Main theme at 4:53.
First verse at 5:48.
Sputnik at 10:58.
Main theme at 15:25.
Verse melody at 16:12.
Bright Star at 17:20.
Falling Star at 18:18.
Main theme at 18:53.
Second verse at 19:46.
Goes into St. Stephen
“The next one we’re going to do is something we wrote especially for the Ice Palace here in Las Vegas. We wrote it this morning.”
--Mickey Hart
There is an interesting sort of swell at the beginning before Garcia starts playing lines. When he comes in, he’s in good form, with some excellent passages before the verse. There’s not a lot of exploration in the introductory jam, but by the time we get to the verse this would already be a top version from early 1968!
After the verse, Weir lays a base down and TC plays an ascending flourish before Garcia starts tolling; this time, Lesh is not highlighted in this section, unlike in other recent renditions. He comes to the fore a bit more as Garcia starts playing lead lines again, however. At the same time, TC and Weir recede a bit (at least in this mix) which somewhat mitigates what otherwise would be an early peak soon after the 9 minute mark.
There is a little dynamic retrenchment after this, and then Garcia gets things rolling again with some heavy riffing from about 10:25. This rather quickly pulls back into what feels like a sort of early Sputnik, however. Lesh makes this one rather heavy in the front half, with heavy notes that don’t come with an entirely predictable spacing. On the second half, Lesh plays a lighter series of runs, and the whole thing winds up in a little staccato interlude that is quite different and remarkable, before Garcia finally switches on the insect weirdness.
One of the drummers is scratching something quite loudly during this insect interlude, which soon gets hairy and weird. When Garcia switches back to a more quotidian tone, the jam gets heavy for a while. There’s a sudden break at around 15 minutes, though, which threatens to become a moment of confusion, so Garcia starts hammering on the main theme. It’s early yet, however, so rather than the verse, they follow this up with the verse melody.
This opens up into a rather furious section, with everyone going gangbusters right into a quasi-Bright Star at 17:20. Perversely, as Bright Star emerges, things quiet down a bit, but they build it back up before discharging it in a rather extended and spirited Falling Star. This leads directly to the main theme and the verse.
This is another excellent version, with outstanding work from Lesh and Garcia. It kicks up a fuss at times, but seems to hold back from going over the top. In small ways, they seem to be pushing and prodding at the form, and this yields some gratifying moments of weirdness although, as yet, these don’t last long. Very good overall.
What was said:
pbuzby:
This show has some memorable banter about how they wrote "Dark Star" specifically for Las Vegas but it is in the previous track.
Interesting moment after the first verse - Garcia falls silent and it sounds to me like T.C. thinks he should play a solo to cover the gap but after a few bars Garcia's tolling bell starts up.
I've never read anyone discussing these Stars from the second half of March '69 much, but they are all stellar versions.
Mr. Rain:
I think the previous patched Miller copy is the best source -- sharper-sounding, more instrument separation....the Dalton copy is more blurry. (Older copies have a big cut in Dark Star.)
Typical for Bear's tapes lately, it's near-mono except for the drums on the sides. Jerry's louder than the others, the center of attention. TC is even more in the background than usual, he seems to be just out of the edge of my hearing most of the time. The guiro's especially loud in the mix tonight. (Bill's on drums in the second half; Mickey confines himself to gong & guiro.)
This Dark Star is a heavy version....but also kind of sloppy and bludgeoning. Not a lot of finesse here, but there is some surprising new exploration.
It has perhaps my favorite Dark Star opening so far: Jerry just plays feedback for the first minute! Delightful, and Phil plays off it so well....the moment when Phil returns to the theme is heavenly. They're off to a flying start!
Jerry's in one of his trance moods in the intro jam. He's got his repetitive style going again (repeating licks lots of times with little adjustments). Fierce and heavy jamming before the verse, accompanied by guiro. Jerry does his little bass riffing again to set up the verse.
Phil drops out after the verse, unusually, so Bob & Mickey's gong carry things forward for a spell until Phil comes back and Jerry sets up his tolling-bell routine. But Jerry barely does any tolling, instead he prefers to get back to regular playing. (Mickey quickly switches back to the guiro.) For a couple minutes it's almost a Phil & Jerry duet, as TC & Bob seem to draw back. Around 10 minutes, Bill comes in on his drums, and the jam gets heavier, only to stop short for a Sputnik. Nice droning Sputnik with everyone joining in, TC swelling up & Mickey tapping like mad & Bill on the cymbals. As this fades out, they get into new territory, a poppin' percussive space that sounds like something out of the middle of Alligator ("Alligator comin' round my door!"). This is quite new and unexpected in Dark Star. Jerry turns on the shimmer and embarks on, I must say, an unusually insectoid insect space. This is about as weird as this section has gotten so far!
