Cookbook

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.

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 first
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SHOWS AT "Fillmore West" FROM 1969;
SHOWS AT "Winterland" FROM 1977;
SHOWS AT "New York" LIMIT 20;
SHOWS AT "Madison Square Garden" LIMIT 10;
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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
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-- 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;
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-- Compare two nights of a run
SETLIST FOR 12/30/78;
SETLIST FOR 12/31/78;
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-- Expand every Scarlet > Fire show into full setlists
SHOWS FROM 77-78 WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain" AS SETLIST;
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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";
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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;
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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";
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-- All-time most played
SONGS ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 20;
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-- Most played in a specific year
SONGS FROM 1977 ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 20;
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-- 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;
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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";
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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";
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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;
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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;
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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";
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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";
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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;
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First and last

FIRST "Help on the Way";
LAST "Saint Stephen";
LAST "Dark Star";    -- a famous bookend: March 30, 1994
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FIRST 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 final
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Compare eras

COUNT SHOWS FROM PRIMAL;
COUNT SHOWS FROM EUROPE72;
COUNT SHOWS FROM BRENT_ERA;
COUNT SHOWS FROM VINCE_ERA;
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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;
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Surprise me

RANDOM SHOW FROM PRIMAL;
RANDOM SHOW FROM EUROPE72;
RANDOM SHOW FROM BRENT_ERA;
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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 setlist
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Output formats

SHOWS FROM 1977 LIMIT 3 AS JSON;
SHOWS FROM 1977 LIMIT 3 AS CSV;
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Pipe JSON into jq on the CLI:

gdql "SHOWS FROM 1977 AS JSON" | jq '.shows[].venue' | sort -u

Quick reference

QuestionQuery
Shows in a yearSHOWS FROM 1977
Shows at a venueSHOWS AT "Fillmore West"
Full setlistSETLIST FOR 5/8/77 or SETLIST 1977-05-08
Famous segueSHOWS WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain"
Broken segueSHOWS WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" NOT INTO "Fire on the Mountain"
How many times?COUNT "Dark Star"
Count with filterCOUNT SHOWS WHERE OPENER "Bertha"
Most played songsSONGS ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC LIMIT 20
Most played in a yearSONGS FROM 1977 ORDER BY TIMES_PLAYED DESC
Songs with lyricsSONGS WITH LYRICS("train", "road")
Opener / closerSHOWS WHERE OPENER "Jack Straw"
Opener chainSHOWS WHERE OPENER "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!"
NOT the closerSHOWS WHERE PLAYED "X" AND NOT CLOSED "X"
EncoreSHOWS WHERE ENCORE "U.S. Blues"
ExclusionSHOWS WHERE PLAYED "X" AND NOT PLAYED "Y"
First / lastFIRST "Help on the Way", LAST "Dark Star"
Random showRANDOM SHOW FROM EUROPE72
Output formatSHOWS FROM 1977 LIMIT 3 AS JSON