Main theme at 6:51.
First verse at 7:29.
Sputnik at 14:24.
Bright Star at 20:09.
Main theme at 21:59.
Second verse at 22:19.
Goes into Doin’ That Rag.
The intro is rather mellifluous and straightforward tonight. Garcia plays gorgeous lines that feel timeless. At 1:50 he starts to make a fuss, and a little after two minutes there is a little peak with Garcia playing piercing tones; typically, this abates and returns a few times rather than simply building and receding.
At 3:15 Garcia has worked his way into a little groove, and this turns into a chugging rock and roll section, although this doesn’t last long. By 3:34 a new section starts with Garcia and Lesh mirroring each other, and Weir and TC adding chiming color tones. After about a minute, a minor flavored segment commences, which excites someone enough to yell “Yeah!” in the background. At 5:25 this winds up in a Sputnik tease, and then it seems like they’re working their way back around to Dark Star. This intro has covered a lot of ground, and quickly. They hit a little peak before getting to the theme, which is played emphatically this time (6:51).
After the verse, Weir starts in on the two chord pattern right away, and it seems like there will be no weirdness but, as they sometimes do these days, they take a little while to get there, starting out from the basic song framework. Some tolling and feedback commence, and by around 9:20 the song has dissolved and they are weirding out. This turns out to be a pretty deep space jam, lasting until 10:43 when Garcia comes in with a rather gentle lead until, at 11:07, Weir decides it’s time to get after it and the band kicks up again.
As usual, they build and subside and build again, with one particularly intense passage occurring at 12:44 when Garcia repeats a note for about 10 seconds. This leads to an announcement of Sputnik at 13:08, but then this is deferred for the time being. By 13:43 Garcia has worked his way around to some Sputnik-like jabs, but they still don’t go right into it, until by 14:24 it seems clear they are playing Sputnik, and unclear exactly where it started, and even here, for a while longer they seem sort of half in and half out of it.
Garcia seems to want to explore new patterns in Sputnik, and again he alternates arpeggios with jabs. At 1640 Garcia gets some ungodly sounds out of his guitar, and someone in the background has something to say about this. At 16:48 Sputnik seems to be over, and the band plays some ominous chord changes. At 17:17 the insect weirdness commences, and the band swirls around for a while. There are more vocalizations happening concurrent with this and, as JSegel suggests, I don’t think it’s a band member.
At around 17:55, Weir is playing the intro to Weather Report Suite (thanks to Adamos for noticing this).
At 17:56 Garcia switches off the insect tone and plays a little descending melody, and then at 18:05 he starts in with a choppy passage that rely sort of defies description. The band responds to this by getting suitably weird again. At 18:45 our mystery vocalizer seems overcome with excitement by all this! Then, at 18:51, Garcia begins to play in a way that seems to signal a return to relative normalcy, and a very melodic section begins.
At 19:53 Garcia begins to play a variant on Bright Star, and he works his way into it by 20:09 or so. This winds up being a rather brief peak, but scarcely has it died down then they work their way back to another, more intense peak; this culminates in a return to a Bright Star-like lick at 21:30, but this comes when the peak has passed, and eases the band back down until, at 21:59, Lesh and Weir slip into the main theme, which takes us to the second verse and the end.
Dark Star still seems like it can break out further, since they don’t seem to stay with any departure from familiar territory for very long. On the other hand, there are lots of little departures here, and the band is playing together, and listening to one another, magnificently. They have become a rather incredible improvising unit, and this one is a whirlwind tour of what they can do together in this era.
