Grateful Dead - Two From The Vault (4-LP Vinyl)

Recorded live at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on August 24, 1968—with bonus material from August 23—Two From The Vault captures the Grateful Dead in their primal psychedelic peak, when songs routinely stretched past 15 minutes and the six-piece lineup (Pigpen, Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Hart) operated with telepathic intensity. This quadruple vinyl release marks the first time this legendary show has appeared on wax, spread luxuriously across eight sides and housed in a deluxe gatefold Stoughton tip-on jacket.

The From The Vault series distinguishes itself from Dick's Picks through professional multitrack recordings mixed down decades later rather than straight soundboard feeds. These tapes sat in the vault for nearly 25 years while engineers figured out how to solve severe phase cancellation problems caused by Warner Bros.' unfamiliar engineers using distant mic placements. In the early 1990s, producer Dan Healy and engineer Don Pearson employed B&K FFT spectrum analyzers and TC digital delay lines to realign the eight tracks, restoring the full frequency range and creating a coherent stereo image that preserves every detail.

The setlist reads like a masterclass in 1968 Dead: extended "Dark Star," the complete "That's It for the Other One" suite, "Turn On Your Love Light" with Pigpen at full power, and "Morning Dew" (which ends abruptly when the venue cut power at curfew). Five songs weigh in around 15 minutes; three others touch down near 10 minutes. This isn't the Dead playing songs—this is space exploration with guitars and drums. Freshly remastered in 2014 by Joe Gastwirt, the sonic clarity rivals recordings made yesterday, not 1968.

First vinyl pressing: Previously available only on CD. 4-LP set on black vinyl. Remastered 2014 by Joe Gastwirt. Gatefold tip-on jacket.