The Dead's third View from the Vault installment takes us to their home court of Shoreline Amphitheater in June of 1990. These would sadly turn out to be Brent's last Bay Area shows with the band before his death from drug overdose. Like most Bay Area shows, I was in attendance for this one, and it was one of the more unusual shows I saw. The first set is fairly average, but features Truckin' into Touch of Gray and a rare Garcia version of Big Boss Man. What makes this show special is the second set. Garcia experiments with a number of different MIDI effect sounds on his "Rosebud" guitar. Brent is clearly in bad shape on his "We Can Run," forgetting large portions of two verses. Weir lets loose at the end of Estimated Prophet, with his "worry about me no" falsettos, which stimulates director Lenn Dell'Amico to introduce some great video effects. But the really amazing part is that after Terrapin ends, Garcia, Weir, and Lesh continue to jam wildly all through the part where "Drums" would normally be. Eventually, Mickey does move to the big drums at the back of "the Beast," but the guitarists play on endlessly and with great imagination. Though you can't really tell from the DVD, there was a point when everyone left the stage and the music is only carried on by Dan Healy and Bob Bralove. The band returns and delivers a fragile rendition of the rare China Doll, followed by the obligatory Weir rocker, "Sugar Magnolia." There are six first-set bonus tracks from the Dead's first run at Shoreline in 1987, which I also attended. Weir and especially Kreautzmann appear surprisingly younger here for it being only three years earlier. Garcia is generally much more inspired and active, playing on his classic "Tiger" Irwin guitar. During Minglewood, Weir sings, "T for ... wherever the hell we are ... a trash-heap" referring to Shoreline's being built over a landfill. I heartliy recommend this DVD to fans of this later Grateful Dead period, for the strange and beautiful Jam and Drums and Space section of the second set and the contrast between 1987 and 1990 versions of the band.
