31: 1969-02-02

123283 Minneapolis 15:38
Main theme at 2:03 and 3:10.
First verse at 4:44.
Verse melody at 9:05.
Sputnik at 10:06.
Bright Star (sort of) at 12:35.
Main theme at 13:02.
Second verse at 14:09.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia again has a very bright tone and a pretty aggressive approach. Starting at :48 he ends a sequence of runs with a note that he holds for 16 seconds, letting it feed back. Weir and Lesh start the main theme at 2:01, and Garcia plays around with it a little. At 2:38 Garcia and Weir drop out briefly, and Lesh plays some legato lines before Garcia comes in and builds back up to the main theme. Instead of going to the verse they play around some more after this, and a nice crescendo is reached with a sort-of Bright Star theme at 4:02. At 4:13 Garcia drops the verse melody in (unofficially, as it were, as they don’t go to the E minor). After the verse, Garcia plays, once, the familiar verse outro from 1968. There’s an interesting bit at 6:09 where Garcia hangs on the minor third (C), before sliding up to the major third at 6:18 (C#, which is more usual here since Dark Star is most often based on A Mixolydian). At 7:09 Garcia plays a repeated figure on the bass strings that goes on for about 20 seconds before it starts spiraling upward; at 7:24 Weir starts trickling in with a co-lead, then at 7:40 he drops out as Garcia shoots up into a higher register. Things get pleasingly strange at 8:17 when everything grinds almost ot a halt, and then Garcia starts playing a repeated A that is like a bell tolling while Lesh plays lead for a while. The tension is discharged at 9:05 when Garcia plays the verse melody, this time with the familiar E minor payoff. They then build to a rousing crescendo, and you’d be forgiven for expecting Bright Star at 9:55, but instead they head into a Sputnik. TC seems to be on top of this, or maybe even an instigator, although it’s hard to tell as he is very low in the mix here. At 12:22 Lesh and Garcia are inverted for a moment, with the bass soaring above the guitar, and then at 12:35 there is a passage that’s about halfway between the main theme and Bright Star, and the main theme likewise arrives in a somewhat distorted form at 13:02 before settling in at 13:13. After this they start chugging away at the verse. But instead Garcia starts playing some chiming harmonics, very gently and beautifully, although it cannot be said that everyone is perfectly in tune at this point.


This is a fantastic rendition, and it seems to me to cover a lot of untrodden ground, although I suppose that is not entirely unusual at this point (and, as you will see, we don't have consensus about this!).




What was said:

tentative intro, but it starts amidst tuning. Then off and running into some exquisite feedback by a minute in. Hey Minneapolis! Pretty ‘hot jazz’ take but for JG’s brighter tone till the theme intro at 2 minutes. Nice staccato stuff into the restatement, then he really takes off into Allman-y licks before coming down to the verse at 4 and a half. Soundman is getting the vocal mic together, JG’s wavering on “Searchlight.”
Then the SB pans JG all the way left and across. JG goes into a different key at 6 minutes against the grain and then comes back into the groove. Did he really do that or did I just imagine it? At 7 they’re into a plateau or and eddy, with a riff in the lower register, takes off to more riffage up top and a lot of string bending.
Then some tuning. But then Phil gets to go for it, while Jerry gets his **** in tune with chords. Into a strong theme-element based meditation on certain notes in the melody world and and at the end of 9 minutes it gets to the top, into a space sputnik, they have reached a level of space, eddies of sound, eternity in every bit, even as it fades Jerry keeps at a precious few notes.
Dramatic re-entrance of thematic stuff at 11 and a half, into new music at 12 minutes, into the Dark Star theme high and low. Such a good riff, still. At least they brought us home again, this has been a journey.
Oh but then harmonics before Verse 2. JG sounds a little more relaxed singing. Pretty clear background vocal stuff, so the chorus section is clear for all parts, which is cool.
…into the rest of the suite. Minneapolis in February, excellent, first time there. Musta been a cold loadout!


Before Dark Star, the band complains about the unresponsive audience -- Jerry gripes, "People who just can't dig it!" The band seems to have a little debate about whether to proceed with Louie Louie or Dark Star....but Jerry's vote wins.
Jerry does sound pretty aggressive in this Dark Star, after the tentative start. But it also sounds to me like he's not really flowing, like he's short on ideas and is kind of searching for a way in, but never quite gets there. (JSegel's right to notice his occasional tuning breaks too.) A couple times he uses his favorite trick of repeating a couple notes over and over for a while before breaking out into a new theme.
And now that the band's away from the Avalon and back on tour, we're back to the near-mono tape mix, less care taken on the recording. Jerry stands out because the rest of the band is a blurry background....Phil & Bob kind of fuzzy, TC barely there. So the band interaction is a little less noticeable. The drums become active in the middle, coming out after the verse melody. Pigpen can be heard back on congas in the verses, and even during the jam (especially after Sputnik).
I liked how they all got very quiet for a moment after the Sputnik, the better to blast into the THEME a minute later. Other highlights: Jerry's feedback note in the intro, and his little harmonic chimes at the end. Those were moments that suggested a more introspective Dark Star than this ended up being.
I had a different reaction from bzfgt: I didn't hear the band exploring new territory here, it sounded more like coasting along well-worn grooves. Which is all right, it's still a pretty good Dark Star, it just didn't jump out at me.


I like this one; it’s got some magic to it even though the overall feel is more raw than majestic. Jerry’s guitar has a fuzzy edge that suits it well and there’s a certain quality to the recording that makes me feel like I’m listening on an old-time radio which adds to the vibe. While some aspects resemble what’s soon to come on Live/Dead it’s quite different from that version which is interesting.