162. 1973-06-10

90979 RFK 26:34

Philo Stomp at 7:35.
Elastic Ping Pong Jam at 10:08.
Main theme at 13:40.
First verse at 14:23.
Tiger at 21:58.
Goes into He’s Gone.


The second of two big, well-known outdoor shows with the Allman Brothers features the first Dark Star since the end of March. The band lays into it with a will here; Phil Lesh’s bass is quite loud on this recording, and he drives it along from the start. Godchaux is playing a Fender Rhodes electric piano now, which gives this Dark Star a little bit of a jazzy flavor. The first few minutes are rather textural, setting a mood without much development going on. Nevertheless, the music is driving and aggressive until about 3:45, when they shift into a more contemplative stage.

There’s a move into B minor around this time, a key that was visited the last two times out. There are several feints in the direction of an Elastic Ping Pong jam; Phil plays the lick aty 5:00, and again more strongly at 5:50, but then he goes wandering. The band hovers around him for a while, and then they recede and Phil takes over. I’ve marked this as a Philo Stomp, a throwback to 1972, although it varies a bit from the iterations of the previous Fall. Phil calls the band back with the Elastic Ping Pong riff and this time they launch into the jam, but it doesn’t last much longer than a minute before they wander off somewhere else.

At 12:15 they get into a three-note thing that we’ve heard before, haven’t we? Perhaps my colleagues will remember where. This sends Garcia off on a remarkable picking excursion, but this doesn’t last long either before they slow it down and slide into the main theme, and thence to the verse.

Coming off the back of the verse, they get right back into a place that’s similar to the very beginning of the intro jam, with a lot of momentum but not much forward movement in terms of motives. It gets a little spacier as it goes, with Garcia going to the wah but playing drawn-out lines with it, keeping them in the jam rather than moving toward a meltdown yet, until the sequence that begins, after a rather deliberate series of chords from Lesh, at 18:50. At this point Garcia starts playing what could be the lead-in to a Tiger jam, and Weir joins him. Lesh starts playing a fuzzy bass line, keeping things spacey for the nonce. A loose jam develops, with Garcia playing Tiger-like stuff, and Weir getting into some funky rhythms. At 21:30 Godchaux reasserts himself on the Rhodes, and the jam has a unique flavor.

21:58 brings a more decisive shift into Tiger mode, and this then simmers down into a rather spacey meltdown. By around 24:00 they’re in an exotic place, bursting with wild energy. Godchaux’s Rhodes adds to the sense of uniqueness throughout, as there’s a different palate of sounds than usual. They don’t seem to want to stick around these environs though, and as the jam disperses in waves of feedback Garcia starts strumming He’s Gone.

This is a perfectly fine Dark Star as far as it goes. There are rumblings of new sounds and new forces, but at the same time they don’t seem to have sufficient patience to let things develop to the extent that they could. So while this is very good, there are glimmerings of something more that is not quite allowed to develop.


What was said:

JSegel:


After a few months away from the Dark Star, they’re back orbiting it. At a stadium! A long show, 4 1/2 hours. This time, PitB ends a set and Eyes starts the next set where later Dark Star moves into a pair of slow ones, He’s Gone and Wharf Rat.

Dark Star starts with the intro riff, into a nicely paced groove, side stick and strong bass and rhythm guitar on this recording. Phil seems to be pushing it a bit, while Jerry is relaxing into it. It’s a nice area. Some beautiful full band counterpoint lines weaving around each other after a few minutes. To a little eddy at 4 min, Phil still taking it forward with some licks in between longer notes, they Ping Pong this elastically back and forth a bit and then start to build it again, Jerry goes into jazzy pre-Blues-for-Allah style licks for a bit.

At 5:50 Phil builds the rhythm up a bit with the Ping Pong riff, Bobby coming along, while Jerry goes for some small feedback notes. The Phil goes sideways tonally for a bit, Jerry backs off into a receding thing, leaving it to Phil to go for it and he starts strumming. It’s just bass and drums for a while. Even to the rock licks in min 9. Guitars come back in at about 10 minutes in a new faster rhythm in a b minor area. It resolves to the A a minute later and comes back down to start a new wave on a major key country-ish riff. They jam out on this for a while.

Over the crest of this wave at 13 1/2 minutes, Jerry starts the Dark Star theme again and they are back in the relaxed groove. Verse at 14:23, nice relaxed vocals. Phil plays along an upwards-moving line on the fermatas of line 2, they are still fairly relaxed into line 3. To the refrain, and on to the counterpoint, some whistles from the audience.

They start the next section continuing in rhythm, Phil with chords, Jerry coming in with short fast riffs. The chords are almost the verse chords, it comes over a hill and then starts to fritter away to more space. Jerry starts more feedbacky notes, the band still plays modal chords and notes, Bill is still in rhythm, they aren’t really spacing out so much as keeping a jam together for a while. The bass chords get more intense in the 18th minute, they allow it to fall to bits finally at 19. Jerry underscores a Tiger bit, Phil starts some odd low-end noise feedback. Bobby rolls around on some short lead bits while Jerry goes back for feedback. Some choppy fast rhythmic stuff from Bobby and then Jerry goes for more fast short atonal bits and wah-enhanced scary statements, building it up as the drums are getting some speed going. More Tiger stuff at 21:50 but it tails off into scraping, though everybody tremolos holding the tension for a while.

