2202 Waterbury, CT 34:32 (33:25) (DS 28:28[27:51]>Drums 1:58>DS 4:06)
Main theme at 11:03.
First verse at 11:14.
Tiger at 21:55.
Goes into China Cat Sunflower.
There’s a lot of Weir and Lesh on this recording. Things get off to a bouncy start, with Lesh deviating from the primary pattern fairly quickly while Weir keeps it pumping along. At 2:01 Bob starts to digress a bit himself, throwing in little tremolo runs in between his triad splashes. This intro provides a good example of the band maintaining a groove while each individual plays idiosyncratic and offset lines that would make little sense on their own.
At 3:31 Garcia launches into a series of triplets that culminates at 3:58 with some squalling double stops, and the band pauses a little on the tail end of this. Jerry comes back with some low runs and by 4:55 they’re working toward another of the minor peaks that often occur in the early going. The playing here is somewhat reminiscent of 1969, insofar as there is a rapid succession of dynamic shifts. Lesh brings us into the modern era, though, with one of his repeating jazz licks beginning at 5:22; as is often the case, this comes and goes without too much commentary from his peers, although it all fits together.
At about 6:35 Godchaux briefly switches to the Rhodes, I think, unless he just open the wah-wah pedal he sometimes uses with the piano. In any case, shortly afterward he seems to be back on the regular piano. At 7:27 Garcia starts a windup which brings them to another minor peak at about 7:43, and then the music slides into a more ruminative zone. They start to rise again, but something subtly poignant has entered the jam at this point. At 8:30 there’s a lull, and the phrases come back a little longer and less emphatic until at 9:05 Garcia crests and initiates a line that gestures toward Bright Star, and as he descends and then ascends again the rest of the band drops down to a whisper and the tempo slows; at 10:50 Weir decides it’s time for the theme; Jerry takes it for a couple spins and goes right to the verse, which is softly deliberate this evening.
The second half starts with some heavy and distorted bass to which the others add color. At times it seems Garcia is trying to latch on, and Lesh is changing it up, so a coherent jam is deferred. At around 14:40 Kreutzmann starts to lay down a groove, but the rest of the band comes to a virtual halt. Godchaux and Lesh are signaling their willingness to groove by 15:20, but nothing is coming together. As we get to the 17th minute Garcia has engaged his wah effect, and probably has a meltdown jam in mind. Kreutzmann gets on the toms and gently but emphatically offers the groove again. Weir is scritching, Lesh is trying to groove, and Garcia is indicating a meltdown; Godchaux sides with the weirdos, and Kreutzmann recedes back to the cymbals.
By 18:45 this is starting to coalesce, there is a groove but it’s a pre-meltdown groove. But they seem a bit uncertain with it or, to be more charitable, they are taking their time in any case. And slowly but surely, it is coming together, but Weir drops out at 20:35 and this takes some of the wind out of it, so Jerry gets more Tigerish, since the groove seems to be scotched. When comes back at 20:51 he’s switched to the meltdown team, and this seems to add the needed impetus to move things in some direction. By 21:22 they seem to be driving toward a Tiger, but then they pull back rather suddenly. At 21:55 Garcia goes all in and starts his Tiger roll, and the band follows suit. This Tiger seems a little bit restrained, but it will have to serve.
At 23:45 Godchaux is pounding a repeated note; if they all latch on, this will lead them out of the meltdown, but it doesn’t happen that way, and he finally releases it and a more drawn out expression of the meltdown ethos ebbs into an interstice at 25:00 that Garcia soon fills with a melodic line. Lesh is game, and they duet a little on a mournful melody. By 26:05 the band has arrived at a pretty little jam, and they milk it a little before Garcia starts bending it out of shape and they all start weirding out again.
They’ve left the jam, and they don’t want to go to another meltdown, so they seem to be at a bit of an impasse; they deal with this by stopping, and Kreutzmann is left to fill the gap with a short drum break. This goes on for a couple of minutes until Lesh joins back in, followed in short order by Garcia, and then Godchaux and finally Weir. What we have here is a choppy little jam that gets bouncing along pretty well, with everyone on the same page. They threaten to color outside the lines a few times, but it holds together, with Garcia playing some frenetic runs; as we approach the four minute mark, it start to shift, and somehow they smoothly drop into China Cat Sunflower and the Dark Star is over.
