Two from the Vault

Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Ron "Pig Pen" McKernan (vocals, harmonica, keyboards); Phil Lesh (vocals, bass); Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart (percussion).
Engineers: Jeffery Norman, Don Pearson.
Recorded live at The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California on August 23, 1968. Includes liner notes by Harper Barnes, "Maestro" Dan Healy and "Dr." Don Pearson.
All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
You want prime early Dead, you got it. The August '68 Shrine Auditorium concert captured on TWO FROM THE VAULT is the sort of gloriously extended jam-a-thon for which the Grateful Dead became famous. Multi-part pieces like "That's It for the Other One" are like miniature symphonies, with Garcia's guitar building devilish musical spirals around Phil Lesh's thunderous bass and the two-headed drum team's galloping poly-rhythms.
The set's highlight, though, is when Ron "Pigpen" McKernan steps out front for easily the finest "Lovelight" the band's archives have officially released. Strutting like a jive-talking dandy, trading hollers with Bob Weir, and conducting the band's groove as though they were the JB's on acid, Pig demonstrates how he really was the Dead's original captain. As an encore to such raucous behaviour, the hall's custodians turn off the power just as the band starts hitting warp speed on "Morning Dew."