Road Trips, Vol. 1 No. 3: 7/31/71 (Yale Bowl, New Haven, CT) & 8/23/71 [Auditorium Theater, Chicago, IL]

The two 1971 shows represented here came only a few months after the ones recorded for The Grateful Dead's iconic, self-titled live album commonly known as Skull and Roses. As such, they find the Dead fully embracing the eclecticism that would become their hallmark, having evolved through both the psychedelic and roots-rock phases of their development. Here all the ostensibly disparate strands of the band's sonic tapestry are woven together into a vibrant, organic whole, as the Dead seamlessly segue from the sweaty, stomping R&B of Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle" to the laid-back country feel of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee," the free-floating cosmic rock journey "Dark Star," the fragile, folky ballad "Bird Song," and beyond. They sound equally committed to the creepy, avant-garde atmospherics of an extended workout on "The Other One" and the crowd-pleasing, good-time rock 'n' roll of their raw romp through Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." It's an open-ended template they'd follow for the rest of their long, rich career.