105. 1970-06-24

23062 Port Chester, NY 1. 10:01 (9:46) 2. 6:39 3. 30 (Feelin’ Groovy…first 30 seconds of track “Sugar Magnolia”) 4. 3:03
Main theme at 4:00 and 6:11.
First verse at 6:29.
Bright Star at 2. 2:30.
Soulful Strut at 2. 2:54.
Feelin’ Groovy at 3. :30.
Bright Star at 4. :30.
Main theme at 4. 1:14.
Second verse at 4. 1:29.
Goes into Attics of My Life, Sugar Magnolia and St. Stephen.

This is a renowned show despite the quality of the recording. This begins rather brashly, it seems, although audience recordings have a tendency to skew that way. Garcia and Weir lock into a funky little thing at around 1:30, and then Jerry goes spinning up into the stratosphere. Lesh and Weir keep up a perky counterpoint throughout the early innings, and when Garcia gets more ruminative Weir keeps him honest with some chunky riffing. There’s a stirring peak at 3:45 which leads into the main theme. It’s notable that the theme is not really even hinted at prior to then, in contrast to several recent Dark Stars.

They wander away from the theme, and as we cross the 5 minute Rubicon there is a little dip in intensity that sets them up for a wind-up that takes us back to the theme by 6:11. This time it leads into the verse. The post-verse space demonstrates that Mickey has found his gongs; at 8:42 someone in the audience is heard to remark “Oh, my God!” Relief is on the horizon, however, as the band goes into Attics of My Life after a couple minutes of space.

As Attics ends the band gets right back into Dark Star. They start out playing the main chord pattern, and it evolves into a vigorous jam, with Weir again playing chunky chords. It is possible to see Attics as a proxy for space here, and now we’re heading into the middle jam. It’s a rather full tilt affair, with Garcia howling and driving as he starts to whip up Bright Star already at 2. 2:30. Before he’s done, Weir is already cooking up Soulful Strut. By around 2. 5:00 this has gotten really intense, as they reach a polyphonic peak, and after a little dip they bring it back up again by 2: 5:50. Garcia unleashes some crazy runs at about 6:35 before they go into Feelin’ Groovy. This is tracked as Sugar Magnolia, and after 30 seconds they go into the latter.

Sugar Magnolia transforms into a jam which isn’t clearly Dark Star at first; once again, the change comes about 30 seconds into the track, when Garcia returns to Bright Star. This settles down into the main theme, and then the second verse takes us out.

This Port Chester show sees the band playing ferociously, and the Dark Star here, while it may not be very exploratory, spread as it is among various segues, is a hot one. The playing is downright vicious at times. Not to be missed.


What was said:

notesofachord:


6/24/70 is magic.

Pure. Motherfreaking. Magic.


JSegel:


Some stage banter beforehand and then a count and launching into the intro riff (where oddly, Jerry plays an E in place of D on the high note in the first go-round) into the groove with people clapping along, grooving. Some nice majestic riffs in the lead part, then taking it down into a long multi-headed hydra of the three guitars improvising with occasional references to the thematic material. Super long slow build to the theme before four minutes, back down to start a new jam with slightly more broken up rhythmic parts, taking it down in volume further, with JG on high small notes. Bobby starts going for some more dissonant chords. Back to the theme in a minute and the verse starts after six minutes.

Nice relaxed reading of the verse, with some great post-vocal bass and rhythm wandering within line 3.

A popped balloon during “Shall we go” elicits yells, the band goes on, out of the verse into the ‘nightfall’ intro and to directly dissipating music, into small noises from bass and percussion.

Percussion heavy with Chinese cymbals in there with the weird sounds, a bystander near the mics says “oh, my god!” at 8:30. Classic! It’s building to an active noise jam and then off to volume swell melodic guitar, and then slow intro to Attics of my Life, nice transition where the melody comes in slowly and it could possibly be just another jam section, but people recognize it and start clapping before the singing comes in.

The song plods along for 5 minutes, and then switches right back into a Dark Star jam, which picks up the tempo over then next few minutes or so, ripping it up. Sort of a Bright Star at 2:30 into this part, then into a Tighten Up jam, which builds over time to some nice peaks. After the 6 minute wave cresting, it gets back to a Dark Star theme bit and then the Feeling Groovy bass line and chords, but then this is supplanted by the sliding into the A intro to Sugar Magnolia and into that groove, working out the melody and then going into the verse. And eventually another, and into a chorus, and back to the A at which point they head back into more jamming.

The root stays at A, but they soon realize they were in the middle of Dark Star and head back there as a groove idea, with some Sugar-y curlicues before the theme proper comes back in, and we get verse 2! (yay!)

A very rhythmic pulsed version, with people clapping along, and side stick drums in throughout. Nice outro and into St Stephen, and people realize it and freak out. St Stephen heads off to China Cat, IKYR, and they end with UJB. It’s a series of hits, the audience claps along the whole time. Must have been an amazing show to be present at.


