Bill Graham’s Fillmore East became perhaps the Dead’s single favorite venue anywhere due to the combination of attentive New York fans, intimate sight lines, and a first-class stage crew and sound system. Though no one in the crowd knew it, the April ’71 shows would be the Dead’s last there, Graham announcing the venue’s closure at the end of the five-show run. But the Dead are still very much at home, recording much of Skull & Roses that week. With two months of quintet gigs under their belt, the band is tight and boogiefied, nailing the locked-in spring ’71 arrangement of “Hard To Handle,” with a powerful Phil Lesh/Bob Weir middle jam that had emerged over the season’s touring.