Grateful Dead Dick’s Picks Vol. 36—The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 9/21/72 (LIM (Vinyl)

In the Grateful Dead firmament, there are countless good shows, shining like stars in the sky. Then there are the great shows, those that shine the brightest. And then there are the truly transcendent shows, those that exert a gravitational pull—dare we say it, like a “Dark Star”—on all the other concerts from that particular year or tour. These are the nights that every Dead Head learns about right after getting on board the bus…and the September 21, 1972 performance at the Spectrum in Philadelphia is truly one of those nights. This is the concert that original Dead archivist Dick Latvala strongly considered to kick off the Dick’s Picks series, and it’s the one that ended it. It’s one of those nights when every Garcia guitar solo tells a story, when the rhythm section is locked in like the gears on a Swiss watch, and when the band is repeatedly hitting its vocal harmonies dead-on. It’s also a show when Bob Weir absolutely shreds, his unusual chord voicings and off-time guitar fills pe