This was released as a 10,000 limited edition set.
By late '68, the Dead had become in debt to their then record company Warner Brothers. The band had begun recording their third album for the label and were experimenting with the then new 16 track recorder. It was during this period that an idea arose, "why not use the 16 track tape recorder to record live shows and make a live album?". This also meant that, since making an live album was relatively inexpensive, they could pay off some of the debt. The band originally tried recording the New Year's Eve show but as is the case with new recording gear, it didn't go well. The band give it another try, recording several runs starting in January and running into March (1-24, 25, 26-69 Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, 2-11, 12-69 Fillmore East in New York City and 2-27, 28/3-1, 2-69 at the Fillmore West.
2-27-69 (Thursday):
The first set opens but the band seems a bit distracted and, while there are moments, the first set is only so so. The band comes out for the second set and whatever the problems were in the first set have been worked out by now. The band starts with a nice Dupree's Diamond Blues before leading into an even better jam of Mountains Of The Moon->Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Turn On Your Lovelight for the ages. The Cosmic Charlie encore is the icing on the cake.
2-28-69 (Friday):
The first set tonight gets off to a much better start with a great Morning Dew and features A quality versions of songs like Doin' That Rag and I'm A King Bee among others. The second set starts with a great That's It For The Other One->Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Death Don't Have No Mercy which must have had steam coming off the stage. That's It For The Other One is better than yesterday's first set version while the rest isn't quite as good as yesterday's second set but good nonetheless. The show ends with an explosive rendition of Alligator->Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks)->Feedback->We Bid You Goodnight.
3-1-69 (Saturday):
The first set starts off with a jam of That's It For The Other One->New Potato Caboose->Doin' That Rag-> Cosmic Charlie. That's It For the Other One, Doin' That Rag and Cosmic Charlie are hot while the New Potato Caboose was already becoming a bit of a rarity by this point in time as the band is somewhat rusty on it. The second set starts with good versions of Dupree's Diamond Blues->Mountains Of The Moon. Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Turn On Your Lovelight is downright blistering. The encore is a terrible version of Hey Jude.
3-2-69 (Sunday):
The first set stars with a classic fantastic take on Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Turn On Your Lovelight. The second set opens with a nice Doin' That Rag. That's It For The Other One->Death Don't Have No Mercy is a mind blower while a great Morning Dew gives us a chance to recover.The show ends with another blistering run through of Alligator->Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks)->Feedback->We Bid You Goodnight.
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