Relisten

View NotesHere's a vintage Jed show from early on in his Secondlife career at the place where it all began, August West Amphitheater on DarkStar. It was on the AW stage, in front of the virutal wall of sound, that Jed spent most Wednesdays during 2009-2011, recreating the Grateful Dead experience in Secondlife with two sets of Grateful Dead covers, including drums and space.

This is one of Jed's earliest shows (show #13!) and only the fifth time he was performing at August West. He went on the play a total of 138 shows at the legendary venue.

The first set opens with a warm-up jam which was common during this time period (often Jed would randomize the jam by rolling dice to determine the drum rhythm and tempo). It's a cool little jam that slides right into the Dylan tune "Tangled Up In Blue" a common tune for Jed, but an uncommon version here which includes extra verses that Jed drops in later covers of the song. "Peggy Oh" is next with some nice guitar work from Jed, followed by the "story" song "Stagger Lee." Another story song is next, "Mexicali Blues," one that typically gets skipped these days, but is nice to hear in vintage Jed style. The Grateful Dead song book continues with "Ramble On Rose," "Cold Rain And Snow," and "Loose Lucy" rounding out the first set.

Second set starts out with a rando-jam, a layered, spacey piece with a pop backbeat and some wicked wah wah guitar. It settles down into the solemn "Black Peter," which suffers from some memory loss here and there, before transitioning into "I Know You Rider." A highpoint of the set comes next with "Scarlet Begonias," a dedication to someone named Kira, and it features a nice guitar solo in the middle. The highpoints continue with "Throwing Stones," into "Drums," which feature Jed on the kit jamming along to the rhythm, and transitioning into bells and tablas. It evolves into a trippy "Space" portion with echoing guitar lines, before a segue into the folksy "New Speedway Boogie" which also has a nice solo. Things slow down for a minute with an emotional attempt at "Row Jimmy." Jed revs it right back up again with "Big River" to close out the set, tacking on "Cosmic Charlie" as the encore.

This is a solid show from the very early days, featuring a ton of awesome Grateful Dead songs performed by a youthful and new on the scene "Jammin Jed." It's not a jam heavy show, but the second set has some great energy and Begonias into Stones with Drums/Space is probably the highlight. Enjoy!