Mr. Rain:


Dark Star is preceded by an introduction from Jerry, which is pretty unusual. (Like, the only time ever?) Mickey's getting his gongs, yay!

After all the anticipation, Jerry screws up the opening lick....then he does one of his 20-second opening pauses to let the band establish the groove before he enters with a powerful note. The inevitable guiro is loud & clear again! Really nice brisk opening jam with everybody in top form....after their initial excitement the Capitol Theater crowd shuts up and listens. The lead-up to the theme from about 3:30-4:00 is great, pushing up the intensity just as the theme comes in. As usual the theme is just a short stop that opens up a new jamming path. This gets interesting as they get real quiet after 5 minutes and play lightly (Jerry almost sounds like a toy piano), then crank back up to the theme again.
I think the verses tend to sound better on audience tapes...for instance here, Jerry sounds like he's on the seashore singing to the tide.

Space is pretty tonight -- lots of gong action and harmonizing guitars. At 8:55 Phil's already teasing Attics of My Life, but they delay it another minute to let the very short space run its course. (At two minutes this must be the shortest Dark Star space of the year!) The transition to Attics is oh so great, really gorgeous coming out of space. A minute into the track, the drums fix a beat and the crowd realizes they're playing a new song.

Jerry doesn't waste a second after Attics to return to the Dark Star theme, and they establish a lively jam. This could be considered the main jam; they quickly work up a good head of steam. Before long Jerry's surged into Bright Star and then Bob starts Soulful Strut right away. This band's in a hurry -- everything seems to be happening extra fast. Soulful Strut's really good, with a comfortable feeling and a neat twist at 4:30 when Bob & Jerry briefly switch roles and they all hit a cool peak for half a minute. It comes to a very satisfying ending after 5:30 too as Jerry hangs on one high note and brings them to an intense climax.

Normally things would start heading back toward Dark Star at this point, but the energy's flowing hard and nobody's ready to slow down. So they take a left turn into a fast Feelin' Groovy...and then within 30 seconds Jerry's banging out the A chord to start Sugar Magnolia. The other guys catch on right away, and Sugar Magnolia gets a cool long opening where Jerry's playing the chords while Bob does lead fills. The song's not quite all there yet so it only lasts about 2 minutes.

When they reach the end Jerry does a nice turn back to Dark Star. Pretty spectacular 50 seconds here as Jerry dives into a Bright Star variation, then in a flash they quiet down on the theme -- from a hot peak to a cool saunter within two seconds. Everyone's calm for the theme, and it's time for the verse. Big crowd excitement during the closing figure.

Great audience tape -- the performance isn't hurt by the sound. Very unusual Dark Star, split up into little bits. It felt like a condensed double-speed Dark Star in which they cram what would normally be several-minute jams into about 30 seconds or so. You'd almost think they were racing the clock! Still a wonderful performance.


adamos:


The crowd is charged up, some banter and swearing and they're off. Jerry rides a high line buoyed by the collective rhythm and textures. It feels like they're skimming briskly through the clouds. The momentum slows a bit and Jerry, Phil and Bobby are interweaving nicely. Plenty of guiro too. Jerry eases up and Bob's rhythm becomes more prominent; nice groove. It starts to build again and you can feel it rising upwards, hitting a raspy peak before slipping into the main theme. They downshift a little out of the theme. Jerry is playing quietly at first but there's some fuzzy edge to his line as it wanders out. It gets more delicate and high pitched and then they start revving it up again before easing into the main theme again and on to the verse.

After the verse Phil and Bob set it up and then things quickly dissolve into gong washes and subtle sounds. It starts to build a little but is still very low key. Of all the things we've heard in space over time I'm surprised that exact moment elicited an "Oh my God!" but I commend the sentiment regardless. They shift into a spacier yet still subtle zone, almost like someone is playing a cello, and the gong returns to wash over everything. There's a bit of feedback and some more pretty, delicate freakiness and then they gently slip into Attics of My Life. It's a lovely moment and sounds a little like Stella Blue at first.

Attics finishes and they jump right back into Dark Star without laying any transitional groundwork. Things quickly pick up and they get a good jam going. They're cruising along and spiraling upwards which sets up a launch into Bright Star. They ride that peak for a brief spell and as it runs its course Bob steers them to Soulful Strut. It casts its beautiful and uplifting spell but there's also a little edge and raspiness to the playing as it builds. They keep it going and ratchet it up and you feel enveloped by its grandeur. They ease off and then bring it up for one more peak as Jerry reaches up into the sky. After 6:00 they start to pivot and rock out the transitional zone before heading towards Feelin' Groovy. However FG gets just a brief telling before becoming Sugar Magnolia instead which is declared with emphatic chords.

As Sugar Magnolia ends they hover briefly in that sound and then shift back into Dark Star territory and within 30 seconds Jerry is taking it back to Bright Star. It's a brief but compelling peak and then they ease up and gently (relative to the overall performance) take it to the main theme and on to second verse. The crowd is psyched for St. Stephen that follows.