What was said:
JSegel:
Coming after a very moving rendition of “He Was a Friend of Mine”, Dark Star starts very ‘traditionally’ with shaker and ROR, but it quickly shows that it's going to be a new thing. New twists to the intro themes come in, the ROR stops almost as soon as it started and goes into organ playing bits of chords and trills. Bobby strumming it up, but he and Phil follow Jerry to rhythmic worlds suggested by the lead. Cool little area at 2:30-on almost like a new song in there, and even when it starts to suggest Dark Star-proper a bit more, there are darker harmonies. And some odd ones. It’s like some players are having the Dark Star in their minds and others are stretching out of that. Awesome quieter area at 4 min, sounds like Phil yells out “yeah!”, when JG comes in again he’s playing around on the Sputnik bits but refraining from actually moving into it. Man this is some together playing, they are really making music happen for this whole section. The 5-6 min area sees Bill switch from shaker to drums while Mickey stays on guiro. They develop it up to some proto-theme area and then JG jumps in with the theme by 7. We’re back to Dark Star territory, so the verse comes in.
TC playing a bunch of lines on the first vocal line, Line two has the offbeat spy theme but Bobby hammers it on to swing it more. Line three, everybody wanders, and it comes down to the “chorus” lines. Great vocal delivery from Jerry.
They start a strong jam section with the classic intro, but when JG comes in with the bells, everybody is getting on that in their own way, no strict rhythm and it leads to feedback and chromatic noodles from the organ. Drums and cymbal splashes, bass feedback! Noise feedback! Volume swells on odd notes, hammerings-on. This section doesn’t have anything spontaneously spring out of it, so they die down and then JG starts in on a mellow toned beautiful lead area with Phil and Bob figuring out some chords to back it. It develops quickly into a sort of classic “Dark Star” jam section, but Bob’s chords are not the usual ones. He’s getting caught up in certain sonorities he’s finding. Phil is jamming it out. This is great stuff. JG building it up, they get caught in a knot of notes at almost 13 minutes, it drops off, sounds like JG is gonna start the Sputnik, but he has to tune some strings. So it goes slightly sideways and he gets distracted into a new set of alternating notes/chords. Mickey is working on some weird bell things. It’s a rhythmic jam, sort of sputnik based. It may get there. 14:30 we’re approaching an actual Sputnik type area, with TC doing his arpeggios. Nobody is really committing to the Sputnik of yore, they have already abstracted it. Mirror world. Even when JG starts the high arpeggios, there are still odd notes floating around in the mix. And they bring it down and back to a rhythmic style of it, Phil doing some “bell tolling” on low notes. Some serious weirdness interrupts at 16:49, sounds like a prankster on stage, the band goes sideways again, into atonal messiness, from which JG emerges with the insect tone. Whoa, this is a real trip, I can hear some people on stage vocally careening around back there too. (Sounds a bit like Babbs?) At 18:30 we get a tremolo section with some excited yells from said prankster, but JG breaks out of the lull into more beauty, mellow tone melodicism, with melodic statements coming from who knows where—they’re related to Dark Star notes (it's Mirror world probably still), but it’s gonna take a while to get it back to being the, um, “song”… and at 20’ we are almost in Bright Star territory. But only for a second, there, kids. Gonna build it up yet again to get near that peak, and they do by bits of the scale, landing at the theme at 21:30, and are we getting a verse 2?
Oh yes, thank you, at 22’ we’re back in the song. Verse 2 comes in, with a melismatic “shatter” and a warbling “glass hand”, reminding us that while we’re home again, it’s often a scary trip.
All vocals present for the last lines, classic outro accompanied by hand drums and a drone organ and guitar back there, and into a slow intro for “Doin that Rag” which builds side-eyed into the song careening around like a drunk, at least until the chorus. (The song is just like that to begin with, of course. Especially with what sounds like extra singers on stage.) This cuts off, and I guess Cosmic Charlie afterwards to close the set, or anyway there is a small bit captured in the tape of the show.
This was a phenomenal version, so I thought, seems like a great concert overall. Wowzers. New vistas, new music made, pulled right out of thin air.
Mr. Rain:
One of the best yet; maybe my favorite so far.
Very smooth, graceful opening jam....they're in the zone from the start. Jerry's approach is kind of minimalist, lots of repeated notes. Bob's more up-front than usual. Around 4:30 an interesting quiet jazzy section starts around Bob's chords, with Jerry laying back for a minute. Mickey picks up the guiro, Bill starts tapping on drums, and the jam steadily picks up energy til it sails into the theme. Nicely done!
