5 Grateful Dead concert videos to stream online, as picked by Concert Joe (who was at them)
Since concerts as we know them are just about all cancelled during this pandemic, we’ve been posting daily roundups of some of our favorite live videos instead. Sometimes these roundups have themes, and when we decided to do an all-Grateful Dead edition, we thought, who better to ask than legendary NYC music scene figure Concert Joe, who has famously seen tens of thousands of concerts, including hundreds of Grateful Dead shows. Concert Joe willingly obliged. Here are his picks of the Grateful Dead concert videos on YouTube that he most recommends watching from home. Take it away, Joe…
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After 22,000+ shows and going out most nights for past 49 years, I now have to stay home. Go figure. I saw over 300 actual Grateful Dead Shows and over 200 Garcia shows. Here are my picks for five that are available on YouTube…
1. 9/10/1991 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY (with Branford Marsalis)
Don’t get much better than Branford with the Real Grateful Dead! Couple of Dylan, Garcia and Weir songs, nice “Black Throated Wind” + “Deal” for the first set and “Help on the Way,” “Dark Star,” and “LoveLight” for the rockin’ second set!
(These MSG shows were memorable for me cause I achieved something that I firmly believe that no Deadhead ever achieved in history! During this nine-night run at MSG, the first night after the show, we went to Chinatown to eat at Wo Hop and Mickey Hart sat at the table attached to ours. For the next eight Dead shows in a row, I saw 3 complete full shows at 3 different venues. After each Grateful Dead show at MSG, plus four full shows on the two nights in between the Dead shows! Therefore I saw 41 full shows in 11 nights including the DEAD!)
Setlist (via)
Set 1:
Picasso Moon
Sugaree (Jerry Garcia song)
Me and My Uncle (John Phillips cover) (>)
Mexicali Blues (Bob Weir song)
They Love Each Other (Jerry Garcia song)
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again (Bob Dylan cover)
Loose Lucy
The Music Never Stopped
Set 2:
Iko Iko (Sugar Boy and His Cane Cutters cover)
Looks Like Rain (Bob Weir song)
New Speedway Boogie
Playing in the Band (Bob Weir song)
Uncle John’s Band
Drums
Space
The Last Time (The Rolling Stones cover)
Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson cover)
Encore:
Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) (Bob Dylan cover)
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2. 3/29/1990 @ Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY (with Branford Marsalis)
One of the best concerts of my life! The lady I went with came back after intermission and told me that Branford Marsalis was coming out to play “Dark Star” before the second set began and I didn’t believe her. (Lil’ did I know she was backstage talking with Mickey Hart.) Branford Marsalis steals this show with “Eyes of the World” and “Dark Star” through the Space Jam. Ends with “LoveLight” and Dylan’s “Heaven’s Door.” One of the Grateful Dead’s best second sets!
Setlist (via)
Set 1:
Jack Straw
Bertha
We Can Run
Ramble On Rose
When I Paint My Masterpiece (Bob Dylan cover)
Bird Song (Jerry Garcia song) (with Branford Marsalis)
Promised Land (Chuck Berry cover)
Set 2:
Eyes of the World (with Branford Marsalis)
Estimated Prophet (with Branford Marsalis)
Dark Star (with Branford Marsalis)
Drums (with Branford Marsalis)
Space (with Branford Marsalis) (> Dark Star reprise >)
The Wheel (Jerry Garcia song) (with Branford Marsalis)
Throwing Stones (with Branford Marsalis)
Turn On Your Love Light (Bobby “Blue” Bland cover) (with Branford Marsalis)
Encore:
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover) (with Branford Marsalis)
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3. 4/27/1977 @ Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ
Considered their best year, I always thought the Garcia shows in 1977 were better than the Dead’s that year! Love this show. Pretty sure I was there. Opens and closes with Chuck Berry (“Jet to Promised Land” and “Johnny B. Goode”). Last song is considered by many to be the best “Morning Dew” since the writer Bonnie Dobson sang it. It contains a moving “Mississippi Half-Step” and a passionate “Loser.” Second set rocks out with “Scarlet > Fire.”
https://youtu.be/U90Fnv_FpM4
Setlist (via)
Set I
Promised Land (Chuck Berry cover)
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Looks Like Rain (Bob Weir song)
Sugaree (Jerry Garcia song)
El Paso (Marty Robbins cover)
Row Jimmy
Minglewood Blues (Cannon’s Jug Stompers cover)
Loser (Jerry Garcia song)
The Music Never Stopped
Set II
Estimated Prophet
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Good Lovin’ (The Young Rascals cover)
Ramble On Rose
Samson and Delilah ([traditional] cover)
Terrapin Station
Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson cover)
Encore:
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry cover)
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4. 3/25/1991 @ Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY
This was a momentous show for me. I didn’t even know that a car speakerphone even existed. In the afternoon, we were in my friend Eric Z’s car and he actually got thru to Phil Lesh’s hotel room on the speakerphone for me. I froze up when Phil answered but manage to squeeze out, “Hey Phil, you going to play ‘The Other One’ tonight?“ Phil replied “I don’t know” and slammed the phone down.
BUT…
That night they played “The Other One” and it may have been for me!
Anyway: they opened with a funky version of “Shakedown Street.” They do two Willie Dixon songs (“Red Rooster” and “Spoonful”). (I met Willie in the parking lot across from the Bottom Line club around 1979?) Second set opens with a rockin’ “Greatest Story” and a mind-blowin’ “Other One”! (a Neal Cassady tribute – Neal was the first beatnik and also the first hippie).
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5. 10/31/90 @ Wembley Arena, London, UK
I went to London for this show. “Werewolves of LONDON” in London! Song selection was perfect! A Dylan and Chuck Berry song in each set. Jerry’s voice was going at the end but the show still cooked! (I remember so many Deadheads got busted on the Railroad from Amsterdam to London.)
Setlist (via)
Set 1:
Help on the Way
Slipknot!
Franklin’s Tower
Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon cover)
Loose Lucy
Me and My Uncle (John Phillips cover)
Big River (Johnny Cash cover)
It Must Have Been the Roses (Robert Hunter song)
When I Paint My Masterpiece (Bob Dylan cover)
Bird Song (Jerry Garcia song)
Promised Land (Chuck Berry cover)
Set 2:
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Truckin’
He’s Gone
Drums
Space
All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover)
Stella Blue
Around and Around (Chuck Berry cover)
Good Lovin’ (The Young Rascals cover)
Encore:
Werewolves of London (Warren Zevon cover)
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And if you have some extra time to waste, and want to watch someone run around to lots of concerts, then watch my 23-year-old mock-documentary Concert Joe: A New York Story:
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Thanks again to Concert Joe! For more live videos, browse our live video roundups. For more Grateful Dead, over 14,000 live concert recordings are streaming for free. You can also read our ranking of their studio albums and go here for even more Dead news.
Meanwhile, the band’s ‘Shakedown Stream’ series continues tonight (5/29) at 8 PM ET with their 7/16/90 show from Rich Stadium in Buffalo suburb Orchard Park, NY, which was one of the band’s final shows with keyboardist Brent Mydland before his untimely death. This week’s pre-show is with Dennis McNally, author of ‘A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.’
