Vince Welnick was not bad. Bob Bralove's MIDI was.

Phil & Friends' first show was on 9/24/94. Jerry, Phil, Bob and Vince played an acoustic set in front of a small crowd in Berkeley, and relistening to the tapes solidified my opinion on Vince Welnick.

It's the only time, to my knowledge, that he ever played a standard grand piano with the Dead, and holy shit, he sounds like a different keyboardist even though the notes and riffs he plays aren't really different from what he played in a normal show.

His playing doesn't cut over the rest of the band, it's not loud and offputting, and actually, he fits in really well. Masterpiece, Lazy River Road, and Bird Song in particular show off how well Vince had settled in with the band by this point in late 94. Jerry's obviously not in peak form by that time, but the show is still a really pleasant listen from start to end.

If anything, the show solidified my opinion that the band fucked Vince over by forcing him on his MIDI keyboard.

It's well-established that Jerry forbade Vince from using an organ to keep him separate from Brent. Bob Bralove, who oversaw the band's MIDI tech, picked and chose the MIDI patches Vince played with live during each show. Vince didn't get any say in what he sounded like at any point.

And even still, Vince's actual playing is pretty damn good! Everybody shits on him for these things outside of his control, but this Phil & Friends show solidified my take that the shitslinging is undeserved.

RIP Vince. Listen to 9/24/94, I promise you'll enjoy it.