91: 1969-12-30

28469 Boston 19:23
Main theme at 6:39.
First verse at 7:04.
Sputnik at 12:40.
Main theme at
Second verse at
Tape cuts back in at Alligator.

Gong crashes send this off in a bracing manner. There is a kind of polyphonic madness that sets in early here. Garcia sounds extra trebly on the Strat, and there’s a little edge to everything. When we reach the three minute mark, there is a sudden downshift that could herald the theme, but it doesn’t this time; instead, we find ourselves on the edge of space. This is a rather nice section which never gets too far out, and it eventually congeals into a pretty jam before it finally arrives at the main theme at 6:39. This quickly goes to the verse, in which there is a small cut.

It doesn’t feel, after the preceding, like a big step into space tonight. This time there are some tinkling wind chimes, or anyway that is what they sound like, and TC swirls around a bit for good measure. This one is heavy on the weird-out factor in general, until some tendrils appear at around 11:30 that seem to herald a way out of the fog. The space intensifies, however, until Garcia starts a syncopated and delicate Sputnik at about 12:40.

Sputnik tonight builds into a bit of a clamor, and I found myself expecting the insect weirdness and verse melody to come through, but instead Jerry starts up a line that intersects with Lesh’s and leads us into the middle jam. Weir starts hinting at Feelin’ Groovy, but it is not going to happen yet; instead, there is a rather pretty and gentle jam that keeps itself fairly well reigned in. At 16:55, when things seem to be stalling, a light and lovely Feelin’ Groovy emerges. It isn’t long before this kind of disperses into a halfway state of sort-of Feelin’ Grooviness, and then they’re pushing toward some kind of transition to somewhere, but it cuts before we discover where…whether they ever sing the second verse cannot be now known. There is a pretty severe cut here which deposits us at the end of the sung part of Alligator.

This is nice, delicate, and pretty for much of its length. It’s always nice when Dark Star goes a bit off the beaten track. This is here not so much a matter of playing anything radically different; rather, it just has a kind of different feel this night. The band seems restrained, but they are playing well for the most part.


What was said:

JSegel:


Middle night of a 3 night run toward NYE, coming out of the China/Rider pair (after a bunch of futzing around and Phil suggesting the intro riff a hundred times) and cut at the end of Dark Star, so unknown where exactly it went before there’s a bit of Alligator and into drums and the Eleven (then back to Alligator and feedback and WBYG.)

They start together at a medium-to-slow tempo, intro amended with a giant cymbal. Many intro statements in a very staid structural rhythm, not much swing to it initially. It seems to be pretty listless for a while, Jerry’s eddies are slow series of notes, he even gets caught on one note for a while, it is taking its time to get into a proper jam. The guiro picks it up a bit, but JG is coming in and out, and the waves follow him. He gets into more quiet stuff in the 3 minute area, volume swells already. They seem to be getting into a little chordal groove, but it’s very slow and understated, very delicate statements from JG and even Phil is a bit delicate.

At 5:30 or so they start a riff and try to build it up for a bit, but it keeps falling away back into the mellow pond of the mode. JG has some flourishes, even Bobby is following with melodic bits. At 7:00 they do start the theme, very quietly, and it gets to verse 1, a mournful version with the lines stated very much like an entire year previous, but more mellowed. Not much movement ("searchlight casting") under line 3 still, these days. Organ swells on the Shall We Go, etc, they transition to the counterpoint and start the Transitive Nightfall.

Very quiet, it trails off into odd percussion and bells, some guitar striking sounds but very low, a few organ sweeps. Not so much having reality blown away into this new place as just dropping slowly into a still pond. Cymbals, bells, descending string scraping bits, sparse sounds. Odd swelling bass notes, like backwards tapes. Very electronic-music-sounding free improv jam! Overall, a very still sea of sounds. Here comes some feedback from bass and guitars building the tension with cymbals. Held organ chords with volume pedal, a Sputnik is arising out of the ocean in the 13th minute, the classic arpeggio version.

Up and down it goes, he switches chords to a minor and then up, as it crests it comes out into a sidestick trapset rhythm with roller rink organ stops, slightly jazzy feel, Phil is finding a new riff as Bobby searches for chord, then the settle on some A and D stuff at 16:30. But it wanders, not settling into one of the newer jams nor any riff really. Sounds like hints of a song, and then Phil does a Dark Star theme statement but then it goes into the Feeling Groovy chords.

Major key jam. Sounds sort of like a mellow Uncle John’s Band for a bit. Then they stick on a specific chord for a while before getting back to hints at DS, but with stops slowing it down. Jerry glisses up to the A like he’s gonna do a Dark Star theme but doesn’t quite do it, plays around a bit and the tape cuts. Aw. No verse 2 recorded!

Sort of a weird and nice yet aimless version, never really landing much of anywhere. Jerry has been in and out of these Dark Star jams quite often in the previous month or so, he keeps dropping out after short melodic bits, not quite sure where it’s going maybe. Possibly it’s getting used to the new guitar and needing to tune it. As bzfgt said, it sounded like heading for the insect weirdness in there, but I’m thinking that the insect tone was a product of the SG and having the string excitation coming from behind the bridge (between there and the Bigsby vibrato unit) and that doesn’t exist on the Strat. Or maybe he’s waiting for the inspiration to take it elsewhere now that the song is almost 2 tour-years old. We’ll see!

“The 70s are gonna be weird, man” -Jerry, 12/31/69


adamos:


Some gong comes in right away; a big initial wash followed by a smaller one. Jerry and Phil are both pretty active out of the gate and Bob comes in to round things out. TC is fairly quiet in the background. There's some sharpness to Jerry's guitar tone as it starts a bit loud and high before settling in for a wander. Within a couple minutes things have slowed down and gotten more drifty and then suddenly they shift back into a more active groove. This quickly runs its course and by 3:00 they enter a quiet, somewhat spacey zone. There's some volume knob action and then some gentle, contemplative playing from Jerry. He takes his time with it and they collectively keep it pretty low key. Slowly they work up a little momentum, still fairly delicately, and Jerry does some quicker spiraling before shifting into the main theme and on to the first verse.

As the verse finishes some gentle chimes come in and they quickly shift into space after a particularly brief re-intro from Phil and Bob. Things get quiet and assorted sounds briefly emerge at various intervals: chimes, gong, some faint TC, a guitar note, etc. There's some almost bell tolling but very quiet and surrounded by chimes. They drift into a weirder zone; it's very delicate but there's a sense that something freaky could happen. It starts to build a little; the string scraping fits in well; TC gets more active and adds nicely to the happenings. Eventually it gets louder and more feedback-y and by 12:40 Sputnik gently emerges.

Sputnik slowly builds, still delicate and melodic and swirly then rising up to a brief peak from which they suddenly drop back down. Out of this lull Jerry starts weaving a line that Bob and Phil play off and they get a little jam going. There are signs of Feelin' Groovy but they slow up and work this gentle groove for a bit before fully turning to FG. It starts out mellow and pretty and then starts to build some momentum but it's still fairly low key and then they downshift again. They continue to work around this space and get another groove going but then they take it down again. They hover for a bit making some gentle, pretty sounds....and then suddenly there's a tape cut and we're transported into Alligator.

I wonder if they ramped up for a big surge at the end or kept things low key. Based on what we have it's a fairly gentle, understated version but with a good amount of delicate weirdness.


And with this one we reach the end of 1969; a big milestone for the Every Dark Star thread!