The Grateful Dead ended up canceling their entire 1992 fall tour in order to once again nurse Jerry Garcia back to health and they didn’t get back on the road until December 2nd, so the band is well rested and Jerry is in good health tonight in Tempe. It shows during this relatively conservative, minimal-mistake show.
Outside of the usual Drums / Space (which seem to only get better as the Dead get worse), the band plays things close to the vest tonight, but that’s ok. We’re treated to solid, first-set versions of Hell in a Bucket (lyrics are a bit of a problem here) and Sugaree, Minglewood is a scorcher and Candyman is fun too. Don’t expect much from the set-ending Music Never Stopped and you won’t be disappointed.
The second set opens with Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain. You can hear what the boys are trying to do here, it just seems like they’re reaching for something out of range. The songs don’t fall to pieces, and the transition between them is enjoyable, but transcendence is in short supply. They fare a little better during Estimated Prophet which, being a tried and true Bob Weir driven song, always seems like a solid tune during the 90’s. At this point, we get spacey with an almost half hour Drums / Space. The piece itself is fine, but it definitely destroys the band’s momentum, and when The Wheel arrives, there is no more oomph there. Ditto the perfunctory All Along The Watchtower and Black Peter that precede One More Saturday Night. There is a little redemption with The Weight as an encore, but overall the second set is a bit of a letdown after the promising beginning.
Fans of the band had something to be grateful for during this tour – a healthy Jerry Garcia and a relatively engaged band giving it their all on most nights. It just seems as if the Dead couldn’t really find their true footing here tonight.
The audience recording of this show needs a little work on the high end of the EQ, but once you find the sweet spot, you’ll enjoy it: https://archive.org/details/gd1992-12-05.AKG451.Darby.117622.Flac2448
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