Search - Grateful Dead :: Without a Net: Live

Some of the BEST Live Dead Available on CD...

Michael Bello | Upstate NY | 04/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I HIGHLY recommend Without a Net - it's one of the BEST commercially-produced live GD CDs you can buy (tied with 'Dozin at the Knick' for 1st place, in my opinion!). Definitely pick this one up...



CD1 is a bit more mellow, but the band and music are still soooo tight. Some of my disc-1 favorites are "Feel Like a Stranger", "Cassidy" and "Bird Song", but the entire CD rocks - it's a great warm-up for Disc-2...



CD2 has some of the best Grateful Dead I've ever heard - hard to believe, considering this is NOT '70s GD, it's late '80s / early '90s GD! There's no point in listing a few of my favorites from disc-2, because I'd have to name EVERY track! But if I had to pick just one song, it would be "Eyes of the World" with Branford Marsalis on saxophone. Every time I listen to this disc I'm totally blown away by how tight Jerry and Branford are, how easily they're able to "weave" their improvisations into ONE incredibly cohesive "jam" - it's like they could read each others' minds and knew EXACTLY what direction the other was headed (my words can never do it justice though - you need to hear "Eyes" with your own EARS and you'll see what I mean! :)



DEFINITELY a must-have for ANY GD fan - from beginners on up. A+++!!!

"

Not my favorite album

Brendan Burgess | Connecticut | 11/18/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"While I'm a fan of the early GD, rarely listening to anything recorded after 1972, I gave this one a try and was fairly disappointed. Every band evolves with time as do the members, but there is something to be said for the early GD that can't be said for their later work. The sound of the late 70's to the early 90's is vastly different from the blues/folk beginnings of the band. There are more instruments, electronics, and members of the band that I think take away from what the GD were...... a simple band, making complex songs and jams with a certain "feel" to them. The feel is lost behind the synthesizers and electronic sound of this album. Needless to say I will be passing this album on to someone who appreciates this period of the GD sound and will go back to listening to Pigpen, Jerry, and the boys singing and playing about simpler times."