This is a well-known rendition, and it’s far from bad, but it seems to me to lack direction at times in the back half. As always, there is plenty to love here, however. At times they seem to be holding the door open for inspiration, but this can be stated negatively as a reluctance to commit. Either way, it’s another rich and rewarding improvisation, and relative judgments aside, it’s worth spending 35 minutes on.
What was said:
JSegel:
Waterbury: 33:56 (DS 27:43 > drums 1:59 > DS 4:14) – 30 Trips
Phil messes about with the intro riff, then a verbal count off. Soon after the start, Jerry gives the plaintive stretch of the other night again, but they settle into a forward-moving groove, everybody winding out the notes like a multi-headed hydra. Jerry playing with some wide arpeggios, then upward runs, eventually getting caught up in some fast little riffs that take it out of the mode a bit and up to a little plateau of harmonics, everybody else keeps grooving along so he starts again at the bottom strings and builds it up again. Jerry is into some fast chromatic/jazzy riffing tonight.
In the 6th minute Keith uses his wah tone a little, but then abandons it. Jerry still skipping a long, they are pounding it out. It finally breaks down a bit at 7:40, entering a quieter mellower area. Jerry is playing with reaching leading tone chromatics, bringing a theme statement before 9 min, and then some more quick running around and back up to the harmonics, and back to the low strings, bringing it back up by thirds, the whole band winding around little riffs. Keith is following Jerry quite admirably here. It gets very jazzy and then min some shorter runs, though it continues back to endlessness, with some great outside-the-mode bits, they are all still just cooking, endless groove. Bob sure likes his stretched doubles stops, he spends minutes playing with them. Theme feints from Phil at or so, they end up playing a skewed Dark Star groove, still moving in and out of it and running up and down, grooving. Keith back with his wah tone. A lot of feints to the theme, but then running away off into more riffing. It breaks apart and reassembles to build as Phil goes up and places the theme notes, Keith and Phil cascade slowly around it and finally an actual thematic entrance.
Sort of a grooving verse at 11 minutes, nobody really abandoning the pulse for the fermatas much. Jerry sounds a bit strained, and ragged at the very ends of each line, especially the refrain.
Phil starts the Transitive Nightfall with big bass chords, sort of the bell tolling, but it takes only a minute or so before he goes into more minor key and bigger scarier chords. Band is backing this up and then it comes down in texture as Jerry has some sweet little arpeggios happening in the background, with trills from Keith. The side stick rhythm comes in, they seem like they’re heading into a jazzy groove, but it takes a long time to gel. It gets cooking with walking bass, and some scrapey sounds from Bob for rhythm, and isolated keyboard stabs, Jerry with odd wah-backed-off tone.
They stick with this odd music for a while, very jazzy and not quite tonal. Jerry seems to want to build this into Tiger meltdown, in the 21st minute it’s getting up there, but still maintaining a jazzy root. After a rise, Jerry starts the Tiger for real, piano following on the chromatic fast bits, the band builds it up to a serious high, Phil starts heading for big bass chords, then dissonant distorted notes and string scrapes. Bob playing offset stretches and screams, piano holds a droning repeated note as it freaks out in a serious noise fest.
Jerry leads out with some notes up to high stretches. Keith brings chords into the background, the waves crests, they start to pick up the pieces in a more melodic quiet way. A little side stick rhythm as they settle into a chord progression of sorts with a minor, G and e minor. But at 27 minutes, Jerry starts moving modally sideways into chromatics, Phil and Keith are on it, the music turns rubbery and stretches out while Bill continues grooving his kit, eventually leading the string players to leave him to it for a couple minutes! He picks it up, DRUM SOLO! whooo.
Phil and Jerry back in with more jazzy groove, Phil is riffing, Jerry in the bluesy-jazzy mode area. More serious grooving. Phil settles into a punchy groove riff, they take it for a ride. Less than a minute from the “end” Phil settles on a high note and they start looking around for where to go, I think I hear some voices in there talking to each other, and then Jerry starts the China Cat riff, and then fall right into it. Nice one! He starts singing within the minute. Sort of a slow groovy start (and version) to it, but hey, it’s China Cat.
(I got lost in this one, my audio file I had copied to my laptop was messed and kept skipping back and repeating parts, it was very confusing!)