TC's present but kinda quiet again, doesn't seem to do anything distinctive. Congas again, not very prominent. Emphatic singing in the verse.
The post-verse space starts off with a burst of energy -- Jerry's bell-tolling is almost drowned out by Phil & Bob's forceful strumming. Long howling feedback from Jerry! This opens up a quasi-Feedback space, sounding like the end of the show. Phil & Bob nudge it back toward Dark Star, and Jerry starts a lovely lead. Bill's drums kick the jam into gear, and the intensity builds, an uplifting feel, more repetitive strings of notes from Jerry. They pause around 13 minutes (the 3 percussionists can be heard), and it sounds like Jerry's starting a Sputnik, but he kind of plays around it instead in a quasi-Sputnik tease. Slowly the jabs turn into an actual Sputnik arpeggio pattern...they linger on this for a long time while Phil drones; it's like their ship has got lost in the clouds of delusion; the mood stays very creepy. By 17 minutes they come out of this sideways in the weirdest way, surly and threatening. But the weirdness isn't over yet....it's time for the insect tone! The unearthly feel continues (someone's "singing" along with Jerry here!) until Jerry breaks into wild tremolo shimmering and the band sort of oozes around him. "Yea God!" (I always liked to imagine that was Phil feeling the spirit, but I guess some prankster was wandering around the stage.) Spectacular passage!
Jerry restores normality, starting up a nice mellow melody with his prettiest tone, Bob & Bill backing him. No sign of Phil for a minute, but as the jam heats up, Phil comes back in around 20 minutes, recovering from his cosmic epiphany, and they get straight into a Bright Star. This keeps building for a minute to a new triumphant peak, carrying on Jerry's melodic theme, and they finish it with a Bright Star reprise as the main theme starts back up. Very nice! And a soothing conclusion to a hair-raising jam.
Bill's toms announce the verse. Jerry sounds shattered when he sings "shatters." Something tells me he's not feeling quite normal....but they handle the harmonies well.
Interesting choice to go into Doin' That Rag afterward instead of the expected St. Stephen.
Awesome stuff, wild and hairy, a real adventure. They keep turning up the weirdness dial more and more....it sounds like they're even freaking themselves out.
Adamos:
Dreamy and melodic out of the gate with plenty of Bobby on rhythm. It’s moving at a fairly fast clip too with Jerry weaving about wonderfully. This builds to an emotional peak around 2 minutes and then recedes back into the groove. They get into a repetitive, chugging thing starting at 2:28 with Jerry and Bobby playing off of each other; a bit of organ seeps in too. Around 3:00 or so it becomes harder charging with more distortion and then at 3:34 Jerry shifts out onto a different path, first upwards then sort of hovering and weaving again. TC steps forward at 4:19 complimented by percussion then the others start to fill in. “Yeah!” Nice groove. At 5:20 there are hints of Sputnik but Jerry takes it in another direction. It’s floaty and dreamy again, nice strumming from Bob; it builds to a little peak before hitting the main theme at 6:49 and then on to the first verse.
Coming out of the verse Bob is playing strong and loud rhythm; it’s the dominant sound initially and then Phil comes charging in too. At 8:43 there’s a bit of bell tolling and then everyone is building and they start doing this repetitive, swelling thing that comes around several times. By 9:15 it starts to get weird and then they break through into a spacey void which they explore for a bit before finding their way back to the trail around 10:30. Nice gentle groove from here that kicks it up starting at 11:05; Jerry is reaching out into the sky and then they’re cruising along with pace. There’s a bit of ebb and flow but they’re still moving then things build to an intense peak starting around 12:15.
