Cookbook
On this page
- What shows were played?
- What happened at a specific show?
- Did they segue?
- How many times?
- What songs were most popular?
- Who opened? Who closed?
- Exclusion: what WASN’T played?
- Stack conditions with AND / OR
- Multi-song chains with extra conditions
- Find songs by lyrics
- First and last
- Compare eras
- How long did they jam?
- Surprise me
- The Cornell ‘77 question
- Output formats
- Quick reference
Every query on this page is verified against the live database. Click ▶ Try it in sandbox to run any block. For the full grammar, see the language reference.
- Setlists from Deadlists, lyrics via Relisten
- The
>operator means “next song” — not necessarily a musical segue- Spot something wrong? Start a discussion
For every query pattern at a glance, see the Cheat Sheet.
What shows were played?
SHOWS FROM 1977; -- all '77 shows
SHOWS FROM 1977-1980 ORDER BY DATE; -- year range
SHOWS FROM PRIMAL; -- 1965-1969
SHOWS FROM EUROPE72; -- spring '72 tour
SHOWS FROM WALLOFSOUND; -- 1974 (the Wall of Sound year)
SHOWS FROM BRENT_ERA; -- 1979-1990
SHOWS FROM 1972 ORDER BY DATE DESC LIMIT 5; -- most recent firstSHOWS AT "Fillmore West" FROM 1969;
SHOWS AT "Winterland" FROM 1977;
SHOWS AT "New York" LIMIT 20;
SHOWS AT "Madison Square Garden" LIMIT 10;What happened at a specific show?
Paste a date from any SHOWS result — M/D/YY or YYYY-MM-DD both work. FOR is optional.
SETLIST FOR 5/8/77; -- Cornell '77
SETLIST 1977-05-08; -- same show, ISO format-- Find a show, then get its setlist
SHOWS WHERE CLOSER "U.S. Blues" AND OPENER "One More Saturday Night" LIMIT 1;
SETLIST 1974-10-19;-- Compare two nights of a run
SETLIST FOR 12/30/78;
SETLIST FOR 12/31/78;-- Expand every Scarlet > Fire show into full setlists
SHOWS FROM 77-78 WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain" AS SETLIST;Did they segue?
The > operator matches songs adjacent in the setlist. >> means followed by with a break. -> is an alias for >. Chain as many as you want.
SHOWS FROM 77-80 WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain";
SHOWS WHERE "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" > "Franklin's Tower";
SHOWS WHERE "China Cat Sunflower" INTO "I Know You Rider";
SHOWS WHERE "Dark Star" -> "Saint Stephen";When did they NOT segue?
NOT INTO finds shows where Song A was played but Song B didn’t follow.
-- Scarlet without the Fire segue
SHOWS WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" NOT INTO "Fire on the Mountain" LIMIT 10;
-- China Cat without Rider
SHOWS WHERE "China Cat Sunflower" !> "I Know You Rider" LIMIT 10;
-- Help > Slip happened but Franklin's Tower did NOT follow
SHOWS WHERE "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" !> "Franklin's Tower" LIMIT 10;How many times?
COUNT "Dark Star";
COUNT "Scarlet Begonias";
COUNT "Dark Star" FROM 1972-1974;
COUNT "Scarlet Begonias" AFTER 1977;
COUNT SHOWS WHERE "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" > "Franklin's Tower";
COUNT SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Bertha";What songs were most popular?
-- All-time most played
SONGS ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 20;-- Most played in a specific year
SONGS FROM 1977 ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 20;-- Most played in an era
SONGS FROM EUROPE72 ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 10;
SONGS FROM BRENT_ERA ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 10;Who opened? Who closed?
SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Bertha";
SHOWS WHERE SET1 OPENED "Jack Straw";
SHOWS WHERE SET2 CLOSED "Sugar Magnolia";
SHOWS WHERE CLOSER "Morning Dew";
SHOWS WHERE ENCORE "U.S. Blues";Opener/closer segue chains
SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!";
SHOWS WHERE CLOSER "Throwin' Stones" > "Not Fade Away";
SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" AND CLOSER "Brokedown Palace";What if they DIDN’T open/close with it?
-- Played U.S. Blues but NOT as the encore
SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "U.S. Blues" AND NOT ENCORE "U.S. Blues" LIMIT 10;
-- Played And We Bid You Goodnight but NOT as the closer
SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "And We Bid You Goodnight" AND NOT CLOSED "And We Bid You Goodnight" LIMIT 10;Exclusion: what WASN’T played?
