93. 1970-01-17

19283 Oregon 20:00
Main theme at :20 and 3:06
First verse at 3:41.
Sputnik at 9:35.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:55.
Bright Star at 16:35.
Main theme at 17:50.
Second verse at 18:25.
Goes into St. Stephen.

After some brief preliminaries Garcia mentions the main theme very early here, at :20. The jamming sort of circles this for a while, in what will be a common strategy in the early part of Dark Star. Garcia’s lines seem especially classical in this introduction, and the band seems particularly mindful of the structure of the song; they take advantage of this strategy and build to a little peak at 1:59, with Garcia touching on Bright Star. From about 2:40 they depart from the structure, but this is brief and they come back to the main theme by 3:06. Surprisingly, they go right to the verse here after a relatively brief intro.

The post-verse descent into space is quite the expected thing at this point. Again tonight they take it down to almost nothing, and then weirdness starts to poke through. They fluctuate dynamically between intense swells and quieter sections. It strikes me that they are getting very good at this, and the post-verse space is often one of the most engaging parts of the performance.

The egress from space again begins when Garcia starts playing Sputnik at 9:35. Like last time, this again departs from Sputnik as we’ve known it, but it holds its structure long enough that I’ve counted it this time. It is relatively brief, however, as Garcia starts playing an insistent line that leads them into the middle jam proper. By 12:45 this seems to be angling toward Feelin’ Groovy and it gets there a few seconds later, but it doesn’t stay there long, as the band soon varies the pattern again, never fully committing to the jam this time. Instead Lesh plays a figure that at times seems more related to the Dark Star theme but also kind of seems like it’s own thing. They leave it behind and circle back to it a few times, and Garcia also occasionally alludes to the theme in the course of this section and then, at 15:42, bursts into a kind of modified Bright Star.

At about 16:10 the band hits a nice peak, and they sustain it for a while, taking it even higher when Garcia finally commits to Bright Star at 16:35. They come down the other side into the main theme, and soon they are wrapping it up with the second verse.

This feels pretty succinct; 20 minutes isn’t that short by historical or even contemporary standards, but it all seems to go by in a flash. The jamming here is excellent—there are no weak points or moments of confusion; rather, the band seems confident and in command from beginning to end. The jam after space is particularly good here; they dip their toe into Feelin’ Groovy, but for the most part this isn’t organized around a modular section, but improvised on the spot. This is also the most fully realized part of the rendition, as they explore the possibilities of this particular jam at some length. In some ways this reminds me of a version from late Spring of 1969—confident and at times aggressive playing coupled with a willingness to move on quickly to the next idea. But when the dust has settled this one has not ranged that widely, since they hunker down into the last jam and let it play out. In summation, this is perhaps not an all-timer, but it is a truly excellent version nonetheless.


What was said:

JSegel:


(I really wanted it to be the 21:12 version just cuz 2112, but that one was a half step flat, so I’m going with the 20:00 version)

Following Mason’s Children and High Time (and an announcement for everybody to take off their shoes so as not to ruin the floor of the gym…), a classic start into a medium tempo groove with hand drums and shaker, TC on his new riff, theme statements and leads taking off from there. I like this groove and feeling this evening, nice playing from everybody together right off the bat, and very “classic” Dark Star sounding. Nice ups and downs in the mode, very small eddies in the flow which is constantly moving forward with riffy bits and melodic lines. A static area shows up by almost 3 minutes and it comes out right into the Dark Star riff again. Beautiful. Into pre-verse territory, the verse at about 3:45.

Verse strongly sung, with intensity contrasted with delicacy, interesting rhythmic play on line two from Phil while TC maintains the offbeat accent, the wandering on line three is exploratory. Chorus is perfectly played with the cymbal and drum accents, off to the counterpoint outro and into the Transitive Nightfall.

Some full drumset statements, the band seems to start to play as if it was going normally and then it all peels away.

To near silence with spectral organ trills, small guitar sounds and cymbals, some hand drums still. Bass notes poke in with a feedback coming from guitar, and some guitar string strikes. Feedback play with whammy bar! (Very Hendrix, guys.) Also with cymbals and organ chords. String scraping, the organ starts going a little wilder, lots of cymbal splashing, waves come and go. A super distorted bass note/chord enters and Jerry plays a few soft notes. Continuing toward trills and feedback, the Sputnik is entering quietly toward the end of the 9th minute. Drums and organ comping with it. He changes chord and it goes more a minor for a bit, but it left a groove in the drums and Jerry comes back in after the wave with lead playing in the normal Dark Star mode, but quicker, this is a cool jam, Phil is working the D and E over the A, at 12:30 it’s a very plugging Dark Star but Bobby takes it to the Feeling Groovy chords and Phil joins with the descending bass line (which still says “Uncle John’s Band” to me). Sounds like Bill is grooving with toms more than ride cymbal here, Mickey on claves still. It dips a minute later and comes back up with Dark Star theme like bass lines, but more with the major key feel still. They play up a rocking Dark Star theme area at 15:30, into the endless lead playing we used to have with this sort of jam here a year previous. It is slowly heading to a Bright Star a minute later, in a super strong, very forward-moving jam. At 17:20 or so, Jerry signals that it’s gonna reign in a bit, and they start an interesting break down that isn’t exactly. like slowing the wheel like they’d been doing, but comes down to the theme and slows down into the pre-verse tempo, verse 2 at 18:30.

