158. 1973-03-16

79186 Nassau coliseum 27:14

Main theme at 13:00.
First verse at 13:47.
Tiger 23:25.
Goes into Truckin’.


This one comes in askew right from the beginning, with Weir playing some odd counterpoint on the intro, and Garcia laying in some harmonics soon after. First there are true harmonics, then pinch harmonics. Godchaux is in a similar register and my ear keeps confusing them for a little while, until Jerry drops down and plays around on the bass strings for a little while. This laid-back and playful early part of the introduction evokes a feeling of the desert, for some reason, although they are playing a hockey rink in Long Island.


Lesh is auguring a shift toward minor key his lugubrious phrases, and by 3 minutes in or thereabouts the sunshine has dissipated a bit. At around 3:30 there are allusions to the theme, and Garcia in particular keeps putting in reminders that this is Dark Star. It’s a great instance of playing around a theme without really playing it, and the ensemble is limber enough to manage seeming to be in and out of Dark Star in successive moments, with the whole maintaining a sense of ambiguity. Why go somewhere, when you can go everywhere?


Kreutzmann is brilliant here, as he holds it all together but avoids settling into a groove. The groove finally comes at about 7:10 and, typically, it’s not clear how it starts, nor exactly when it begins. Weir and Godchaux join the drummer and push, and Garcia whips out the slide at 7:39, bringing back some of the desert haze. Listen to Keith from around 9:19—I’m not sure what to say about it, just listen. His line starts to unravel a little, and then Lesh starts getting funky. All this is enough to create quite a sense of drama, and somehow it keeps building.


They seem to have crested by the 11-minute mark, and they let the center unwind a little until they reach another, looser peak at 11:50 or so, and then another at 12:30. By 12:43 they decide on a more abrupt transition, slowing down and melting into the theme. This plays out rather straightforwardly and leads into the verse a little under a minute later. JSegel will tell you about it.


The return lick, mostly executed by Weir, takes us down into a sinkhole of Garcia feedback and tom-tom clubbing. Kreutzmann, who is (and has been) occupying opposite sides of the mix, keeps a tribal beat going, and the rest almost leave him to it before Garcia starts popping along on muffled strings with the wah engaged; at 18:40 he starts to gesture toward the Tiger. There’s a bit of a shift at 20:00 into more tonal, arpeggiated stuff, however, and we veer away from the Tiger and into spacier territory.


They are threatening to get melodic before Garcia again veers at 22:35, initiating a sawing maneuver in which he is soon joined by Weir. At 23:25 he lets the strings ring out a little more, and we arrive at the Tiger. Lesh is hanging back for much of this. At 24:30 Garcia plays a crushing E chord, and Lesh joins back in as a bendy jam takes us back to desert climes. At 26:00 Lesh’s pumping chords bring us up to a new plateau, and we seem to be heading into a full-blown post-verse jam, and a rather unique one at that. Weir hits on a striking descending lick , and it seems to be heading somewhere quite memorable—but suddenly it’s over, and they’re going into Truckin’.


The pre-verse jamming is spectacular here, as it has been on most recent Dark Stars. After the verse, things never quite coalesce, which is also characteristic of recent versions. There is a nice meltdown, although it doesn’t reach the heights of cacophony that typify the most intense Tiger jams, and then they put together all the elements of a top notch jam before abandoning it almost immediately. This is a little frustrating, but I suppose you can’t have everything, and this is an excellent rendition overall.


What was said:

JSegel:


Some weird attempts at harmonizing the intro riff, nonetheless it heads into a relaxed groove and Jerry heads off into a world of natural harmonics and then artificial harmonics. It doesn’t settle so much, some moving into outside modal notes before heading more toward Dark Star thematically. After a couple minutes, they lull on a chord while Phil strums, it’s a very spacey jam, odd notes flying around, occasional alluding to the Dark Star theme stuff as a reminder, but it’s continuously spiraling off into little eddies of individual instruments, a fairly slow pace (Nonetheless, here, for me, it sounds good, unlike the more highly individual 12/15 that sounded more untogether at this point in the track). Everybody is exploring odd little personal musics, Phil has some very deep bass chords at 5:40, Keith has high chords, Jerry trying out some odd stretches between fast riffs. A lot of call and response between the players in the 7th minute leads to Bill stepping up the tempo so that they get into more of a cohesive jam boogie.

