33. 1969-02-05

8993 Kansas City, KS 11:40Intro is cut.
Main theme at 1:36.
First verse at 2:12.
Verse melody at 7:22.
Bright Star at 8:36.
Main theme at 9:28.
Second verse at 10:07.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This cuts in on an audible TC playing the ROR; however, Garcia is extremely loud here, and he quickly drowns out TC when he comes in. At 1:15, Garcia begins a sequence that has a Sputnik feel, and I was almost tempted to call it a Sputnik, but it’s only Jerry’s part, and it’s pretty brief. I’m not sure what the circumstances were here, but the band seems almost to be in a hurry, as this moves to the theme and the verse very quickly. After the verse Jerry again takes it out with the 1968 lick, and I sort of regret not naming it and marking it down when it happens, as it is more common than I realized. Garcia seems to be on the bridge pickup in the early going, as he swoops from brassy bass string licks to piercing high notes, and after the verse everything still seems to be moving rather quickly. At about 4:58 Garcia drops out and TC, again distinctly audible in the absence of Jerry’s loud guitar, takes the lead for a while. It’s possible Jerry broke a string, or else he just wants to give TC space for a change; in any case, the band rises to the occasion, and this lasts until, at 7:03, Garcia comes in with some Sputnik licks and a little chording, which he quickly abandons in favor of the verse melody section. At 7:56 Garcia plays a lead melody which we will hear again but I don’t think we’ve heard before, and which will feature in the famous 1969-02-27 Dark Star; I’m not sure if we should name this, or how often it will happen. It’s kind of a variant of Bright Star, in any case, which Garcia adumbrates left and right until finally it breaks out at 8:36, which basically shows how arbitrary some of these timings from the list up top are getting to be.
This feels rushed in a way, although not necessarily in the details of the playing in any given section, but just the overall trajectory. They don’t really do anything new here, with the exception (I think) of Jerry’s lead from 7:56. This is far from a bad version, and I would hesitate to call any Dark Star from this period mediocre, even, but neither does it stand out much.




What was said:

Opening for Iron Butterfly, kids are all there for InaGaddaDaVida. Cryptical/TOO opens the show, then comes the concise Dark Star at 11:41. (Into the regular suite, then caution/feedback/wbyg. Very short and sweet set, intense dose of Dead, I wonder how many Butterfly converts they got!)
Dark Star starts slow, Jerry fooling around with hammer-on and pull-off triplets, but he goes into a new way of expressing the rhythm in the mode he’s playing in, gives a little sputnik tease, and then we’re at the main theme, and into the verse, I can hear a bit of TC in there behind them, ornamenting away.
At around 3 minutes we go into the ‘main sequence’ of the star’s life. It’s sort of a jumble of many previous ideas, JG uses his different tones, the darker into the brighter one, BW starts off with arpeggio stuff while PL grooves away. Shaker is the sole rhythm, sounds like? Maybe there’s maracas… We get a TC organ solo at 5 minutes, but it’s basically just scales up and down. Eventually he settles into some chord notes, but nobody really settles on that chord, still quietly moving toward a new island, when we get there at 6 and a half it’s more like a bass solo, and now I can hear the rhythm fish, guiro thing. Sort of sputnik-like area, but it falls away and only comes back to take the tune somewhere else.
JG in for the theme at 7:30, Phil goes through his verse sequence of rhythms, with line 3 they both take off into the high point of the jam with new thematic pieces, toward Bright Star around 8:40, main theme a minute later and we’re heading back to verse 2, almost at 10 minutes, but there was an extra time on the riff so they could all get to the first line together, heh. JG sounds a bit “tired” singing here. Kansas City is a biker (train repair yard) town, you know, and the Dead probably had some connections there.


I don’t think we’ve gotten the pre-Bright Star passage starting at 7:56 before now although I’m not positive. It’s definitely a nice part of this particular performance. And I agree that there is a variation of it in the Live/Dead version. It’s sort of a staggered ascent to the Bright Star peak.
I also like the “break” for a TC solo even though he doesn’t do a lot with it. Maybe because it’s something different plus a mellower diversion can help to frame and add contrast to more intense and adventurous passages.


Cuts in, probably very close to the start, with another of those nice little wisps of feedback Jerry uses as an introduction. Good sound quality -- the percussion is more clear in this version, and I detect Pigpen rattling away on congas again, along with the scratcher.
I agree with bzfgt that this is a Dark Star in a hurry, there seems to be a need for speed here...this is one of the shortest Dark Stars since '68, it's kind of ho-hum. The Dead probably had to keep an eye on the clock since they were opening for Iron Butterfly! (But, judging by the applause at the end of the set, they won over the Butterfly fans.)
The jam flows by without many highlights. Jerry takes a lengthy two-minute break at 5 minutes, which is a very rare occurrence in Dark Stars so far! Here's the chance for TC to step up and shine, and.....he doesn't do much of anything. He keeps playing a 'backing' part like there's still someone else soloing. To be fair, he was still the new guy in the band (his third month of live shows!), and Phil & Bob just kind of toodle along too, just keeping the groove going til Jerry returns....no one else really wants to step into the lead. But like adamos said, it's still a mellow, relaxing moment, something different from the usual nonstop stream of Jerry. (It also reminds me a lot of the post-Mountains of the Moon jams -- soon to come! -- when Jerry's out changing guitars...like the one that starts Live/Dead.)
Jerry quietly slips back in, but rather than keep the mood going he decides it's time to wrap up this Dark Star quickly with the usual themes. Nicely done, kind of rote by now. It feels like Jerry's been hitting that "bright star" climax theme very forcefully lately, it's become like a whole composed section in itself with the long tension-winding buildup, the bright star peak, then the little post-coital relaxation before he brings back the main theme.