sure, they slowly changed from year to year, era to era. However, to a certain extent, one can know exactly what to expect given the year of the show. This is especially true as the band progressed into the 80s and 90s.
They rarely if ever “stretched” songs out the way Phish did. An example is “unfinished” songs that segued into other songs. I see this much more with Phish in 1993 on way more than any dead era I’ve heard. You always know whats going to happen for the next 5 to 15 minutes upon hearing the first notes of the song.
With set 2, you always know that “Playin” or “Dark Star” or “Stephen” was going to fade into some spacey shit, then the inevitable drums, then maybe some more space, then 2 or 3 standard songs to close the show.
I like dead first sets more than second sets because they highlight their tight playing and usually give more blues than second sets, but they are just as predictable.
I don’t know if I’d say this about the shows from the 60s I’ve heard, though. Those are pretty much all intriguing.
Just trying to start some convo. I do like the dead, and I’m sure the dead did do some of the stuff I’m saying they didn’t, but not enough to keep my interest.