-- Dark Star without Saint Stephen
SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "Dark Star" AND NOT PLAYED "Saint Stephen" LIMIT 10;
-- Scarlet without Fire (after Fire's 1977 debut — vanishingly rare)
SHOWS AFTER 1980 WHERE PLAYED "Scarlet Begonias" AND NOT PLAYED "Fire on the Mountain" LIMIT 10;
-- Truckin' without Drums
SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "Truckin'" AND NOT "Drums" LIMIT 10;Stack conditions with AND / OR
-- Scarlet > Fire AND Estimated Prophet, all in '77
SHOWS FROM 1977 WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain" AND PLAYED "Estimated Prophet";
-- Shows opened by either Jack Straw or Bertha
SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Jack Straw" OR OPENER "Bertha" LIMIT 20;
-- Winterland Scarlet > Fire shows
SHOWS AT "Winterland" WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain";Multi-song chains with extra conditions
-- Help > Slip > Frank that ALSO had Dark Star (4 shows: 6/14/91 RFK, 9/10/91 MSG, 10/31/91 Oakland, 9/22/93 MSG)
SHOWS WHERE "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" > "Franklin's Tower" AND PLAYED "Dark Star";
-- The primal trio at Fillmore West
SHOWS AT "Fillmore West" WHERE "Dark Star" > "Saint Stephen" > "The Eleven" ORDER BY DATE;
-- China > Rider at the Spectrum
SHOWS AT "Spectrum" WHERE "China Cat Sunflower" > "I Know You Rider";Find songs by lyrics
Words are matched as whole words — "sun" won’t match “Sunday”.
SONGS WITH LYRICS("sun");
SONGS WITH LYRICS("train", "road");
SONGS WITH LYRICS("sun") AND LYRICS("train");
SONGS WITH LYRICS("rose") AS COUNT;First and last
FIRST "Help on the Way";
LAST "Saint Stephen";
LAST "Dark Star"; -- a famous bookend: March 30, 1994FIRST and LAST are song-specific. To find the very first or very last show (e.g. Jerry’s farewell at Soldier Field on 7/9/95), sort SHOWS by date:
SHOWS ORDER BY DATE LIMIT 1; -- the first show in the database
SHOWS ORDER BY DATE DESC LIMIT 1; -- the last show — Jerry's finalCompare eras
COUNT SHOWS FROM PRIMAL;
COUNT SHOWS FROM EUROPE72;
COUNT SHOWS FROM BRENT_ERA;
COUNT SHOWS FROM VINCE_ERA;How long did they jam?
Track durations are sourced from archive.org recordings (~48% coverage). Use ORDER BY LENGTH to find the marathon versions and WITH LENGTH to filter.
-- The longest Dark Stars ever played
PERFORMANCES OF "Dark Star" ORDER BY LENGTH DESC LIMIT 10;
-- Playing in the Band jams over 20 minutes
PERFORMANCES OF "Playing in the Band" WITH LENGTH > 20min;
-- Quick Sugareees (under 6 minutes)
PERFORMANCES OF "Sugaree" WITH LENGTH < 6min ORDER BY LENGTH LIMIT 5;
-- Longest Eyes of the World from 1974
PERFORMANCES OF "Eyes of the World" FROM 1974 ORDER BY LENGTH DESC LIMIT 5;Surprise me
RANDOM SHOW FROM PRIMAL;
RANDOM SHOW FROM EUROPE72;
RANDOM SHOW FROM BRENT_ERA;The Cornell ‘77 question
Three ways to find the most famous show:
SETLIST FOR 5/8/77; -- by date
SHOWS AT "Barton Hall"; -- by venue
SHOWS WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain" AND PLAYED "Morning Dew" ORDER BY DATE; -- by setlistOutput formats
SHOWS FROM 1977 LIMIT 3 AS JSON;
SHOWS FROM 1977 LIMIT 3 AS CSV;Pipe JSON into jq on the CLI:
gdql "SHOWS FROM 1977 AS JSON" | jq '.shows[].venue' | sort -uQuick reference
| Question | Query |
|---|---|
| Shows in a year | SHOWS FROM 1977 |
| Shows at a venue | SHOWS AT "Fillmore West" |
| Full setlist | SETLIST FOR 5/8/77 or SETLIST 1977-05-08 |
| Famous segue | SHOWS WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain" |
| Broken segue | SHOWS WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" NOT INTO "Fire on the Mountain" |
| How many times? | COUNT "Dark Star" |
| Count with filter | COUNT SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Bertha" |
| Most played songs | SONGS ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 20 |
| Most played in a year | SONGS FROM 1977 ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC |
| Songs with lyrics | SONGS WITH LYRICS("train", "road") |
| Opener / closer | SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Jack Straw" |
| Opener chain | SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" |
| NOT the closer | SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "X" AND NOT CLOSED "X" |
| Encore | SHOWS WHERE ENCORE "U.S. Blues" |
| Exclusion | SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "X" AND NOT PLAYED "Y" |
| First / last | FIRST "Help on the Way", LAST "Dark Star" |
| Random show | RANDOM SHOW FROM EUROPE72 |
| Output format | SHOWS FROM 1977 LIMIT 3 AS JSON |