This goes on, Bobby on some little riffs off to the side, Jerry is sort of backed off… then he comes in playing with a slide at 8:45! Wow, that’s neat. They start to take it a bit sideways and it lulls before picking it up again without the slide, Bill provides an interesting pattern offsetting the snares in threes against the larger fours. They all do some quick wandering riffing (except Bob who has a stretchy chordal thing happening as a response.)

At 11:30, bass and drums bring it over the crest and then they move into a new area of quick little riffs, Jerry happy to be part of this. Bob trills over and over to match the rhythm. This wave comes down at 13 minutes, Bill rolling the toms, and they start in with the Dark Star groove at a leisurely tempo heading to a verse.

Verse 1 at 13:55, slightly wavering vocals, expending energy over the line. Big fermatas for line two, only downbeats, line three has wandering from Bobby and limited bass from Phil. The refrain vocals sound strained and emotional. The outro riff is left hanging, eventually Bobby comes in with his higher harmony part, and then Phil reacts and comes in and then hits giant loud chords to compensate as it enters the next section, with distortion on bass and big minor chords, eventually leaving only a ride cymbal, and some feedback comes in over the rolling toms.

A very sparse area happens, floating feedback and drums. Bass back in with some low tones, Bill starts a pounding rhythm. Audience cheers. Some wah-clicky rhythms come in. Drums continue grooving without much accompaniment. In a low area, you can hear the tiger low chromatics in the wah wah, very low to start, then it starts to build the chaos, noises from guitars and the drums go into gear again. A meltdown is in progress, but it cedes into a Sputnik-y arpeggio area at 20 minutes, but maintains more of an atonal progression for almost two minutes, settling on chords occasionally, heading downwards. Entering an atonal set of single notes with wah-wah warble, not much accompaniment, little chordal arpeggios from Bob. Bass in again after 22 minutes. Jerry starts scratching the guitar strings, they all do, the drums come back in, they build it up heading for the Tiger meltdown from the bottom up this time. They bring it up and hold it high for a while, it comes over the hill and lands again at 25 minutes to start a new slow rhythm and tonal area, Phil insinuating the Truckin’ intro lick a bit, but then relaxes into the new minor groove in this area. Phil starts from the low end and starts to insinuate the rhythm again, Jerry plays it through a sort of chord progression, then Bill hits the swing at 27 minutes and Phil goes for the Truckin’ intro again and they head into it.

Interesting. Weird first jam area, multi-headed hydra all looking in various directions, but kinda nice. Generally good jam from there to the verse, the spacey part after was nice, with scary parts! Not super great but overall a good one.


Mr. Rain:


The first Dark Star at Nassau... Will the New York energy stir up the Dead to a strong performance? On the audience tapes especially, you can hear the crowd screaming their heads off when Dark Star starts (a way bigger reaction than the earlier midwest shows).
Funny thing, the Dead totally screw up the opening riff -- Jerry & Bob hit wrong notes and sound off-key. But after that initial falter, they deliver a sweet introduction, Jerry really hitting the harmonics. (He might be using them to do some covert tuning, lots of space in his playing.) There's an interesting moment around 2:25 when Jerry's repeating a low note in harmony with the piano while the others swirl around them, a cool effect but I wonder if Jerry was just tuning!

They sound a little...untogether? The playing seems kind of tentative or restrained; there's not much band energy here. Keith's doing some nice stuff playing off Jerry, but I sense that Jerry's not leading the way as usual...more like he's feeling his way around. As a result, the playing seems to be getting more uncertain & withdrawn. Jerry refers to the theme now and then, but he's very laid-back here, maybe short of ideas and not taking charge at all. Phil tries to rouse him sometimes with some punchy bass, like at 6 minutes after a lull, but the playing is mostly textural.

