much! Obviously words will never get this described very well, at least not my words. The “Eyes” is another one of those “best versions” type of things.

I just realized Save Your Face also included this quote. So.