John,
"...but I suspect anyone who equates then with a bar band either hasn't seen much of the Dead, much of bar bands, or not much of either."
Maybe you were just being polite, but there is another explanation.
Any given listener may - without any need to explain him or herself - choose to like or dislike any given performance, but that doesn't justify being dismissive of the performers. Like the songs or not, find the extended improvisations exhilirating or mind numbing...that's a matter of taste. But, there should be NO DENYING that those guys can play.
BTW, I used to work with a bunch of Dead fanatics. It was a 24/7 kind of job, so we'd have music on after hours. It was a constant struggle for me to limit the amount of Dick's Picks that I'd have to sit through.
For much the same reason, I've been talked into seeing The Dead twice. I really don't have the appetite for five hours of that material at one sitting, but I'll still give them their due. They're a great band working a particular corner of a particular genre that has limited appeal for me.
Marty
"...but I suspect anyone who equates then with a bar band either hasn't seen much of the Dead, much of bar bands, or not much of either."
Maybe you were just being polite, but there is another explanation.
Any given listener may - without any need to explain him or herself - choose to like or dislike any given performance, but that doesn't justify being dismissive of the performers. Like the songs or not, find the extended improvisations exhilirating or mind numbing...that's a matter of taste. But, there should be NO DENYING that those guys can play.
BTW, I used to work with a bunch of Dead fanatics. It was a 24/7 kind of job, so we'd have music on after hours. It was a constant struggle for me to limit the amount of Dick's Picks that I'd have to sit through.
For much the same reason, I've been talked into seeing The Dead twice. I really don't have the appetite for five hours of that material at one sitting, but I'll still give them their due. They're a great band working a particular corner of a particular genre that has limited appeal for me.
Marty