Show #1 - Tue, Nov 11, 1997 at Martyrs', Chicago, IL
Performing 10/8/1981 Forum Theater, Copenhagen, Denmark 

Recording and original transfer by Dave D. Dwyer (3D)
SBD> DAT> Cassette

Transferred by Webmaster Ed
Cassette>SB Live>Cool Edit 1.2>WinWave>CD>EAC>SHN

Set 1 Disc 1:
   Stranger
   TLEO>
   C. C. Rider
   Cumberland
   Mama Tried*>
   Mexicali*
   Althea
   Cassidy*
   Loser
   Music*
Set 2:
   Scarlet>
   Fire

Set 2 (cont) Disc 2:
   Playin>
   Terrapin>
   Drumz>
   NFA>
   Black Peter*>
   Around*>
   Johnny B. Goode
   Announcements
Encore: U. S. Blues

First DSO show - John Kadlecik, Scott Larned, Mike Maraat, Kevin Rosen, Ahmer Nizam & Dave Cohen
*with Kevin Rosen on lead vocal

Notes:

After thumbing through the 1990 edition of DeadBase, John Scott's compendium of Grateful Dead setlists, John Kadlecik hit on the idea of performing complete Grateful Dead shows. Not everyone with whom he shared the concept had a positive reaction but, he says, "I was able to talk the band I was in at the time, Hairball Willie, into playing an entire second set as a contest. I can't remember the exact show now, although it had to be either 4-25-77 or 5-25-77. Nobody guessed correctly, but a few got the year right and the closest guess received some band merchandise. But that was pretty much it for a while." John went on to play with Uncle Jon's Band and form his own band Wingnut after Hairball Willie dissolved.

Later in 1997 as John was looking to form a new band a mutual friend suggested Scott Larned. "I had heard great things about Scott back when he was playing with the Junction. So I called him, and when he said 'I've got this idea about covering entire shows out of DeadBase,' I knew something was going to happen." John also called up his Uncle Jon's Bandmate Kevin Rosen to play bass and local singer Lisa Mackey to play the part of Donna Godchaux. Through friend and club owner Ray Quinn they secured four Tuesday night gigs at Martyrs' in Chicago. The band name came in a brainstorm session that discarded other likely candidates (such as "Terrapin Nation".)

The first Tuesday (Nov. 11, 1997) saw only 78 people, the next week doubled that, the third exponentially doubled that and by the fourth week they had sold out. Obviously there was a demand for this. They signed on for four more weeks. By year's end they became the regular Tuesday night houseband routinely selling out the room.

This is the first DSO show played at Martyrs'. Obviously its a picture of a band in the process of finding itself. John Kadlecik, who played the Jerry Garcia parts, relinquished some of the normal Garcia tunes to Kevin Rosen who plays the Phil Lesh parts. His guitar sounds are not as precisely Jerry-sounding as they came to be after a few hundred shows. The songs come right on top of one another instead of the usual five minutes of noodling between songs (which some may say is a good thing, although not as historically accurate). But the jams and exploration hint at the full-blown recreations that were to come in later years. In all, it's a sample of a band at its infancy which is presented "warts and all" as a historical artifact. After all, the core of the concept is history. Enjoy.

-Web Ed