53. 1969-04-12

14914 U. Utah, 21:40 (cut)
Main theme at :06 and 1:58.
First verse at 2:43.
Sputnik at 8:40.
Verse melody at 14:11.
Bright Star at 17:42.
Falling Star at 18:30.
Main theme at 19:06.
Second verse at 20:11.
Goes into St. Stephen.


The beginning is cut, and it comes right in with what sounds like the beginning of the main theme. At :21 Garcia varies it a little, and plays it a bit like Bright Star. Garcia and Lesh both sound inspired in this early section, but at 1:58 Garcia brings it back to the main theme again and then to the first verse.


Garcia briefly returns to the 1968 lick after the verse, and then goes to the tolling sound. Both Garcia and Weir throw in some feedback as things build, and then Garcia immediately and rather aggressively begins the middle jam. The whole band, in fact, sounds rather jacked up here; there is a minor peak shortly before the 6 minute point and, as is often the case, after this there are little peaks and valleys that follow one another in short order.

Between 6 and 7 minutes Lesh keeps toying with the bass line to the main theme, keeping things anchored. At 6:48 Garcia begins an ascent with some palm muting; at 7:08 he starts playing an aggressive sequence with some rather rock and roll double stops while Lesh goes up the neck for a bit, and then climbs back down, leading to an utterly remarkable moment at 7:16 where Lesh starts hammering on a low A in sync with Garcia who starts playing the “rock and roll” lick again at the same moment. This is some of the most locked in, focused and intense playing yet to appear in a Dark Star. As the band brings the level of intensity down, Garcia again plays some palm muted licks, and then at 7:45 he introduces some volume knob fiddling into the mix.


At 8:28, Garcia seems to have switched on an effect and starts playing longer, feedback notes which seem to signal an end to this section. Perhaps he wants to get out of this part before they do something to mar its perfection; in any case, at 8:40 he rather abruptly begins Sputnik. The rest of the band may not have entirely expected this, as they were still chugging along, but it comes together seamlessly nevertheless. In any case, this Sputnik, which seems to appear somewhat early tonight, proceeds rather briskly until 10:16, when Lesh decides he wants to bring it down and get softer and weirder. Garcia obliges with some scratchy and increasingly fractured Sputnik licks, until at 11:00 it seems like everyone is deciding to weird out.


A kind of space lasts until 11:29, when Garcia switches on the insect effect and things seem headed back to something more familiar; instead, they hover on the edge of space for another minute or so. By 12:38, Garcia has returned to a more usual tone, but things stay balanced on the edge of chaos, with Garcia and Lesh pushing and tugging at each other until at 13:37 Garcia more forcefully asserts himself and the band fully kicks in again.


Garcia plays the verse melody at 14:11; then, after his licks on the E minor, he pauses as they return to A. Weir starts playing the main theme, but he, Lesh and TC soon wander away, while Garcia lays out. There’s a nice little jam here with the three of them, until at 16:36 Garcia takes the lead again for the first time in two minutes. There’s a triumphant little peak just after 17 minutes, with Garcia playing piercing lines until things quiet down a bit at 17:40; Garcia immediately signals Bright Star, which again begins in a bit if a lull (compare 04-11). The drums sit the first part out; when they return at 18:00, things again come to a peak, and again this is followed by Falling Star, from whence we return to the main theme and then the verse, although not before things almost fall apart.


This is one of the tightest and most intense Dark Stars we’ve heard. Once again, it seems like it had the potential to get stranger than it did. There’s little to complain about, though, as this is a stupendous rendition.


What was said:


Archtop:


The 4/12/69 DS is indeed something of a landmark. It's decidedly well-grounded while, at the same time, pushing new ground over familiar waypoints.


Mr. Rain:


I didn't think this Dark Star was as far out of the norm as you did, or any giant step forward....seems like there have been others just as tight & intense. But it's still an excellent A+ version, for sure.
Bear recorded on cassette again; fortunately this copy isn't as battered as 4-11 was. About the same mix as usual, with Phil & Jerry up front; TC's present but inconspicuous.

Big cut at the start...might be missing a couple minutes. I think there's usually at least a minute or two of jamming before Jerry plays the main theme, which starts this tape. Mickey's on guiro (switches to gong for the verse, as always). The band already sounds jacked-up as you say....Jerry does a minute-long tease of the theme before he returns to it at 2:00, and he has a biting delivery. He seems to sing the verse more forcefully than usual, too.
It's funny when Jerry kind of accidentally hits his standard '68 post-verse lick, sounding like he's forgotten how to play it -- 'oops, not that' -- before he gives us his tolling bell. Big buildup with feedback on this -- then when he soars out of it at 4:30, Bill can't wait to join in, he's right there on drums. Things get intense fast: this is going to be a more aggressive Dark Star. A driving jam hurtles forward with Jerry doing some cool muted rhythm for a bit. (Big surprise when he briefly breaks out some volume-knob turns at 7:40; those rarely show up in Dark Star).
Mickey makes the guiro known. Jerry turns on his Sputnik tone with some feedback, nice moment of anticipation, then he plunges right into it.... This does seem early for a Sputnik to show up and the others keep playing normally -- there's some off-mic shouting after 8:40, and they regroup and join Jerry in his Sputnik. Things get wild, tapping & feedback & rhythms going off-kilter...it fades out, then returns. (Notice the percussion: Mickey's matching Jerry's guitar with his scrapes, while Bill continues on the drumset.) It comes to an end around 10:50 -- Mickey dashes to the gong while Jerry scrapes out mechanical noises, Phil droning & Bob doing some cool support in the back. Then it's time to break out the insect weirdness! Jerry's especially piercing in this...but the others are gradually building back up to the regular jam behind him, and he joins them once more. The mood's a little more floaty than it was before the Sputnik, but still relentlessly driving, not as dreamy as some previous versions. (Bill's still drumming away, Mickey's back on guiro.)
The jam gets very rock & roll-y around 13:30, then Jerry hits the verse melody, very aggressively -- maybe too much so, I think he breaks a high string at some point after 14:20 and has to drop out for a couple minutes while he puts a new string on. The others carry on with a nice gentle little jam -- finally, I notice TC doing something! (just his ordinary licks). This is a good spot to notice Bob's quirky rhythm playing, not so different from what he'll do later in the China Cat jams.
At 16:30 Jerry announces himself with some feedback and comes back in. The jam quickly ramps up again, and Jerry hits on a nice transition to a cheerful Bright Star. (And boom, at 18:00 both drummers come pounding in!) This ends with the Falling Star lick again, really intense....Jerry wants to change it around this time, he plays around it a little differently and tries on-the-spot to find a new transition to the main theme. The others ease him down gently....just like 4-11, they fade to extreme quietness before the verse, softly bringing us back home.

