May 15, 1981

Estimated > Eyes Transition To Remember

May 15, 1981

From Daily Record (Morristown, NJ), May 15, 1981, page 39

Date Listened

February 2, 2025. Still got it.

Sources

As is usually the case when it exists, I jumped straight for the Hunter Seamons matrix, which is SHNID 152448. This time around I didn’t have enough time to explore some of the other sources, though I’ll try to do that more often in the future.

There are a few sonic changes in a couple of songs. These are especially easy to hear if you’ve got headphones on. I didn’t find them particularly off putting, however. The quality overall is excellent; it sounds like you’re there.

Reputation

This performance doesn’t really have much of a reputation. The Deadhead’s Trading Compendium Volume II features a lukewarm review. Aside from this Reddit thread, I wasn’t able to find many mentions of this specific show. And Heady Version shows basically no love:

Discussion

The second half of this show is underrated.

The Scarlet > Fire > Estimated > Eyes is simply amazing. The transition from Estimated Prophet to Eyes of the World is quite unusual and very interesting. Estimated Prophet is also very well played in and of itself. I’d say that the entire show is worth listening to if for nothing else than those four songs.

You can hear the crowd react to lightning strikes during Looks Like Rain, which is always a nice treat.

Aside from that, though, I’m not sure I can consider this an underrated show. The first set is kind of flat, and the second set after Drums and Space is pretty predictable.