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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Monterey Video
Salesrank: 15550
Released: October 12, 1999 |
| Our Price: $151.00 |
| Used Price: $37.97 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Made for hard-core Deadheads only, this two-and-a-half-hour-long concert video (released after the death of leader Jerry Garcia) captures an entire live show by the psychedelic pioneers. Shot in the summer of 1989 at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin, the Dead are caught during one of their latter-day musical peaks. Appearing jovial (Garcia actually moves during several tunes!), the band provides numerous patented extended jams during a two-set, 23-song performance. Lively highlights include Garcia's blistering solos during "Deal" and "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider"; the spacey pairing of "Uncle John's Band" with "Playing in the Band"; and the tender ballad "Standing on the Moon." The motionless Dead were never a visually compelling live act, so viewers shouldn't expect anything more than close-ups of the sextet's faces and hands. However, such a conventional approach is preferred over the cheesy kaleidoscope of video effects that mar numerous songs here. --Dave McCoy
The Grateful Dead - Downhill From Here Reviews:
Awesome Show 
2009-02-24 - I bought 3 dvds at once. This came in the mail in like 2 days, while the other two from two different vendors came 3-7 days later. The video itself is great. An awesome performance by Brent and Jerry. I was never a huge Brent fan (always a Godchaux fan) until I saw this video. He is a total stud. I freakin love this band!!!!
Highly recommend it. Again, I'm more of a 71-78 Dead fan, but this show was rockin. I have a new love for 80s and even 90s dead music due to this show. Buy it!
Another thing. I hate the Dead videos that have the wierd animations in the middle of the song. This focuses on the individual members abilities to play their respective instruments, as well as how the whole band feeds off of each other during the show. I never got to see the Dead live (i was 15 when Jerry died), but I have really been obsessed with them since about 97 or so. This is an awesome show and the guys are really on.
Mixed Feelings
2007-09-30 - I was at this show, which was excellent. The quality of the DVD is also excellent. So what is missing?
Well, you know, you really had to be there. Once you've seen the Dead enough times the recordings are awesome because you can extrapolate what it really sounded like. I feel for those who've never seen them. They'll never really know.
The sound by then was incredible. I don't think it can be reproduced in someone's home. You'd have to turn up a really clean sound system extremely loud and listen from another room. I mean shaking the neighbors pictures off the wall loud. And maybe sit in the neighbors yard. In a live show the dynamics are so wide you'll just never get that at home. I recall a crescendo so powerful the crowd began cheering. On the DVD you can barely hear the cheering and you wonder why they are.
So I have mixed feelings about this. The quality of the DVD is about the best you can get, but after being there it reminds me we only have tape of Jerry now. The show is good, but they had so many great shows, it's too bad more of those weren't captured. 1982 is still my favorite Alpine show. Everybody was dancing. I mean you had to dance through the aisles just to stop bumping into people.
I initially hated the Dead and thought they were awful. But after seeing them the first couple of times, even those old CD's are incredible. Most musicians are talented but play predictably. A few have a knack for finding these awesome grooves. But Jerry played from so many places you don't know how he thought to put a bluegrass riff here or a gorgeous accent there. Switching style, key signatures, rhythms like a technician, yet putting it all together into this wonderful cohesive whole, what at first listen sounds like ramblings gradually blossoms into a symphonic adventure. The 100th time you continue to find new subtexts, and as you delve into the music he learned from, you just marvel at how he kept all that in his head and wove it into his art.
So here is a little glimpse of one of those rare characters that make life so fascinating. Each point in his career is interesting. Lacking a bit of the youthful unpredictability, here is an experienced musician, playing extremely well. Surrounded by one of the top rhythm guitarists in the business, one of the most original bass players, and extraordinary keyboards and percussion, this one is a no-brainer.