Anyway, with that sorted, I finally got the actual sequence of events. A nice and generally high energy version of the song with a lot of jazzy grooving, some serious multi-headed animal improv. Much of this type of jazzy groove playing seems to be what develops into Blues For Allah type things, you can start to hear the beginnings of some of those little licks in there.
adamos:
Things get off to a sprightly start with some buoyant work from Phil and prominent textures from Bob. Jerry's line feels smooth and more contemplative but he picks up the pace and blends in with the collective vibe. Bob's accents sound particularly good on this recording. Billy gets active with the cymbals which adds some additional sparkle. Jerry winds forth in quicker fashion getting his own swirling thing going. They come out of this and he plays some high, soft notes and then continues on in a lower register. The collective interweaving is nicely in bloom.
After 5:20 Phil steps forward with a compelling line while Jerry keeps wandering forth. Lots of little bursts from Bobby too. They ease up a bit and Jerry gets into some higher repeating notes and they carry on. I like the feel of the groove. Keith becomes more prominent first on piano and then with something electric that adds to the vibe well. Jerry continues to wind forth and his lines have a compelling beauty to them. Around 7:27 he launches an upward run and the collective energy rises to a brief peak before they settle back down again.
A gentler pattern emerges with Jerry and Phil playing off each other. Bob continues to add accents and Keith's piano becomes more prominent again too. Jerry gets into a gentle wailing and starts taking it up after 9:00. They rise up collectively and then ease back and Jerry hits some subtle Bright Star notes that add to the beauty of moment. He slowly eases off and they gently move into a quieter, hovering zone that also sounds quite pretty. Phil counters with some stronger notes and things could potentially get weird but they shift into the theme instead and slowly move on to the verse.
After the verse they reset and Phil lays down some strong fuzzy notes and they move towards some weirdness. Phil keeps going and revs it up even more and there is something spookily melodic going down vs. just drifting into the void. He eases back slowly and Jerry comes forth with some gentle playing. They find a quiet space; Keith asserts himself a bit and then Phil re-enters around 15:20. There's a semblance of a groove being considered but they mostly let it go and Jerry moves into some mellow wah.
Around 16:20 Billy starts working a beat and Phil picks it up and they start to bring something together. Jerry picks up the pace of his wah work; it's still somewhat mellow but slowly heading to freakier territory. Bob is scratching his strings and Keith adds some electric fills. Things begin to intensify and it sounds like they are slowly heading towards a meltdown but also working a groove. They work in this space for a good spell. There's a kind of walking bass line from Phil and Keith is adding quite a bit too. It continues to ratchet up but they aren't in any particular hurry to let it come apart. After 21:00 this feels imminent but they ease off while still keeping the melty groove going. Then by 21:55 Jerry full commits and the Tiger comes forth.
After thundering it up they start to slowly come out of it but then there's some loud freaky string scraping and Keith plays a repeating note for a sustained period and they get good and freaky again. They start to break out of this around 24:25 but things are still freaky and thunderous and then they ease up and find a quieter place. Keith plays some pretty notes and Jerry starts up a gentle line that Phil plays off of nicely.
It's a nice interlude and then they start to work it up and a more fleshed out jam is coming together. However before too long Jerry starts veering off and taking it back to weirdness. Phil follows suit and they are back in freaky territory but they don't go all out with that either. Jerry gets into some fast repeating notes and Keith and Bill assert themselves and then everyone drops out and it gives way to a drum break.
Bill does this thing for a couple of minutes and then settles into a beat that creates an on-ramp for the band to reenter. Phil and Jerry come in first followed shortly by Keith and then Bob. They work up a new groove and take it for a spin for a bit. Bob brings some nice textures again while Jerry and Phil work their interweaving lines. The jam gets going pretty well with a bouncy line from Phil and some prominent rhythm from Bob. They ease up a bit and Bob signals Sugar Magnolia at 3:30 but they keep going with what's become a nice, smoother groove. And then before long they slip right into China Cat.
I like the pre-verse segment quite a bit. They weren’t necessarily exploring new territory but the collectively playing is compelling. Post-verse the blurred lines between space, sustained groove and meltdown do perhaps point to a lack of direction at times but I also liked the juxtaposition of it. The brief jam at the end is good too.
Mr. Rain:
Unfortunate tracking on this copy: Dark Star starts about 40 seconds into the track, so the actual pre-drums timing is some 40 seconds shorter. MrBill's copy was remastered to his liking and offers some improvement; I decided to use it for more accurate timings. The 30 Trips release is better quality but I don't have the CD at hand. The mix is excellent, all the instruments are clear and well-balanced.