About 12:50 they downshift and then start heading to Sputnik but it takes some time to arrive as they end up in a nice little groove instead. This slowly evolves, the percussion becomes prominent and Jerry starts jabbing; it’s kind of a staggered groove now that finds it way into Sputnik proper. By this point Sputnik is melodic but still a bit staggered. It’s starts to build, organ fills; its kind of a Sputnik groove now, some ebb and flow but it keeps going.
By 16:48 it seems to have run its course and they collect themselves and shift into a new zone which then evolves into insect weirdness at 17:15. The guy caught on tape doing his own vocal accompaniments certainly seems to be enjoying himself! (I like JSegel’s Babbs guess). At 17:55 there’s a little lull and then Bobby briefly plays some chords that sound like what will become Weather Report Suite. At 18:06 they shift into this cool thing with a fast fluttering sound that extends longer than you’d expect before eventually winding down.
At 18:51 Jerry emerges from it and heads out again with the others filling in around him. Nice rhythm from Bobby again and the proceedings have a pretty feel. This gently builds for a bit and then a more pronounced ascent takes them into a brief but uplifting Bright Star around 20:10. They quickly downshift but then at 20:30 they decide to ramp up into an even stronger peak culminating in a bit more Bright Star at 21:30. From there they descend and hit the main theme and second verse.
Wonderful version!
bzfgt:
Good call with Weather Report Suite, I hadn't made the connection!
At 17:56 Garcia switches off the insect tone and plays a little descending melody, and then at 18:05 he starts in with a choppy passage that rely sort of defies description. The band responds to this by getting suitably weird again. At 18:45 our mystery vocalizer seems overcome with excitement by all this! Then, at 18:51, Garcia begins to play in a way that seems to signal a return to relative normalcy, and a very melodic section begins.
At 19:53 Garcia begins to play a variant on Bright Star, and he works his way into it by 20:09 or so. This winds up being a rather brief peak, but scarcely has it died down then they work their way back to another, more intense peak; this culminates in a return to a Bright Star-like lick at 21:30, but this comes when the peak has passed, and eases the band back down until, at 21:59, Lesh and Weir slip into the main theme, which takes us to the second verse and the end.
Dark Star still seems like it can break out further, since they don’t seem to stay with any departure from familiar territory for very long. On the other hand, there are lots of little departures here, and the band is playing together, and listening to one another, magnificently. They have become a rather incredible improvising unit, and this one is a whirlwind tour of what they can do together in this era.
What was said:
JSegel:
Coming after a very moving rendition of “He Was a Friend of Mine”, Dark Star starts very ‘traditionally’ with shaker and ROR, but it quickly shows that it's going to be a new thing. New twists to the intro themes come in, the ROR stops almost as soon as it started and goes into organ playing bits of chords and trills. Bobby strumming it up, but he and Phil follow Jerry to rhythmic worlds suggested by the lead. Cool little area at 2:30-on almost like a new song in there, and even when it starts to suggest Dark Star-proper a bit more, there are darker harmonies. And some odd ones. It’s like some players are having the Dark Star in their minds and others are stretching out of that. Awesome quieter area at 4 min, sounds like Phil yells out “yeah!”, when JG comes in again he’s playing around on the Sputnik bits but refraining from actually moving into it. Man this is some together playing, they are really making music happen for this whole section. The 5-6 min area sees Bill switch from shaker to drums while Mickey stays on guiro. They develop it up to some proto-theme area and then JG jumps in with the theme by 7. We’re back to Dark Star territory, so the verse comes in.
TC playing a bunch of lines on the first vocal line, Line two has the offbeat spy theme but Bobby hammers it on to swing it more. Line three, everybody wanders, and it comes down to the “chorus” lines. Great vocal delivery from Jerry.