Jerry soon leads them back into more regular jamming, hot and intense...and yet again, stops it short for another little percussive interlude. It sounds like they know they're onto something but don't know what to do with it yet. So Jerry falls back to the main theme, almost by accident, and everyone follows him. But it's too soon to end! It's funny when Jerry breaks out the verse melody instead of singing....a sloppy rendition that shoves forth into a jauntily syncopated Bright Star. They conclude with a Falling Star played in the same remarkable style as 3-28. (How this forgotten little two-note motif suddenly turned into a giant peak is a plot development I didn't anticipate.) From there, a controlled glide to the theme, the music relaxing and gong coming in for the second verse.
This Dark Star isn't as excellent as the last few, I thought, it's almost like a slurring-drunk performance for the Vegas crowd. And yet it's still strong, pushing further into weirdness, finding new territory that even the Dead seem surprised by. They are so close to breaking out into open space in the middle, they just need to get a little bit looser... Here it sounds like Jerry keeps pulling them back to the regular routines.
JSegel:
Ice rink! Yeah, an ice rink in Las Vegas. I don’t hear the hall much in the recording. Doin’ that rag, but no (recorded) Mountains, no acoustic mics?
Dark Star: “We wrote it this morning” Especially for the Ice Palace in Vegas, he says.
Classic tight intro to a jazzy guiro-fueled feel, with brief ROR, and immediate feedback play. (I blame Jorma.) JG goes through several tonal areas. They’re going for a long jam pre-verse. Great long builds, the 4-5 minute area is a stunning energetic whirlpool, which winds down to the theme, and a little pre-play at low levels. Bill is in on cymbals. Into the verse at 5:50, now pretty set form-wise but a mellow playing of it.
Nice upward counterpoint on the downward “Diamonds” line in the verse!
Playful light feel into this section, TC does the big upward swell thing, Bobby’s hammering on. JG comes in with the bells and scrapes, but when the other guys die down, he comes in on a new theme-let with a very round tone. He goes off with Phil, sounds like BW is off to pee. It’s a pretty spacey but swinging Jerry and Phil jam, then they land on some weird notes when BW comes back. He’s trying some odd tones and feedback stuff. JG backs off his tone knob but they’re in the swinging groove, trapsets on ride cymbals and all. But before 11 min, some tom toms! Instead of going for the all out jam, it backs off and starts a low sputnik. TC doing waves up and down. He always ends too soon! Sputnik with sidestick tonight. before 13 a weird minimalist section has come about, sparse notes, then feedback and sound, that goes to the insect weirdness sound. (How does he make this sound?)
Ok, the guiro starts guiro’ing with it, it’s pretty ffing weird. Bob and Phil form a chord progression. JG comes in like he’s gonna lead them to a brighter star, but there’s still elements of the A-Sus.
At 15.5 a sudden statement of the song intro theme. The ****ing guiro. To have suggested mic'ing Pigpen’s congas instead… if he's even on stage at this point.
To the main song form theme, strongly fleshed out in and then exploring on the third line, heading to the star. Takes a long way around, gotta visit some more spots first. But we get to a high end bright statement, which is then taking us home to verse two in its own sweet time. JG is purposely stating the theme to slow the tempo, the players eventually get with him.
v2 at about 19:50, modest percussion, all parts there, some interesting instrumental wandering on “Lady in Velvet.”
All vocals present, madrigal and ornate, as they head off to St Stephen.
Adamos:
Jerry sounds really good early on and has a nice fuzzy tone. From 2:00-2:30 it’s pretty powerful and from 3:10-3:25 he has a kind of repetitive chugging thing going that I like before he starts ascending. The pre-verse introductory jam really is compelling.
Phil’s bass seems a bit muffled on the recording but it gives the sound a certain quality that I like. From around 8:10-9:44 the interweaving between he and Jerry is really nice. By 10:10 Jerry is riffing and climbing towards the sky and the others start to fill out the sound around him as they find their way into Sputnik; really nice.
Starting around 13:27 the percussion almost sounds like hip hop record scratching for a bit. Things build again; from 14:00-14:50 Jerry is soaring and then after a moment to collect themselves by 15:10 it’s more rough and raw soloing that transforms into the main theme. The edginess is appealing.
The run up and release of Bright Star is cool too. It sounds different at first but slowly blooms into its more recognizable self. Good Falling Star too. I found them both to be engaging perhaps in part because they have a different feel.
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