There's a tape-cut about 12 seconds into Dark Star, which skips some small amount of music and throws the opening briefly askew. But after that, the opening jam is energetic and engaging, bursting with high spirits and magical promise. I was too hypnotized to take many notes; the '72 Dead are at full power here, laying out a web of entrancement. They ebb & flow with one mind, hardly a note out of place, reading where the others are going. Phil sometimes teases at his Marbles line (like after 4:40) but doesn't really take it up. Keith makes some wah noises after 5:55, not for long. Bob's always present with well-placed accents.
Around 7:30 the music gets more meditative; Jerry builds it up then slips in a perfect and pretty transition to the main theme at 8:35, in the high register of Bright Star. Aha, here we are! But instead of hitting the theme they all quiet down and gently tease it for a minute, sounding like they might wander off to space or go somewhere else entirely, with Phil & Bill hinting at a big buildup -- but Bob brings the theme back after 10m, then they all join in. Before they can settle into the theme, Jerry jumps into the verse a bit too abruptly after 10:20.
A perfectly marvelous opening jam. This one doesn't have big peaks or mood shifts, it's more of a single flow with small passing eddies.
After the verse, the void. Keith & Jerry add some sounds in the background (Keith's on wah), but Phil takes the lead with big stormy bass chords and a memorable melody. Jerry & Keith join him for a doomy little jam, but this sort of peters out inconclusively around 13:30. Things seem dead after 14m, but Bill & Keith start up a little groove which turns into a light, quiet scattershot jam that doesn't really cohere. Jerry turns on his wah at 15m, but the feeling remains quiet & tentative for a while. The assurance of the opening jam has faded and now they seem unsure where to take this.
But after 15:20 Bill's toms and a steadier bassline steer them into a slinky jam with Jerry on wah. Bob's done pretty much nothing for the last few minutes, but now he's playing a funk-type chickachick backing. By 17m they're turning in a Tiger direction, Phil buzzing strangely and Keith making the most of his wah and Bob waking up again, but this is still kind of low-key poking around. For a few minutes they amble along in this strange in-between quasi-tigerish state. But then at 20m they ramp up the intensity; Jerry starts the full Tiger descent at 20:40. They crash nicely in a decent short meltdown, with Jerry getting very screechy. Coming out of it at 22m, Keith hits a drone and Phil goes next-level with string scratches & feedback -- a lovely combination! This reaches its final burst around 23:20 in a glorious rainbow drone, a beautiful moment.
After that, momentary near-silence, quiet notes in the aftermath, Jerry noodling prettily, Phil returning to melody. By 25m this coheres into a nice warm group jam -- it's a loping groove which sounds like it could grow into something cool. But Jerry decides to dismantle it, and at 26:20 he suddenly takes a dissonant turn, which the others respond to with their own weirdness; then Jerry starts trilling like he's ready for a second Tiger! Are we in for another freakout? But no: after 27:30 everyone drops out one by one, Keith the last, making way for a drum solo from Bill. That was an odd feint, and once again I feel like the drum solo's a gasp of desperation rather than a smooth turn in the jamming.
Bill ends by hitting a kind of Other One-like beat (not for long), and the band comes back in a jumpy off-kilter jam. They sound re-energized -- Bob slashing chords, Phil hitting a downright strong groove a couple minutes in. The playing gets more frantic, trills from Jerry, Bill walloping the beat. Then around 3:30, they pedal for a bit -- Bob hints at Sugar Magnolia, Jerry hints at China Cat, the others like the sound of that, and the last 20 seconds bubble with anticipation before Jerry & Phil make the shift to China Cat.
This is the rare Dark Star where I think the opening part was, as a whole, better than the second-half jam. I'm not sure what happened, but I agree with bzfgt that the momentum seems to vanish after the verse. Several times, they almost come to a halt and have to figure out a way forward. So the jamming kind of falls into little sections, some of them great, some of them just sort of odd almost-theres. Still, there's a lot of late-'72 magnificence here: the great opening, Phil's manic displays of belligerence, some cool little jam stretches, and a rare song transition still put this Dark Star in a high echelon even if they lose their way sometimes.
P.S. The transition to China Cat reminded me of the great & beautiful left-turn to China Cat in the middle of a Good Lovin' jam, on 1/2/72.
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