"And that format was - we'd been using that format, I guess, since the late '70s, and it was starting to get very predictable. In other words, certain songs would surface in the same points in the set every so often; it was like rotation"
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Predictability is a weird problem for a band whose whole brand was freedom. Phil Lesh is talking about the Grateful Dead’s setlist as if it’s a workplace system that’s drifted into autopilot: not a living organism anymore, but a schedule. The key phrase is “like rotation,” which lands with the faint disgust of someone realizing the jammy, anti-programming ethos has quietly become programming anyway. Even improvisation can calcify into habit.
The intent here isn’t to confess boredom so much as to diagnose a creative trap. By the late ’70s, the Dead had built a repertoire deep enough to feel infinite, yet Lesh points out how patterns still assert themselves. “Certain songs would surface in the same points in the set” reads like a musician noticing the band’s muscle memory: the opener that reliably warms up the room, the mid-set launchpad that “should” lead into the big exploratory zone, the familiar landing gear near the end. That’s not just a musical choice; it’s a ritual the audience can start predicting, and once the crowd can predict the ritual, the ritual starts driving the band.
The subtext is almost organizational. Touring forces decisions into repeatable shapes: energy management, instrument swaps, Jerry’s stamina, the expectations baked into ticket-buying lore. Lesh is hinting that “spontaneity” can become another product feature unless someone intentionally disrupts the system. In a culture that mythologizes the Dead as endless surprise, he’s reminding you the surprise had to be fought for, night after night, against the gravitational pull of what works.
The intent here isn’t to confess boredom so much as to diagnose a creative trap. By the late ’70s, the Dead had built a repertoire deep enough to feel infinite, yet Lesh points out how patterns still assert themselves. “Certain songs would surface in the same points in the set” reads like a musician noticing the band’s muscle memory: the opener that reliably warms up the room, the mid-set launchpad that “should” lead into the big exploratory zone, the familiar landing gear near the end. That’s not just a musical choice; it’s a ritual the audience can start predicting, and once the crowd can predict the ritual, the ritual starts driving the band.
The subtext is almost organizational. Touring forces decisions into repeatable shapes: energy management, instrument swaps, Jerry’s stamina, the expectations baked into ticket-buying lore. Lesh is hinting that “spontaneity” can become another product feature unless someone intentionally disrupts the system. In a culture that mythologizes the Dead as endless surprise, he’s reminding you the surprise had to be fought for, night after night, against the gravitational pull of what works.
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| Topic | Music |
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