Grateful Dead: View from the Vault II

If you buy by the pound, it's pretty hard to go wrong with a Grateful Dead concert on DVD. Clocking in at 3 hours and 38 minutes (with a "bonus" music video of "Liberty" to boot), Grateful Dead: View from the Vault II is, like its predecessor (Grateful Dead: View from the Vault, reviewed in VL-11/00), manna for Dead Heads. Filmed at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 1991, the early Dead lineup of Weir, Garcia, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Hart is fleshed out by Vince Welnick and longtime fan/satellite member Bruce Hornsby on keyboards. As usual, there are highlights and lowlights, with nice renditions of "Row Jimmy," "Black-Throated Wind," "Stella Blue" and a cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" comprising the former, and Lesh's caterwauling vocals on "Box of Rain" (part of a near-hour's bonus footage from a July 12, 1990 concert) taking top honors in the latter category. Sure to be popular, this very generous helping of live Dead is definitely recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)