123468 Atlanta 26:50 (cut in middle)
Main theme at 6:59, 8:18, and 12:55.
First verse at 13:11.
Sputnik at 18:35.
Bright Star at 23:21.
Main theme at 24:34.
Second verse at 25:17.
Goes into St. Stephen.
Garcia lays back for a little, coloring in with some feedback while the band (Lesh and Weir in particular) does its thing. The feedback proves to be rather persistent, though; even once Jerry starts playing, it keeps up, and it starts to seem like it might not be intentional. But after a few minutes it seems to clear up. As we pass the three minute line Garcia is starting to generate some excitement, building up to some high repeating licks; they crest the peak here and bring it down again, and then they’re working toward the next little peak. Garcia seems to be emphasizing the G (dominant 7th) quite a bit in his licks this time.
As usual, the dynamics are very…dynamic; one of the most notable things about the Dead’s playing in this era is the way the music can get louder and softer and louder again within a minute or less of playing. Indeed, often times the level of intensity is varied within the course of a single phrase. This is seems very unusual for rock music; I’d be hard pressed to think of another band that does anything similar.
At 4:29 there begins a quite remarkable stretch of music. Garcia is again hammering on the G, and the whole band starts to hover. Garcia slowly travels around the neck, visiting various notes for a spell and then moving on—some tremolo on C#, then back down to G, then he works his way up to a high F#. As Garcia hangs on each note for a while, Lesh lays in some chordal stuff; Weir starts playing some tremolo, adding to the feeling that the band is hovering. This creates a sense of drama, and you can hear the crowd respond.
Jerry starts playing some limber runs, and things seem about to open up. At around 5:24 they sound like they’re ready to move back to more familiar territory, with everything starting to coalesce and bounce, and the main theme seems like it may be in the offing, although there are some clashing harmonics and it’s still not certain what’s happening—for a few seconds, at around 5:42, it sounds a little like they’re trying to get into a Soulful Strut (aka “Tighten Up”) jam (this will make its debut in August).
There’s so much going on during the course of this minute or so of Dark Star that it’s really difficult for me to say exactly what is happening! Everyone, it seems, is threatening to fly off in a different direction, and there is a constant sense of tension, and yet somehow it all stays together. This is the stuff that makes otherwise sane people into Deadheads.
At 5:45 Garcia starts playing with the volume knob, prolonging the interlude, and Lesh duets with him, also manipulating the volume control a bit. At 6:13 Garcia starts hammering on a high E while Lesh plays a repeated descending run. Then at 6:22 Lesh starts to vamp on an E note, and the band settles into a beautiful groove in E minor, with shades of B minor as Weir hammers a hanging D and Garcia builds his line around a B.
At 6:54, Garcia decisively affirms the A, and the main theme briefly commences. Weir doesn’t seem particularly interested in playing the theme, though, and it doesn’t last long. Weir seems determined to stay in a minor key here, and Jerry acquiesces and moves away from the theme, but he is determined to get back to it, and at 8:18 he starts it up again, in an upper register with a kind of Bright Star feel. The band is banging away here, and they never quite get into straight theme mode; at 9:02, it gets bluesy for a bit, kind of like Smokestack Lightning, and it goes through a few more permutations before we get to a rousing peak beginning at around 9:48.
The stretch from 8:18 to around 11:10 is a kind of main theme jam, as the theme is its organizing principle, although it isn’t always being played at any given time. At about 11:04, the rest of the band finally settles into the theme, although Jerry isn’t playing it now. He plays a few slides and drops hints that he’s about to start, but then at 11:10 he takes off with some high runs, and soon the theme is forgotten again. Everyone bangs away for a while, and then at around 12:02 they drop into another little pocket where everyone is hovering. At 12:32 Garcia flashes Sputnik, and one begins to wonder if they’re going to forgo the verse altogether this time. At 12:55, however, Garcia again starts the main theme, and this time they wind up at the verse. At 13:11, this is the longest Dark Star intro to date. It’s also the best one they’ve done.
After the verse Garcia does some heavy bell tolling, which we haven’t heard much of recently. The band works up a serious head of steam here, and then gradually lets the pressure escape. At 15:41 Garcia casts his first notes into the ether, and it doesn’t seem like he’s sure how this one’s going to go, but everybody seems to want to stay in a minor key and brood... however, at 16:13 Garcia starts a bouncy line, and things begin to pick up. A vigorous jam ensues, with the usual peaks and valleys coming in quick succession.
There is a cut at 17:53, although it’s hard to imagine that it’s very long, given that what we have of this Dark Star is almost 27 minutes. We reëmerge into a little lull before Sputnik, which comes at 18:35. This is an energetic but spacey segment tonight, with TC sounding like he’s auditioning for Hawkwind. As Sputnik ends at 19:46, Lesh briefly starts playing his main theme lick, and then at 20:51 Garcia puts on the insect weirdness. They build a little jam here, and as Jerry switches back to a more usual tone at about 20:37 they keep it going.
This section starts to wind down, and at 21:30 Garcia starts playing some jabbed double stops in what is almost a Sputnik reprise. Things start to build a head of steam again, and we head for Bright Star. Starting at 23:43, check out Weir doubling Garcia. This rolls right into the theme (the end of Bright Star shades into the main theme in a way that makes them hard to distinguish) and the verse.
This is an astonishing performance. It is remarkable how the band has developed to the point where each member exercises an enormous amount of freedom, yet they have the confidence and skill to meld it all together into a coherent piece of music. At times they seem almost perverse in their willingness to contradict and contravene each other; yet, remarkably, the resulting synthesis is usually successful. This Dark Star seems worthy of years of study.
