Just about 50 years ago, the Grateful Dead took the stage at the Great American Musical Hall, a newly opened 500-capacity club in downtown San Francisco. The ensuing show, captured on a sparkling 16-track recording, was eventually released in 1991 as One From The Vault. As its title suggests, the double-disc set was the Dead’s first dip back into their live archives, kicking off a cavalcade of concert tapes that continues to this day.
Nineteen-seventy-five is one of the stranger years in the Grateful Dead’s long, strange trip. The band played only three other shows in addition to the GAMH gig, all hometown affairs, all fairly different from one another, all very much worth your time. Now at Aquarium Drunkard, a brief listening guide follows …