87034 Portland, OR 30:47
Main theme at :51 and 9:19.
First verse at 9:45.
Tiger at 24:35.
Main theme at 27:57.
Second verse at 29:14.
Goes into Comes a Time.
This one starts with a chugging statement of the main chords. Garcia starts to tentatively cast about at around :24; at :51 he springboards off a single time through the theme, still taking his time, lightly soloing over the springy two chord cushion. The intensity slowly builds here, with the band sounding rather mournful. Garcia’s choppy triplets beginning at 3:22 are subtly mirrored by Weir. Jerry pierces the heavens at 3:43, and then immediately reappears at the lower end of his range. At 3:53 he plays a triangular little chordal figure that will reappear, most prominently toward the end of this rendition.
At 3:43 Garcia’s downwardly cascading line pools and then swells and ascends, and they hit a little peak at about 5:06 that’s drawn out until 5:20, at which point they regroup. Garcia takes advantage of the lull to muse about on the low strings again, and Weir pushes a little but draws back, as they maintain the ruminative feel, luxuriating in the beauty of this intro segment. A minor peak swells and recedes just before the 7 minute mark, and then it fragments again.
At 7:08 Lesh decides it’s time for E minor, and there is the barest suggestion of one of his jazzy patterns as Garcia kicks into a roll. Then at 8:02 the latter begins playing a chordal figure again, developing the idea first broached at 3:53; this hints at the chordal vamp Jerry plays as the introduction to Bird Song in this era, then builds into its own little jam which culminates with Jerry playing with the theme melody beginning at 8:50, and getting more explicit until at 9:19 he lets it fly in the high register. At 9:41 he brings it down to the midrange but, instead of playing the theme again, he starts singing the verse.
The music breaks up almost immediately out of the turnaround, with Kreutzmann’s toms taking the lead. Everything else drops out as Garcia accompanies him with some volume swells. As these fade out we seem to be headed into a drum break, but Phil and Jerry keep puttering along; the bass settles into a bouncy groove and Garcia eases out, with Godchaux now accompanying Lesh and Kreutzmann. Lesh builds a head of steam, playing some stabbing chords, and Weir joins them at 14:34, with Garcia jumping in at 14:52 as a rock jam begins to take shape.
It keeps growing, and soon they are grooving along with abandon, creating a scene that is very different from the introductory segment. The jam keeps getting more and more exciting, and there’s a bit of a peak around the 18 minute mark, and then they start to tail off a little. At 18:35 Garcia brings back the triangular chordal figure again, and then there is a kind of centrifugal scattering as Kreutzmann again comes to the fore, bashing the toms as Garcia spits some bluesy leads.
At 19:55 Garcia kicks on the wah, pointing them toward a meltdown, and Weir duly starts scritching. Lesh adds some doomy pronouncements, but the direction is uncertain as Garcia pulls back into more circumspectly melodic territory, adhering to the meltdown but resisting a full press toward the Tiger. They opt for spaciness here, until at 24:05, with no center to the thing at all, Garcia starts plunging toward the Tiger at last. This winds up a somewhat subdued beast, as they don’t attempt to bring it to a raging peak. Then at 25:13 Lesh’s ominous tones start to edge toward something resembling a groove, if a jagged one. This scatters again at 26:10; a few second later Garcia strikes up a kind of funhouse Sputnik. The tempo soon retards and the band again descends into chaos. They again pick it up and then retard (27:44) in an even more exaggerated fashion, until at 27:57 Garcia lurches into the theme leads us back to terra firma. To top it all off, we are treated to a rare second verse, which Garcia has almost forgotten at this point (“Daarrirror shatters”). They seem unsure what to do after this, so Jerry just starts singing Comes a Time, which takes a little while to coalesce but turns into a lovely version.
This is one hell of a great Dark Star. The first section is almost painfully beautiful, there is a rollicking jam after the verse, and a chaotic meltdown section leads to a triumphant return to the theme; this is followed by the first appearance of the second verse since May 4th, and the last until New Year’s Eve 1981! It’s difficult to say what more we could ask for.
What was said:
JSegel:
Lazy opening with Jerry lagging behind Phil a bit in the intro, and he takes a while to really get to it once the groove starts up. It’s a long piece, winding around as the groove moves forward. Cresting a bit at 4 min, it comes down and has a little build on the swung triplets. When that comes down, the whole band brings it down, Bill backing it up quietly with some side stick. They are still doing the triplet accent for a while, but Jerry brings it back to a swing for a sec and then into arpeggios and back to the Dark Star groove. He heads to pinch-harmonics and thematic soloing, theme proper at 9:20, slow and in the high register. Verse at 9:50, nice vocals with little frills. Rolls from the drums on the second line, into the groove for line 3 with no casting about. Rolls again on the refrain, and to the outro.