Nice delivery on the verse, where it grooves normally on line one, with some trills from TC then line two opens up to the offbeat rhythm with a wide chord and cymbals on the downbeat and strong statements on the offbeat chords, on line three, Phil plays sparsely and lets the wandering happen in a small way from TC. Nice madrigal vocals from everybody on the outro. Counterpoint followed by a long set of the chords with little tinkly percussion that lead to St Stephen, which elicits applause, everybody knows this one.

Excellent version, in my opinion, lots of the endless whole-band improv on the Dark Star groove, Jerry rarely steps aside like he had been on several versions previously and continues moving forward with his lead lines. Even the “Feelin’ Groovy” section felt more “Dark Star” than some random major chords shoved into the space. In many ways this one reminded me of the versions from the winter 1968-69-area versions (more than spring 69, as above.)


Adamos:


The opening does have a classic Dark Star feel except for the newer TC riff. Everyone sounds pretty clear in the mix with TC a bit fainter in the background. Jerry’s guitar line wanders out complimented by Phil and Bob. He picks up the intensity and takes it a little sharper and higher. Eventually things dissolve into a slightly spacey or less structured yet still melodic zone and then suddenly they burst back into the theme and hit the first verse early.

After an emphatic verse they quickly head into space as expected and things get quiet and jingly with just the odd sound cropping up from various instruments. There’s also some distortion on the recording that adds a bit of a feedback feel. There are some freaky alien sounds rather soft in the background and eventually a sustained feedback sound steps forth and things get stranger. It really has an otherworldly feel on this night with some scary movie sounds mixed in as well. In come the scraping strings and there’s a swell with keyboard and gong washes. A loud bass note rings out and there’s some quiet guitar that gives way to more feedback.

Around 9:35 Sputnik quietly starts to emerge, building up with the layered patterns and again turning into something a bit different and not going as high as it sometimes does. After a minute or so this gives way to a deeper guitar line and they start to work up a jam with some prominent Phil. It revs up and gets going and by 12:50 it’s turning into Feelin’ Groovy. This version is not as fully fleshed or uplifting but it’s a good groove. Before long it fades back into a different jam with Jerry working some different lines that sound pretty cool. You can hear Dark Star poking through at various points especially from Phil but they keep the groove going.

Eventually it starts getting more collectively Dark Starry although still not quite and the momentum builds and they’re ascending to a peak and by 16:30 it bursts forth into a triumphant Bright Star. They stay up there for a good bit and it sounds a little like bagpipes. Eventually they start bringing it down, taking their time, and end up in a revving downshift before pivoting to the main theme and second verse.

I liked this one quite a bit. Classic feel to the opening. Space wasn’t the freakiest but it was a good one and they have it down to an art form. There weren’t as many thematic jams and FG wasn’t fully developed but it was its own thing and this section was perhaps more cohesive with fewer separate parts. And then it was nice to get a big Bright Star at the end.


Mr. Rain:



A brisk start...Jerry doesn't do his usual pause at the beginning, he's ready to go. Some conga pattering is very noticeable, haven't heard that in a while. TC's way off in the back, quiet enough to be subliminal, but sometimes he turns up the volume. Really elegant opening jam, I can sense the "classical" feel you guys mentioned; it's got a confident & purposeful motion. It's also disappointingly brief, Jerry gets to the verse really quickly. Zipping right along! Maybe they had a time limit at this show; I wanted this to be more drawn-out.
Then it's time for space -- around this time Bob & Phil are introducing it with some hanging chords that taper off into silence. They get into spooky noises & feedback, nicely done -- after a while it's like a tapestry of weirdness between all the instruments, a Halloween soundtrack of unseen menaces. Big bass notes and some preliminary musical tones lead to a Sputnik that starts out quiet and gradually gets loud & wild. But it's only a minute long, heading immediately to the jam. Sputnik's been demoted; now it always ends the journey through space but it's no longer the focus for weirdness.
The jam's lively....Bill & the guitars soon build up a happy groove. They gather speed and tumble into Feelin' Groovy, but this seems to end as soon as it begins. They pause and go on more in a Dark Star mode; Mickey's clackin' away on his claves. Jerry plays a nice melody statement from about 13:10-14:10...it sounds familiar but I'm not sure if he's played it in a Dark Star before. Phil brings in the main bassline on top of this, but they're feeling restless, the jam moves on looking for a place to land, circling round the theme. This is an invitation to Jerry, and he takes it by tackling Bright Star. This ramps up in stages, phase one around 15:00, hitting the next step at 15:30, an energy surge after 16:00, then a climb up to the Bright Star peak at 16:30, the band getting more agitated & distorted, then Mickey piles on his drumset too. Jerry finishes it off with a big biting bass riff, but he's still flying too fast to go back to the theme just yet, so they take an unexpected step sideways in an odd little bouncy-chord diversion, and then the theme slowly reconstructs itself in pieces, one instrument at a time. And soon, the verse.
Very cool version that feels too short....the solution is to listen to it repeatedly! Each part's done well; great final stretch that blasts off to the stars.