Grateful Dead - View From the Vault
Since 1994, Grateful Dead Productions has answered Deadheads' demands  for full, live concerts, releasing a series of shows (blemishes and all) on CD  entitledDick's Picks. So it was only a matter of time before the company  dug into the video footage archives. Critics may find the idea of releasing  Grateful Dead concert videos amusing. After all, the staunchest Deadhead likely  would admit that even on their best nights the boys weren't visually all that  exciting a bunch to watch. That said, this full-length show from July 8, 1990 (a  mere 16 days before keyboardist Brent Mydland died of a speedball overdose) in  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, offers an intimate look at the dynamics that few could  notice when attending a stadium show. For instance, there's the wonderful  interplay between guitarist Jerry Garcia and Mydland--each shooting smiles and  knowing winks--at each other during "Greatest Story Ever Told." But, really,  let's forget the philosophizing and get to the point: Deadheads really want to  know the highlights of a particular show. There are several here, including a  beautiful, lilting "Eyes of the World," a head-spinning "Let It Grow," Garcia's  poignant delivery of the morbid "Black Peter," and, perhaps best of all, an  improvisational, untitled jam that emerges from "He's Gone" (this is bonus  material from a show two nights before in Louisville, Kentucky). While the  entire show is by no means a peak performance by the Dead (though it features a  terrific sound mix), it's still a great start to a series that one hopes will  continue to evolve.--Dave McCoy