At 7 minutes Jerry starts strumming some chords and they find their way into a different groove, a little funky, Bill setting the beat. They sound more into it now! After 8 minutes Jerry starts using a slide for slow gliding notes over the funky backdrop. It's rare to hear Jerry on slide in Dark Star, this is an unusual treat. On the other hand it means his playing is getting even more minimal, just a few notes. Back to regular picking at 9:45. They're in a kind of off-kilter fast groove, skittering around speedily in circles. This heats up a little but it's getting kind of repetitive by 12 minutes. The repeating circular lick Jerry gets into at 12:20 gets a big rise from the crowd (not really apparent on the sbd tape). Finally Jerry calls a halt with some chords at 12:40, some drumrolls set the stage, they gather up their forces and embark on the main theme at 13:00, to much applause. They let the theme settle in with a little counter-melody from Jerry before he sings the verse at 13.50.

A lot of crowd enthusiasm during the verse, and a huge cheer afterwards. Phil stops playing for a moment, leaving Bob on his lonesome. But then he delivers the usual bass bombs (distorting the tape). A question mark at 16 minutes, just some cymbal-tapping -- where will this go? It turns into Jerry's feedback wails over Bill's drums, some quiet strumming from Bob. Very intense and desolate-sounding! After 17 minutes, this gives way to a short drum solo, with some low notes from Phil and the crowd clapping along. 17:45, Jerry reappears with his muted wah cackles, and it's a little bit like the jungle vibe from 12/11/72. Phil makes subterranean pulses. By 19 minutes Jerry's aiming at the Tiger, and Phil's deconstructing his bass into random chunks. But then Phil drops out, and at 20 minutes suddenly Jerry takes a different turn into a spacey wah waterworld, with only Bob following him into the void. Very atmospheric. Then Phil belatedly returns around 21:40 with some Bach-like counterpoint. It gets almost pretty, but then at 22:40 Jerry & Bob are scratching their strings again and Phil lets off some feedback. Time for some noise! By 23:30 they've re-entered the Tiger, all scratchy and screechy. (Phil's mainly just scraping his strings here, not playing notes, so it's a very trebly Tiger.) Then at 24:30, a big dramatic concluding chord from Jerry, and a musical resolution emerges from the feedback chaos. A very nice moment!

Space opens up on the other side. Jerry sounds like he might have Stella Blue in mind. Bob plays the 'bendy' notes he was briefly doing after the verse (I don't know what the proper name for this is). Jerry starts playing a slow melody, Phil joins him, and it sounds like a beautiful jam is about to emerge. And Keith comes back! (Once again, he's barely been heard since the verse. For whatever reason, he's generally kept out of the spaces & Tigers in Dark Stars lately.) Then Phil kind of takes over at 26 minutes with Philo Stomp-type riffing, backed up by Bob's bends, which pushes them in a more rhythmic direction. It's sad that they couldn't keep the pretty improv going, but Phil seems to be impatient to move on with some rock & roll. Bob strikes up a new rhythm, and Phil calls for Truckin', so that's where they go. The crowd likes this choice!

This has some nice moments, but I found it a disappointing version. They seem distracted, and Jerry's mind seems to be somewhere else in the first part, like he's not really in the mood. There are a lot of tentative moments throughout while they figure out a direction. I liked the post-verse portion better, even though they're still kind of restless: the spacey stuff and the Tiger are good. Then a terrific jam emerges -- and they immediately drop it!

The audience tape gives a different impression though. It's okay quality with lots of Nassau echo and an often obnoxious crowd, but Dark Star comes across as more dreamy and more forceful. Jerry sounds tremendous, the band has more oomph, and what sounds laid-back & meandering on the sbd turns into a surreal dreamscape. For some examples of the energy difference, check the part after 12 minutes where a calm little lick on the sbd turns into an intense peak on the aud; or the meltdown after 24 minutes where you can't tell the Tiger from the audience screams.