They start a strong jam section with the classic intro, but when JG comes in with the bells, everybody is getting on that in their own way, no strict rhythm and it leads to feedback and chromatic noodles from the organ. Drums and cymbal splashes, bass feedback! Noise feedback! Volume swells on odd notes, hammerings-on. This section doesn’t have anything spontaneously spring out of it, so they die down and then JG starts in on a mellow toned beautiful lead area with Phil and Bob figuring out some chords to back it. It develops quickly into a sort of classic “Dark Star” jam section, but Bob’s chords are not the usual ones. He’s getting caught up in certain sonorities he’s finding. Phil is jamming it out. This is great stuff. JG building it up, they get caught in a knot of notes at almost 13 minutes, it drops off, sounds like JG is gonna start the Sputnik, but he has to tune some strings. So it goes slightly sideways and he gets distracted into a new set of alternating notes/chords. Mickey is working on some weird bell things. It’s a rhythmic jam, sort of sputnik based. It may get there. 14:30 we’re approaching an actual Sputnik type area, with TC doing his arpeggios. Nobody is really committing to the Sputnik of yore, they have already abstracted it. Mirror world. Even when JG starts the high arpeggios, there are still odd notes floating around in the mix. And they bring it down and back to a rhythmic style of it, Phil doing some “bell tolling” on low notes. Some serious weirdness interrupts at 16:49, sounds like a prankster on stage, the band goes sideways again, into atonal messiness, from which JG emerges with the insect tone. Whoa, this is a real trip, I can hear some people on stage vocally careening around back there too. (Sounds a bit like Babbs?) At 18:30 we get a tremolo section with some excited yells from said prankster, but JG breaks out of the lull into more beauty, mellow tone melodicism, with melodic statements coming from who knows where—they’re related to Dark Star notes (it's Mirror world probably still), but it’s gonna take a while to get it back to being the, um, “song”… and at 20’ we are almost in Bright Star territory. But only for a second, there, kids. Gonna build it up yet again to get near that peak, and they do by bits of the scale, landing at the theme at 21:30, and are we getting a verse 2?
Oh yes, thank you, at 22’ we’re back in the song. Verse 2 comes in, with a melismatic “shatter” and a warbling “glass hand”, reminding us that while we’re home again, it’s often a scary trip.
All vocals present for the last lines, classic outro accompanied by hand drums and a drone organ and guitar back there, and into a slow intro for “Doin that Rag” which builds side-eyed into the song careening around like a drunk, at least until the chorus. (The song is just like that to begin with, of course. Especially with what sounds like extra singers on stage.) This cuts off, and I guess Cosmic Charlie afterwards to close the set, or anyway there is a small bit captured in the tape of the show.
This was a phenomenal version, so I thought, seems like a great concert overall. Wowzers. New vistas, new music made, pulled right out of thin air.
Mr. Rain:
One of the best yet; maybe my favorite so far.
Very smooth, graceful opening jam....they're in the zone from the start. Jerry's approach is kind of minimalist, lots of repeated notes. Bob's more up-front than usual. Around 4:30 an interesting quiet jazzy section starts around Bob's chords, with Jerry laying back for a minute. Mickey picks up the guiro, Bill starts tapping on drums, and the jam steadily picks up energy til it sails into the theme. Nicely done!
TC's present but kinda quiet again, doesn't seem to do anything distinctive. Congas again, not very prominent. Emphatic singing in the verse.
The post-verse space starts off with a burst of energy -- Jerry's bell-tolling is almost drowned out by Phil & Bob's forceful strumming. Long howling feedback from Jerry! This opens up a quasi-Feedback space, sounding like the end of the show. Phil & Bob nudge it back toward Dark Star, and Jerry starts a lovely lead. Bill's drums kick the jam into gear, and the intensity builds, an uplifting feel, more repetitive strings of notes from Jerry. They pause around 13 minutes (the 3 percussionists can be heard), and it sounds like Jerry's starting a Sputnik, but he kind of plays around it instead in a quasi-Sputnik tease. Slowly the jabs turn into an actual Sputnik arpeggio pattern...they linger on this for a long time while Phil drones; it's like their ship has got lost in the clouds of delusion; the mood stays very creepy. By 17 minutes they come out of this sideways in the weirdest way, surly and threatening. But the weirdness isn't over yet....it's time for the insect tone! The unearthly feel continues (someone's "singing" along with Jerry here!) until Jerry breaks into wild tremolo shimmering and the band sort of oozes around him. "Yea God!" (I always liked to imagine that was Phil feeling the spirit, but I guess some prankster was wandering around the stage.) Spectacular passage!
