Grateful Dead - Dave's Picks Volume 13 (3CD) (2015) CD-Rip

The ongoing Dave's Picks archival series takes on the lifelong challenge of presenting some of the best of the Grateful Dead's endless back catalog of live sets, cherry-picking recordings from nearly four decades and literally thousands of gigs and revisiting them with refurbished sound and meticulously detailed presentation. Vol. 13 of the series presents the full three-set performance from the band's February 24, 1974 date, the third of three nights at San Francisco's Winterland Arena. This date finds the band in fantastic form, using a sound system that predated their famous "wall of sound" amplifier system by just a month, and spinning their cosmic wheels through a spirited first set of rockers like "U.S. Blues," "Candyman," and "China Cat Sunflower" before relaxing into more wide-reaching territory in the second and third sets on extensive jams like "Weather Report Suite" and an incredible half-hour "Dark Star" that melts gently into "Morning Dew." The sound is exceptional on this particular set, and the vibe is more energetic and bright than usual, resulting in one of the more lively Dave's Picks to focus on the early-'70s era Dead.