Mr. Rain:


This tune seems to have a hold on me! Listened a couple more times to the audience tape of 3-16, my preferred way to hear this version... It's not one of my favorite Dark Stars of the year, it's surprisingly low-energy and is really tepid at the start; but the second half keeps getting better and takes you places. The aftermath of the Tiger is a blissful moment, almost 1970-style as beauty comes out of the madness. But of course Phil has to stomp all over it....


adamos:


Some odd, off-kilter notes to kick things off but they find their way forward. The crowd is certainly enthusiastic. Jerry gets into pinched harmonics as noted and Keith is quite active too. Jerry then goes lower and starts to wander forth. Bill is working the cymbals and marching things forward. They glide along for a spell. I wouldn't call it dream-like but there's a certain mellowness to the proceedings. Phil makes his presence known, bringing some rumbling bottom end into the mix.

There's a sort of Dark Star rumination taking place as they continue to saunter along. Bob is adding nice textures that bring a little sparkle. They weave and float, working their way down the path. Starting around 5:30 or so they repeat some gentle, descending notes that lead into a minor lull. Phil revs it up and the intensity starts to rise, relatively speaking. They hover and swirl for a bit before finding a new groove after 7 minutes or so.

From there the pace picks up considerably as they drive a bouncy, upbeat groove that's a little funky too. Jerry brings in some slide which is a neat wrinkle. Meanwhile Bob keeps it funky with this rhythm and Billy works the beat with enthusiasm. Around 9:20 Keith gets into some unusual staggered playing as noted by bzfgt. This combined with the slide gives things an odd and unique feel. It doesn't last long however and they keep rolling on.

From there the momentum starts to build with all the players interweaving nicely. Jerry works a quick, high line while Phil maintains some funkiness. They roll on for a bit, hitting a mini peak after 11 minutes and then driving deeper again. Around 12:15 or so Jerry gets into a repeating pattern and they rise up again before letting it go and easing their way into the theme and then on to the verse.

After the verse Bob resets and Phil thunders in and they let things unravel into feedback-y, revving freakiness. Billy goes after it and there's some spooky guitar noises. They find a quieter space but Billy quickly picks it up again and is mostly left to his own devices. Jerry re-enters with some clicking sounds and there's a touch of piano as well. They get some momentum going until Bill briefly eases up after 18:40.

At this point Jerry shifts into wah and we get the first hints of an impending meltdown. Bill becomes active again in a more staggered fashion while the others blend in various freaky sounds. Jerry is spinning things up but not fully unleashing and they get into more of an atonal jam. Then around 20:00 Jerry shifts into more sparkly, Sputnik-y sounds that are also kind of spooky. Things briefly build with Bob adding complimentary sounds and then they ease up and drift back into wah-ish ooze. It's freaky but also kind of pretty and things begin to get more melodic.

They dance around in this zone gently and then at 22:35 Jerry starts scrubbing his strings, reminding us that a Tiger still lurks nearby. The freak factor quickly rises and by 23:20 the Tiger is being unleashed. They let it rip pretty well, screaming out into the night. It comes to a thunderous head around 24:30 and in the aftermath they drift back into a more groovy, spacey zone.

It feels like a new, more rootsy jam is coming together and they play around with it creating a nice, mellow vibe. Then suddenly at 26:00 Phil decides to rev it up and rock it out and again they flirt with the possibility of a new jam. It sounds good but proves to be short-lived as before long they let it go and then launch into Truckin'.

It’s a pretty good version overall. Not the most cohesive but it certainly has its moments. There’s some uniqueness to the pre-version section including the odd opening and Jerry’s slide and they find a good groove too. After the verse there could have been a couple good jams if they’d wanted to pursue them but the brief glimpses we got were enjoyable. The spacey passages bring some weirdness and some beauty and the meltdown is pretty good too.