The jam starts spacey, with sparse notes and bass strums, into drums with small guitar volume swells and then a drum solo with bass grooving along. Piano in a minute later, the guitarists went for a cig/piss. Bob is back at 14:30, Jerry a bit later, comes in soloing over the fast jazzy groove in a 12/8 feel.
It’s a long build, goes over the hump and Phil threatens to bring it back from the e minor to A. It crests and sounds like it may go back to Dark Star but Bill rolls over his toms and Jerry starts some little country style licks before switching on the wah pedal and going sideways. At 20:15, it heads into chromatic weirdness with string noises and gets scarier, the drums start up again in waves. Big Phil chords a minute later, into a monster movie section with atonal harmonics and odd noises all around. Fast chromatic build up starts at 24 minutes with the wah wah building to the Tiger meltdown. I think Bob was in there with some big high notes. Bill starts a pulse and Phil hits some low strong tones, like it’s gonna go all death metal. It melts down again. Augmented chord arpeggios start up at 26 min, it’s all scary movie stuff, building to some stretched note screams. It builds again but the machine gears down and then the Dark Star theme rises from its ashes in the 28th min, with lovely descending piano parts, it winds down to Verse 2 at 29:19!
Jerry can’t remember the first line, but the first word changes to ‘mirror’ in the middle of enunciating it, and he gets the rest of it right, drum rolls continuing the groove on line two instead of the fermatas (hey it’s the second verse, man), and a long (phasey? multiple open drum mics…) roll to line three with a nice rising lick from Bob wandering in the back.
Outro, and all vocals, Phil even sounds pretty good. They head to what would be the outro lick but Jerry starts “Comes a Time” which is both expected after the last Dark Star, but unexpected after a verse 2 and outro.
Last time for Verse 2 for a long time! We’re gonna be stuck in the Transitive Nightfall every time now for a while! (By the way, I was present for the NYE '81 version. I think that's the only version of Dark Star I ever heard live.)
Mr. Rain:
There's some chatter onstage before Dark Star; you can tell already the mood's very relaxed. (Now they're facing an audience of laid-back Oregon hippies rather than howling New Yorkers.) Bill ushers in Dark Star with some cymbals....and right away it sounds slow & sluggish. This promises to be a Dark Star of muddy rivers rather than shooting stars.
Loud stereo drums, very quiet piano, but good guitar mix. For me the drums are too loud & distracting -- it's like you're sitting right in front of them.
The Dead make the lazy lumbering feel work, turning it into a mellow languorous jam. Jerry has an especially sweet approach, trickling in at the start; and the mood stays relaxed, just gently floating downstream. After a little surge at 5 minutes, after 5:30 things get very sparse, Jerry noodling away with some light accompaniment from the others. Things seem to be building up around 7 minutes, but after 7:20 Jerry takes even more of a turn towards brooding introspection, almost like he's in his own private seclusion. By 8:30 they've returned to more of a normal band jam, very similar to Bird Song.
Jerry's entry into the theme at 9:20 is unusual, taking it at a high pitch and then jumping right into the verse rather than letting the band settle into the theme. The verse sounds like it's been slowed-down.
Typical dissolve to space, but they don't really get into space this time. Bill sounds ready to start a drum solo with his toms, but Jerry hangs in there with some swells; then Phil joins Bill with a loose bassline around 12:30 and there's a little bass-drums duet until Keith can't help himself and jumps in with some jazzy piano after 13:10. Phil bangs out some rough chords around 14:15, prompting a fuzzy Bob to come in, then at 14:55 Jerry lays down a sweet line on top of the mix. Little by little, they've built up a full jam one instrument at a time! (A rare technique for the Dead so far; at least they haven't done this in Dark Star much.)
This jam really gets going, a lot peppier than how they started (it's closer to the Other One style actually, with the driving groove & Jerry's steady rhythmic notes). It continues until 18:20, when Jerry lets it go and signals he's ready for a different direction, and the jam breaks up. It breaks down to just Bill & Jerry kickin' out a rhythmic duet; then Jerry turns on his wah at 19:50, a sign that the Tiger's on the way, and Bob & Phil start making their usual freakout moves. Things stay loose for quite a while as the meltdown looms: Phil's having fun with his throbbing feedback & chords of doom, and Jerry doesn't feel like making the final spiral just yet, so they circle round the whirlpool, fragments of sound & drumbeats spinning round, until after 24:05 Jerry finally takes the plunge. (Someone's making saxophone-like sounds!) The Tiger doesn't go full screech but lets up after a minute, easing off at 25:05. They're still adrift in the dark waters of madness, Phil laying down some heavy sounds while the others stay freaky. (25:50 alert: Phil teases the Philo Stomp chords again, still just an unformed notion.) More tense weirdness ensues which gets increasingly circus-like and self-parodic, like a demented clown Dead scaring kids in the funhouse. An over-the-top comic slowdown at 24:45, then surprise, Jerry springs right into the theme at 27:55, a perfectly-timed move (and it contrasts nicely with Phil's heavy chords; it's like a heavy-metallish Dark Star for a moment, til Phil relents).
