July 29 1966, P.N.E. Garden Aud., Vancouver Canada is a live album by American rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded at the PNE Garden Auditorium in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 29, 1966. It also includes four songs recorded at the same venue on the following day. It was produced as a two-disc vinyl LP in a limited edition of 6,600 copies.[1] It was released on April 22, 2017, in conjunction with Record Store Day.[2][3][4][5][6]
The same recording was previously released on CD on January 20, 2017, as the bonus disc for the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the Grateful Dead's eponymous first album.[1][7][8]
The July 29, 1966 concert was the band's first performance outside the United States.[1]
Production
In an interview, Grateful dead archivist David Lemieux said that he had wanted to release this concert as an album, but it was too short for the Dave's Picks series. He said that since the concert was an early one, from before the time of CDs, that made it seem like a good choice for an LP. He added, "As a vinyl release it works extremely well where you get three or four songs per side and they're all really short songs – anywhere from three to five minutes."[9]
Critical reception
Jeff Tamarkin, writing in Relix, said, "As for the jams, the Grateful Dead were still so raw and unformed in the summer of '66 – part garage/punk, part tough blues band, a bit of folk-rock and experimental zeal all filtered through a Prankster-informed lysergic mischievousness – but the elements are all in place. And they're quite often on fire here... but hints of the tenderness they would later cultivate in their original ballads also turn up.... They're still primarily a cover band at this stage – their own tunes are not even close to what they'd soon start turning out when Robert Hunter became involved – but there's no denying the inherent originality and enormity of what they've got going on."[10]
^Sodomsky, Sam (January 19, 2017). "Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 24, 2017. In a spirited but nascent Vancouver show attached to this 50th anniversary reissue, mostly comprised of embryonic attempts at original songs ("Cream Puff War", "Cardboard Cowboy") and jumpy renditions of soon-to-be standards ("I Know You Rider", "New Minglewood Blues"), the audience greets the band with silence. Bob Weir responds dryly, "I see our fame has preceded us."