The Single Best Dead Video Recording
2007-05-31 - Yes, this does encompass the Dead over a three day run at Alpine which has been combined into one "show." But if you are going to buy one Dead DVD, this is the one. I have all of the Dead DVD's (and quite a few of the bootlegs) but this is the one I always put on to impress the unfaithful. The Dead are on fire on this DVD. Like a good story, they set the stage, and then they just build on it, song after song, until you just can't take it anymore.
In short, the single finest Dead DVD available.
This is a 1999 STEREO ONLY DVD 
2006-10-28 - There are two aspects to discuss here, sound quality and video quality, both of which are just adequate, not great. Ignor all comments you will read below in the other reviews about this disc having great video and sound quality. Not true. The video is, in fact, blurry especially in the low light conditions of the second set. Pay close attention during China Cat/Rider, for example, and look at the full area of the picture frame, particularly to the sides and in the background. It is fuzzy and ill defined. This degraded resolution exists throughout the second set. The first set is better due to its being earlier in the afternoon with more daylight. The second set is at night and the resolution is blotchy. Do not worry too much about this poor video aspect of the disc, and do not avoid purchasing the DVD because of this one factor, just be aware that the video quality is merely adequate. It still picks up all of the great interaction between the players and you will soon adjust to it.
The second aspect is the sound quality which is good (for stereo) but not great. It does not compare well, for example, to the phenomenal sound quality of the 5.1 Dolby surround sound of the 2005 DVD Truckin to Buffalo featuring another 1989 concert. If you have a modern surround system capable of handling house shaking high volume output of the 5.1 digital track of the thunder sound effects during Looks Like Rain on the Buffalo DVD, you will at first be disappointed with this Alpine Valley disc. Again, do not be overly put off by this comment. This is a stereo recording remastered in 1999 and you still can get decent and enjoyable results from using the synthesized surround features of your system. This is not a "demonstration quality" sound track that you will use to impress your friends, but as with the video portion, you will be able to adjust yourself to the sound and you will be able to enjoy this excellent concert.
Monterey Video produced this DVD and it pales in comparision to the Farewell to Winterland DVD they put out in 2003. That one is arguably the finest Dead DVD produced to date, so do not assume that the quality of their other productions is the same as this Alpine one. They simply did not devote the same resources to the production of this particular concert DVD. More likely, they did not have the technology and equipment available in 1999 that they had in 2003.
The bottom line is that despite appearances to the contrary, I do think you should consider adding this DVD to your collection. Just realize that it will not be the marquee of your Dead portfolio. Do not be scared away by my candid comments about video and sound quality. I just want you to be aware of what you are getting. Note that I have not disparaged the performance of the Dead in this concert per se. Do pay attention to the comments in the reviews below in this respect, some of which eloquently describe the performance. Best regards from an older Dead Freak who was a student at Stanford and was there in Palo Alto listening to Jerry play banjo in 1968.
Excellent Example of 80's Dead 
2006-07-11 - First, let me get out of the way one reviewer's comment about how bad the video supposedly is. Rubbish. The reviewer needs a new DVD player. It looks just fine.
The music is about as good as any show from that period. You won't get golfballs from a walnut tree, and you won't get truly classic Dead from 1989. With some exceptions, the jams had gotten shorter, and the shows more formulaic. Everyone has his own preferred setlist, and mine happens not to include Let the Good Times Roll (ZZZZ) or Johnny B. Goode (many others do it better), but Garcia was fully capable of playing inspired music at that point and he does so here, in China Cat (goosebumps), for example, or The Wheel (lovely and ethereal). I loved seeing him beam beatifically at Brent, who gazes at him with the face of an adoring puppy, and launch into the kind of intricate, melodic run that only Garcia could do, with the most relaxed expression on his face. It's true that he looks twenty years older than he was -- that's what fifteen years of the Persian, Haagen-Dazs, and channeling the energy we all wanted from him will do, I suppose -- and it's sad, but he lived the life he wanted, and we were the beneficiaries.
It's a solid performance, with nuggets to amuse any fan, and a well-filmed production thankfully free of "trippy" gimmicks.
