Main theme at 2:01.
First verse at 2:23.
Verse melody at 6:05.
Sputnik at 9:28.
Bright Star at 11:27.
Falling Star at 12:17.
Main theme at 12:42.
Second verse at 13:17.
Goes into St. Stephen.
TC is still hammering the ROR at the beginning. Garcia sounds ready to go when the bell rings today; he gets some nice leads in before even a minute has passed. He seems quite attentive to his peers are doing—at around 1:17 he’s tickled by Weir is doing, and they tangle themselves up together for a while. At 1:41 a breach opens up and TC jumps in with some licks that Garcia then grabs ahold of and transforms beginning at 1:48.
However, the first verse comes quickly, despite all that promise. Garcia picks up where he left off at the close of the verse, bouncing bright guitar leads off the band. At 4:35 there is a quasi-Bright Star passage, and this breaks out again at the 5 minute mark. This leads to a series of little peaks; Lesh and Weir are pushing, and Garcia is quite responsive. They quiet down at around the 6 minute mark, and Jerry puts in the verse melody, which allows them to kick it up again, a bit, on the E minor.
All three string players are effusive here, with Weir ascending above Jerry for a while, which adds to the sense of excitement. They all seem tuned in to one another quite closely tonight; as if by prior consensus, they reel it in at about 7:18, and Garcia begins his bell-like tolling on another E minor. This results in a little build-up which is full of promise and foreboding, and soon Garcia is hinting at a Sputnik in the offing.
At 8:58 Garcia returns them to an A major, and submits some brighter licks. The tension mounts until a taut Sputnik finally emerges at 9:28. Garcia comes out with his weird insect sound, which he doesn’t stay with for long this time, instead building things back up, with both drummers engaged and adding to the urgency, as they push toward Bright Star. This continues the tense and urgent mood, pounding rather than flowing, until it is discharged in a (now somewhat rare) Falling Star.
At this point they are ready to wrap it up. It’s not clear whether there was a time constraint, or whether they felt they’d already poured so much concentrated energy into Dark Star that there was nothing left to do with it; the former seems more likely, given the short renditions of the songs that follow. For all its brevity, however, this is a fantastic version, with not a dull moment in it. There are deeper versions, and ones that range farther, but I pronounce this the little Dark Star that could!
What was said:
JSegel:
Quick start, riff, ROR, little playing around the mode, some tuning,
Jerry is crossing the stereo spectrum, is he with 2 channels or bleed from other open mics? (Listening a little more in the concert it sounds like bleed from Bill’s drum mics.) First wave is under 2 minutes, the second goes right to the verse intro immediately. It’s gonna be a quick one this evening, gents.
Warbles in the first verse, it’s already scary, but it seems to mellow a bit by the transitive nightfall. Some old blog that’s no longer hosted (still there on the Wayback machine,) the guy was saying that his understanding was that this entire jam between verses was an audio description of “the transitive nightfall of diamonds.”
Ok, then!
The jams contain a bunch of abrupt entrances and melodic statements, and both drums seem a obvious way to handle that. All drums in early right as Jerry does a startling Theme at 6:00, then trapsets, Bill gets onstage, and so we have a very rhythmic pounding jam now, he’s got a low tom thing going on..
They’re on after Jethro Tull. I wonder if they watched each other? Lots of melodic flourishes. Well, I’d bet Martin Barre was watching. Arpeggios and fast flourishes all around. TC finally does some downward ones.
A cool intro to the song form with rolled off nasal tone I’m guessing lead pickup with the tone rolled off, transits to a bright tone when he rolls it on
An immediate tolling Bells after the initial wave of jam 2, bringing up a rhythm jam! These guys are hyped at this show, quick set in between and off.
These sections really delineated, they’re sort of rushing through the possible forms. Now we start sputnik, next, heh, TC does his fanfare and JG goes for insect weirdness.
After this they do the longest strongest bright star ever! Led into again by Jerry suddenly stating the themes, he’s leading this song quickly through sections this evening but then lingering on sections. How do you get to a verse from there! Well, Bobby knows, it seems, and we’re back into the song.
Followed by 5 minutes of St Stephen and 4 of the Eleven, rest of the set is Lovelight. That’s all that’s captured, or it was a super short set... Let’s get this show done and head back to Hollywood to jam at Thee Experience. Leaving whoever was playing with Butterfield in ’69 there to fend for themselves? (They did know Bloomfield, of course, but he had left the band in '68. I bet they would have brought him to a jam in H'wood.)
Mr. Rain:
A Dark Star in a hurry! The Dead are one of the openers and have only 50 minutes to work their stuff, so Dark Star's very condensed tonight... But it's a very peppy, energetic version.
Jerry doesn't even allow his usual pause after the intro, he starts soloing right away. But after a strong jam, they get to the verse in only a couple minutes. No time for scenic detours! No pause after the verse either, they continue right on with the jamming. Strong insistent playing here, they're really going for it.
Jerry rips into a strong verse melody, and Bill kicks in on the drums (while Mickey's on the guiro)...it reminds me of 2/27 here with Bill's playing, a similar energy. Jerry finally slows down for the bell-tolling afterward, the band keeps the rhythmic energy churning, no mood for a quiet space tonight, so the jam rushes onward. A fast delirious Sputnik, a brief splash of the insect tone, and a race to the Bright Star....which is drawn-out but a little too rushed, '68-style. Jerry has to throw in the falling-star motif to calm things down, and Bob sets up the verse with his usual perfect timing. (That motif has only shown up, what, three times in '69? Can't be conscious, but it's another element in common with 2/27: this performance is like Live/Dead's bratty younger sibling.)
The stereo spread is wider than usual for Bear, there's a nice stage presence. Lovely guitar tones. TC's fairly clear but mostly in the background. Both drum sets are off on the left in this mix, except for gong & guiro farther right; and there's a shaker (and conga?) at the start.
I don't think both drummers are playing their drum sets here? -- just Bill tearing things up through the second half. This is as feisty as he's yet been in Dark Star, he keeps things kicking through the jam. A lot of rock & roll energy crammed in this Star that harks back more to '68. It doesn't have the contemplative brooding we've heard in recent Stars, but as you say, there's "not a dull moment" -- I couldn't wait to hear it again.
Adamos:
Right from the start Jerry sounds very fluid with just a touch of rougher edge; it’s really nice. Everyone seems pretty clear in the mix. There’s kind of a dream-like quality in the first half with TC’s organ, Bob’s accents, Phil bouncing and weaving throughout. The pace is quick as noted but it works. Jerry’s vocal in the first verse seems a bit more warbly again.
The build-up following the Verse Melody is really good, particularly the peak from around 6:45 - 7:13. Bob has a nice jangly thing going from 7:25 - 7:55. The Bright Star through Falling Star stretch from 11:25 - 12:27, and the build-up just before that, is really good too.
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