Jerry restores normality, starting up a nice mellow melody with his prettiest tone, Bob & Bill backing him. No sign of Phil for a minute, but as the jam heats up, Phil comes back in around 20 minutes, recovering from his cosmic epiphany, and they get straight into a Bright Star. This keeps building for a minute to a new triumphant peak, carrying on Jerry's melodic theme, and they finish it with a Bright Star reprise as the main theme starts back up. Very nice! And a soothing conclusion to a hair-raising jam.
Bill's toms announce the verse. Jerry sounds shattered when he sings "shatters." Something tells me he's not feeling quite normal....but they handle the harmonies well.
Interesting choice to go into Doin' That Rag afterward instead of the expected St. Stephen.
Awesome stuff, wild and hairy, a real adventure. They keep turning up the weirdness dial more and more....it sounds like they're even freaking themselves out.
Dreamy and melodic out of the gate with plenty of Bobby on rhythm. It’s moving at a fairly fast clip too with Jerry weaving about wonderfully. This builds to an emotional peak around 2 minutes and then recedes back into the groove. They get into a repetitive, chugging thing starting at 2:28 with Jerry and Bobby playing off of each other; a bit of organ seeps in too. Around 3:00 or so it becomes harder charging with more distortion and then at 3:34 Jerry shifts out onto a different path, first upwards then sort of hovering and weaving again. TC steps forward at 4:19 complimented by percussion then the others start to fill in. “Yeah!” Nice groove. At 5:20 there are hints of Sputnik but Jerry takes it in another direction. It’s floaty and dreamy again, nice strumming from Bob; it builds to a little peak before hitting the main theme at 6:49 and then on to the first verse.
Coming out of the verse Bob is playing strong and loud rhythm; it’s the dominant sound initially and then Phil comes charging in too. At 8:43 there’s a bit of bell tolling and then everyone is building and they start doing this repetitive, swelling thing that comes around several times. By 9:15 it starts to get weird and then they break through into a spacey void which they explore for a bit before finding their way back to the trail around 10:30. Nice gentle groove from here that kicks it up starting at 11:05; Jerry is reaching out into the sky and then they’re cruising along with pace. There’s a bit of ebb and flow but they’re still moving then things build to an intense peak starting around 12:15.
About 12:50 they downshift and then start heading to Sputnik but it takes some time to arrive as they end up in a nice little groove instead. This slowly evolves, the percussion becomes prominent and Jerry starts jabbing; it’s kind of a staggered groove now that finds it way into Sputnik proper. By this point Sputnik is melodic but still a bit staggered. It’s starts to build, organ fills; its kind of a Sputnik groove now, some ebb and flow but it keeps going.
By 16:48 it seems to have run its course and they collect themselves and shift into a new zone which then evolves into insect weirdness at 17:15. The guy caught on tape doing his own vocal accompaniments certainly seems to be enjoying himself! (I like JSegel’s Babbs guess). At 17:55 there’s a little lull and then Bobby briefly plays some chords that sound like what will become Weather Report Suite. At 18:06 they shift into this cool thing with a fast fluttering sound that extends longer than you’d expect before eventually winding down.
At 18:51 Jerry emerges from it and heads out again with the others filling in around him. Nice rhythm from Bobby again and the proceedings have a pretty feel. This gently builds for a bit and then a more pronounced ascent takes them into a brief but uplifting Bright Star around 20:10. They quickly downshift but then at 20:30 they decide to ramp up into an even stronger peak culminating in a bit more Bright Star at 21:30. From there they descend and hit the main theme and second verse.
Wonderful version!
Good call with Weather Report Suite, I hadn't made the connection!
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