Whew, what a trip. Nothing "new" here really, everything's what you'd expect from the last few versions, but played really fiercely. (I think changes & developments at this point are going to be incremental anyway, tiny shifts that won't be apparent right away.) With Dark Stars coming almost every date on this tour, it looks like the trend toward harder-edged playing & wilder Sputnik spaces will continue.


JSegel:


Utah! Well then. A concert put on by the Students for a Democratic Society two months before emergence of the Weathermen from within their ranks.

Dark Star is a set opener for the second set, and they sound ready to explore, Jerry rips it up within a couple minutes and then settles down for a theme, which immediately mutates and dies off into the verse, hit before 3 minutes! (…There’s missing audio, of course.)

The bell comes in after the verse, while the rest of the guys were starting a jam, but they feedback and mallet right in, and then JG goes off again with a bright tone, and switches it up for some windy ways with Phil and Bill, in with the trap set already. Some nice little eddies in the current, plenty of little waves within a bigger jam with a lot of forward momentum from the band, drums pushing it. This is a pretty exciting version! Lots of exploration in the “normal” mode (E Dorian-ish). Jerry comes down to have a little rhythmic jam with Bob, then goes out of it with some volume swells and back to the exploration. Up and down, settling into a Sputnik. With drums. Somebody in the audience is thrilled! Drums lead a big Sputnik buildup, into a chordal rhythm jam on the chord. This is all still before the 10 minute mark!

Now that the volume has back off, we’re still in the Sputnik space, but with weird guiro and chord jams. Aha, I hear string scrape noises, we may be entering a sound improvisation, and JG goes into the insect tone (We gotta figure out how he does this... I have an SG and I've sort of tried a bit, got some idea that he's tapping on the bridge and it's microphonically being picked up by the pickups or sending the impulse down the length of the string, but I haven't tested it at higher volumes.) However, with Bill in there, it still has a pulse and forward-moving rhythm. It does get weird, but comes out into a tone-rolled-off section of lead playing with a few experimental out-of-mode notes crying out, stretching the sounds. It sounds like heading toward a bright star theme area, at 14 they go through the song-form theme, with really strong line 2 spy rhythm, but then weirdly as line three starts they go astray, it all dies down into a quieter area with some Bobby jamming and TC wandering around. TC does some riffing, JG has dropped out. String change? I bet he broke a string during the song-form statements. Bob playing super melodically with his chords and hammer ons, Phil jamming along.

Jerry comes back, maybe he was just lighting a cigarette. He’s back in the eight notes, heading to the higher register but taking his time to state a bright star theme, when he gets there, Phill is up in his higher areas too, and they rock out on the initial 5th, E-to-B, part of the riff, and as it builds, JG stretches the notes to make ‘em cry. Theme proper a little after 19 minutes, as it quiets down to get to verse 2.

People applaud at the return of the singing, wow, we all came along and got here with you!

The multi-part vocal ending leads perfectly into the outro, toward St Stephen. Nice one!


Adamos:


Nice grungy tone from Jerry as the tape cuts in; after the 40 second mark they shift into a dreamier vibe, deep and low, but still some bite. First verse, gong wash and bell tolls, then starting around 4:30 Jerry takes off again soaring upwards. There’s a nice musical tapestry being woven over the next few minutes and you can feel the power and intensity they’re bringing; it’s got an edge.

Sputnik comes into play early-ish and it has excellent bite too; I’m really digging the sound of this performance. Starting around 9:50 Jerry has a repetitive screechy thing going for a bit then things briefly quiet down before wandering into weirdness.

After 12:35 they’re back into a more structured flow but it still has a different feel; starting at 13:05 Jerry does another repetitive thing but it’s lower and then this shifts into a faster paced, edgy groove until they find their way to the verse melody, which is sharp edged too!

Starting around 14:45 Jerry fades back and TC and the percussion come forward, accented by Phil and Bob. The broken string theory makes sense but it turns out to be a nice interlude that gets cooking pretty well. By 16:35 Jerry is back in the fold.

From there they build to a nice peak before rising yet again into Bright Star and then Falling Star. Things are somewhat less edgy now; it’s more a triumphant declaration of awesome. Then the main theme and second verse bring it home. An interesting and compelling performance.