35. 1969-02-07

137392 Pittsburgh, PA 14:07


Begins with an emcee saying he wants to thank the crowd “for all the solar system people,” which I got a kick out of (was that the name of a production company? otherwise, it seems kind of presumptuous! [pbuzby: Most depressed sounding emcee in history. "Solar System Light and Power Company" produced this show])

Main theme at 2:13 and 3:24.
First verse at 4:30.
Verse melody at 7:50.
Sputnik at 9:07.
Bright Star at 11:01.
Main Theme at 11:55.
Second verse at 12:34.
Goes into St. Stephen.


TC seems a little more at home at this point, I think…and we can hear him, which is always nice. Garcia sounds loaded and ready, he goes to the main theme rather quickly but then takes off again for a while. He briefly plays a wrong note (a major 7, I think) at 2:28 before bending up to the right one. I am sure he sometimes does this entirely by accident, but it sounds in a way fitting here, and I wonder if sometimes he is trying to push against the bars of tonality a little and taking a chance on purpose. This is far from unusual over the years, and I might even venture to say he plays more clams than most similarly accomplished players, although when I say that I also immediately recall that there is no one I am aware of whose work has been so extensively documented, so he may not stand out in that regard after all. In any case, listen to the continuously fluid outpouring of notes from 6:49 to 7:43; it doesn’t seem like the work of a guy who will accidentally land on the major 7th. With the verse melody in between, this passage is offset by Garcia’s increasingly choppy approach from 8:15 until the Sputnik at 9:07. Listen to how Lesh drones for the first part of the Sputnik, and then starts mixing it up; coming out of this section Garcia adopts a guitar sound we’ll hear again on the 27th (and I can’t swear we haven’t heard it before). The Bright Star at 11:01 begins very delicately, and although it builds, it’s not an occasion for the band to peak this time.

This one is pretty but seems sort of uneventful. It’s hard not to see all these February Dark Stars as stops along the way to 2-27 (and, to a lesser extent, 2-21 and 2-22, although saying that sort of vitiates the point), but of course they couldn’t have been thinking of it this way. But they are gathering ideas and building their capabilities, and this will come to fruition in a big way later in the month.




What was said:

With the Velvet Underground and the Fugs! Weird that the overall timing of this and the night before and almost exactly the same, about 4 and a half minutes intro jam before the verse, similar length jam between verses. This is the opening track tonight instead of right after Morning Dew and they start stretching out a bit with some interesting tonal ideas and some sparkly organ from TC. Even a little organ melodics between the JG bits, though TC seems to be in a world of the themes and chords and not breaking out much. JG catches a little eddy of sound, one of the little islands, right before 3 minutes, its breakout into more notes leads into the main theme and eventually to the verse.
Middle jam section starts ambiguously, the band rolls along while JG looks for somewhere to go. Some climbs, some falls with lowered tones leading downwards by 6:40 or so, JG climbs again. Main vocal melody at 8:00. Not very inspired improv, maybe they’re just warming up for the show, but they sort of make it to a a bright star, but then it morphs almost into a sputnik, then drops into a real sputnik arpeggio area after 9 minutes. Then Jerry uses some weird fuzz tone suddenly at 10 minutes, with microphonic sounds from the guitar, but it doesn’t develop. The band freaks out and drops down to tiny sounds. The real Bright Star enters at 11 minutes, and the song comes together again, and leads into the second verse.
Next is Fillmore East!




I was unprepared for how weak this Dark Star was! It sounds very cautious and tentative, like they just can't let loose. They never really peak, Jerry keeps things kinda quiet. Usual dramatic points like the verse melody & bright star are instead played about as low-key as possible, like he doesn't want to wake anybody up. It's almost more like a practice run-through than a dedicated live performance. Highlights: the few moments when Jerry lets out a peal of feedback, the short Sputnik.
Is there a name for that squealy tone Jerry uses at the end of the Sputnik, around 10 minutes in? I didn't keep track of when he first used that, but we're going to hear it a lot in Dark Stars to come.
Good sound quality. TC's a little louder than usual but sounds almost like a whiny toy keyboard in the back, as usual adding filigrees behind Jerry. There's a distracting drum-tapping that comes in after 6 minutes, but it doesn't add much and stops after a couple minutes...otherwise just quiet scratcher or maracas as percussion. The drummers haven't been involved much in the Dark Star jams lately.
You mention Jerry's fluid playing, but he sounded kind of aimless in this one to me, there's never a sense of building up to anything, it just sort of limps along to the last verse. I'd agree with JSegel that this is more of an uninspired warmup jam...maybe Dark Star suffered from being the first song in this show. It seems to be mostly Jerry's issue, I think...Phil & Bob are doing their usual sterling work.
Looking back at the first week of February '69, Dark Star seems to be in a rut, more than I expected from the January performances...very limited exploration, each version more routine than the last. How will they turn it around in the next 3 weeks?




It's interesting. Probably some combo of aspects of the stress of being on tour/opening for other bands/trying to come down or get high enough to play when it's the first song in a set (often), but yeah, Phil and Bobby sort of chug along regardless, we're very much following where Jerry will take the piece. Regardless, the less-than-stellar Stars do have their place. Like, 2-07 is pretty nowheresville, but there is a shocking part where JG uses some weird feedback-y microphonic metallic sounds from the bridge of the guitar at about 10 minutes, and though that pretty much made everybody in the band shut up until they started playing music again, I don't think that's the end of that as a sonic realm to explore!




The odd introduction seems to set the stage for this low-key, somewhat perfunctory performance. It does venture out a bit in places but never really gets fully rolling. That’s not to say it is without merits of course. The Sputnik and noted post-Sputnik squeal are good, and the low-key Bright Star back into the Main Theme is more pretty than intense but still adds some magic in its own way.
I should add that the St. Stephen that follows kicks it up a gear in terms of energy. So I agree that maybe Dark Star was impacted by a slow start, or maybe that’s just the vibe that they (or Jerry in particular) felt like going for on this night.