Really cool hyper theme playing for a minute, then Jerry has to collect himself to remember the second verse at 29:15 -- he almost repeats the first verse again! But they do a decent job with the second verse considering it's so rare now. Phil's the only one who even tries to play the outro figure, but Jerry just hops right into Comes a Time without any kind of transition, an unexpected move.
Excellent version as usual. But nice as it is, somehow not all that exciting for me....the low energy & loud drums make this one I'm not in a hurry to return to.
adamos:
Things get off to a slow and hazy start. They glide along in no particular hurry with Jerry slowly weaving some lines. Phil sounds a little muffled underneath and the drums are prominent in the mix. But they spin up a pretty, mellow vibe and take it for a stroll. They start to build some momentum as Jerry winds through lower territory and then starts working upward and then down again. There are some nice raspy textures from Bob after 3:50.
They continue to work in this zone, building to a peak starting around 5:00. It's still somewhat mellow but there's some majesty mixed into that mini ascent. After that things quiet down and Jerry heads into lower territory again, like exploring underground caves. Bob continues to add some nice complimentary accents. Starting around 6:45 they get into a spiraling pattern and start bring it up but then quickly opt to pull back and take it down again.
Jerry gets into a low, repeating thing; deep with a pretty quality. It feels like they could drift into space but they use this to move into a new groove after 8:00. For just a moment it reminded me of when they'd do a pre-Drums jam coming out of Terrapin or something like that in later years. Then there's a touch of Bird Song as bzfgt noted and it turns into a floaty jam with raspy edges, playing off variations of the theme. They build it up a bit and around 9:20 Jerry goes high and a little Bright Star-esque before taking it back down and right into the verse.
After the verse they briefly reset and let things dissolve. There's some fuzzy feedback from Phil, Bill gets active and they sort of hover for a spell. Some mellow volume knob action comes in and Bill starts working a beat that Phil weaves around with a nice bass line. Keith becomes more prominent now and they get into a nice jazzy groove. It feels like we should be at small tables in a dark, smoky room having a cocktail. The momentum builds and Phil starts to rev it up a bit; Bob adds some complimentary textures, Jerry slides in and they start heading back to rock territory while still working the groove.
They build up the jam nicely with plenty of collective interweaving and Billy's beat keeps the listener bopping along. It peaks around 18:00 after which they begin bringing it down while still maintaining some forward momentum. Then around 18:30 they start to shift gears and find themselves in a swirling hover beginning around 18:50. It starts to briefly sound Dark Star-ish again and then Bill steps forward while Jerry riffs low for a bit.
By 20:00 Jerry has moved into wah, Billy adds another flurry and they start heading towards meltdown territory. Bob adds some string scraping as Jerry spirals and Phil brings in some thunder. Things start to spin up powerfully but then they ease up and go somewhat spacey. However there is still a feeling that ferociousness lurks nearby. The weird it up a bit with rolling drums from Bill and Jerry working in high, screechy territory. Then after 24:10 he moves back into swirling wah and goes head on into the Tiger. It's not the most intense version but it still rears its head nicely for a brief spell.
It recedes and then at 25:15 Phil brings in some heavy notes that springboard Jerry in new direction. Things get heavy and spooky and semi-thunderous and then they ease up and Jerry shifts into a deep, slightly Sputnik-esque line but it's got a different vibe. Everyone joins in on the choppy, freaky groove; it reaches an ebb and then Jerry goes upward with a screaming line.
There's more assorted semi-groove freakiness going up and stair stepping down and then at 27:59 Jerry suddenly slips into the theme. There's another flurry from Bill and some more thunder from Phil and they coalesce into the theme with a little extra mustard. They work it for a bit and then opt to do the second verse, albeit with it a uncertain start. As the verse ends they hover briefly with seeming uncertainty and then Jerry moves right into Comes A Time.
A really good version. It gets off to a slow and hazy start but that has its own charms and there's a cool groove prior to the first verse. The jazzy interlude after the verse is really nice and then they rock it up and weird it out before giving us the second verse as well.
bzfgt:
Yeah the "slow and hazy," "sluggish," or "lazy" intro section is my favorite part! Ever since I first heard this (only a couple of years ago, I think) I have found it mesmerizing and beautiful.
But anyway that clears up the mystery, I think, of why other people don't rate this one as highly as I do.
No comments:
Post a Comment