What was said:
Adamos:
As things commence there’s some feedback with a glowing quality and some thrashing chords. Weir is laying down strong rhythm and TC enters the picture with some distant fills. The feedback is still happening sporadically and Jerry wanders out. Around 2:10 he’s reaching up into the sky then he pivots and takes a mellower tack. His leads are emotive and really pull you in. Phil is less prominent in the mix but you can still hear him working and at times he bubbles up more. After 4 minutes or so he and Jerry are weaving around each other nicely. Things are collectively building and there’s some real beauty to the ensuing passage. They’re making magic and things start to swirl and you can hear the crowd cheering like they know they are witnessing something special.
The groove starts building momentum and then around 5:45 Jerry starts working the volume knobs and they take a moment to gather themselves before continuing in a gentler, prettier fashion. We get hints of the main theme but as bzfgt mentioned Bobby has other ideas so Jerry takes it elsewhere, resulting in some repeating notes with little more bite. Around 8:10 or so he comes back around more emphatically and Bobby and Phil start working it too and a jam builds from there. TC also becomes more prominent and sounds a little electronically warbly. There’s some ebb and flow, the audience is clapping along, Jerry is hitting some lower notes and they continue to work in and around the theme for a spell before eventually hitting the first verse. A wonderful opening segment.
Post verse the gong washes come in along with strong bell tolling and they stir up a powerful brew. It starts to subside around 15:30 and Jerry starts out gently as the drums come to the forefront. Things stay mellow and contemplative for just a bit and then suddenly they’re into a more energetic, swinging groove of varying intensity. Then after a tape cut at 17:45 they are doing a bit of spacey hovering before shifting into Sputnik.
Sputnik has some oomph with TC making prominent contributions. After it runs its course there’s a brief pause and then Jerry gets into insect weirdness still with lots of TC. This evolves into a jam and they cruise along for a bit and then start building momentum as they ascend towards Bright Star with some pit stops along the way. After a pause there’s a bit more deepness and fuzz in Jerry’s tone starting around 22:20. Things build and then ease up creating a space for Bright Star to come on somewhat gently. It rises up nicely with drums prominent and they sustain a blissful peak before fuzzily shifting right into the main theme followed by the second verse.
JSegel:
Another outdoor Dark Star, bringing the audience into new vistas right there in the light of day.
Classic opening into shakers and pounding on the guitar to test feedback before some notes. (No ROR? I didn’t hear it.) Sounds energetic, very upbeat in the band, despite some feedback issues (most likely all those open mics on hand percussion.) Jerry has a few peaks and eddies, he’s got a very strong tone going on right off the bat. Playing around with some fragments of theme, going back and forth in register, Phil seems to be plugging away in a fairly swung forward-momentum. TC plays with some pyramid building in the background. They come to a plateau at about 5 minutes, back off and you can hear cheering from the audience. JG backs out of this with volume knob note swells, for a new feel. At 6:30, they seem to start a new section, Phil on a low pedal tone. In this section JG seems to suggest the Dark Star theme, but it never coalesces as Bob is fiddling on some chords, keeping it in the minor chord. So off it goes again, a bit more chromatically now. Then at 8 minutes the theme comes in and they play around it for a while. TC seems to have his own interpretation of it now, and he’s jamming off on his side while the band break it down and build it back up again to a strong theme area until 10 minutes or so, I think I hear people clapping when they back off the volume. The band plays around on the chords. JG could come in with verse, but he wants to play around more! He’s on some long downward runs, over and over. Everybody seems to want to play around with the chords, adding a strong D major in between the em7 and the A7.
Verse comes in at 13 minutes. Strong vocals from Jerry. Lots of cymbals. Line two is basic in its rhythm, line 3 has minimal casting about ‘searching’. Nice hand drums in the ‘chorus’.
Into the center jam. Jerry is playing notes, not bell tolling for a bit, but the cymbals are blowing reality back and forth, eventually he joins in the noisy tolling, and Phil starts scrubbing his low notes. TC trills around. Drum sets enter but it quiets down nicely to wait to see what happens. JG comes in with delicate lines, and it goes arhythmic for a bit, then builds back to a pulse and some riffing, building up a wave of sound and the drums are carrying the rhythm.
//...a cut, which leaves us in an ambiguous territory of quiet free jamming, isolated sounds popping up until JG starts a sputnik at about 18:30 in this tape. TC arpeggiates all over. It grows into a noisy chord, TC scrubbing his keys up and down. When it dies off, Jerry goes for the insect weirdness over a field of odd noises from everybody else. TC seems to be suggesting more Sputnik. The drums head to groove but take a while to get there, up and down, waiting for Jerry to start with some lead lines at about 21 minutes. JG suggests some DS theme melody but then goes for the rhythmic style of Sputnik, in three-eighths against the beat. Seems like they want to get into a groove segment but somehow Dark Star is fighting back and it’s very chaotic and it takes a couple minutes before Phil starts a pedal tone to hold it together, and then JG hits the Bright Star theme. It goes on for a while at high energy, into the Dark Star theme, and as many times before, it seems like when TC steps up to play a strong thematic thing, the band drops down to leave him hanging! Ha. It drops into the pre-verse chords, verse 2 comes in at 25 minutes in—it’s a long one! Again, nice vocal delivery but subdued rhythm on line two and three instead of the super ornate and definitive versions of these earlier in the year.
People yell yay! The band breaks it down to segue into and oddly relaxed but punchy St Stephen, contrasting the energy of this Dark Star.
AlienRendel:
This thread both fascinates and terrifies me.
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