After a brief lull, the scrapes continue with some stretched bass notes and odd bits from the other, then Phil goes ballistic again with low feedback and noisy notes. Into a lower volume area, still noisescape, the guitars fade out into drums with accompaniment from odd noises and swelled notes moving into feedback.

Drums fade out at 25:30, feedback continues from both guitars, it gets loud again, bass comes back with big low end notes, and as they fade, Jerry starts He’s Gone.

________
Pretty good one, some cool noisy weirdness and a nice intro jam area. There were bits of the nice multi-musician moving lines in the improv in the first half. Really well sung verse.


adamos:




Things start off tight and bouncy with Phil prominent in the mix. Jerry doesn't seem to be in any hurry however and eases into a mellower approach. Nice sounds from Keith on the Rhodes and Bobby adds his textures too. Jerry heads high with a touch of sharpness then eases back into the clouds. They glide along in pretty fashion. Around 2:40 they rise up with Jerry picking up the pace and introducing more notes. He then pulls back a little and everyone plays off of the repeating pattern.

From there they ease up further and float along in the ether. The opening creates more space for Keith to come through which adds a nice feel to the proceedings. Phil starts introducing some riffs that work their way towards the Elastic Ping Pong jam. It isn't fully realized but it plays around the edges. He then shifts things up and gets a bouncy, intermittent groove going that the others play off of. Things ebb and flow and then out of a lull Phil launches into a revvy solo around 7:30 accented by Billy on the cymbals. He rides it for a good spell ending up in more rock-ish territory before returning to Elastic Ping Pong around 10:08.

The rest of the band comes back and they head off on a groove. It's fast paced at first but before long they take it down and hover a bit with Phil asserting himself again. They play around in this territory for a bit and then get into the three-note thing that bzfgt pointed out. Bobby adds some nice strumming which gives it an upbeat feel. Jerry heads upwards and they ride the happy groove but this doesn't last too long either. Instead they downshift and introduce the theme and glide their way into the verse.

After the verse they reset and Phil revs it up while Bob adds some prominent strumming. Jerry introduces a quiet but quick-moving repeating line that slowly increases in volume. He then moves to lower strings and things start to gradually head towards spacier territory. It's still melodic however and they interweave nicely. Jerry shifts to wah and things slow down a bit and get more stretchy. It's a nice sounding sequence.

By 17:30 the pace is picking up again and the intensity rises. Jerry works a watery line complimented by Keith that spins up nicely. However they let it go fairly quickly and head back into oozier territory. Phil introduces some strong notes that shift the focus and Jerry goes higher and sharper, somewhat delicately at first but rising in intensity. Bob and Keith add to the collective tapestry, as does Bill.

Things begin to shift around 18:50; they hover briefly and it feels like something is brewing. Before long it appears that a meltdown is on the way. Jerry works a pre-Tiger line accented by Bob and Phil introduces some feedback-y low notes. Things are getting weirder. Bob adds some choppy rhythm intermittently and Billy works the cymbals. Jerry gets freakier and growl-ier although it's not a full Tiger yet. Keith re-enters which adds a fusion-y feel.

Around 21:55 the intensity rises and Jerry seems ready to let the Tiger rip. It's short-lived however and he soon pulls back a bit. But the others come forward with Bob, Keith and then Phil all adding to the collective freakiness. They quiet down briefly but keep things weird. There is some string scraping and Phil adds some sustained, feedback-y, revving notes. They ease up again but stay in freaky, fusion-y territory with everyone contributing to the collage.

Bill starts working a beat but a jam doesn't coalesce around it. Instead they continue to explore the bizarreness and Bill lets it go. Things get weirder again with some strong notes from Phil and wailing feedback sounds from the guitars. This rises to a small peak and then crests and then out of this opening Jerry introduces He's Gone.

While not a top-tier version it is still an engaging performance. I like the overall vibe and there is good interplay in spots and some nice sounding passages. Keith's Rhodes is also a good addition. The meltdown isn't fully unleashed but they play around in freaky territory for a good while.

Mr. Rain:


Excellent sound on this tape. Phil announces, "We are gonna tune up real good for this next one!" But a tape edit cuts out the tuning, and they just count in Dark Star. The crowd screams!

The band sounds happy to be in Dark Star again; the jam has a jaunty "welcome back!" feel. Phil is especially plucky. Keith is low in the mix at the start (he comes up after a couple minutes), but his new Fender Rhodes adds a different texture, like chiming bells at times. However it seems the Rhodes encourages his tendency to be reserved & shrink into the background.

Phil teases his Marbles line from 5m onwards, especially strong at 5:50, but without quite committing. Just then Jerry gets into some nice feedback wails, and the music gets more introspective. (Around 6:50 Keith lets out some sustained feedback-type notes.) They do a kind of fadeout, and by 7:30 they're swirling into space it seems -- but suddenly a bass-drum break emerges, led by Phil, doing variations on his Philo Stomp riff. This is energetic & playful, but naturally Phil refuses to keep a consistent rhythm, defying any dancers out there despite Bill's best attempts to follow him. (The crowd's very enthusiastic about it nonetheless, big cheer & clapping along at the end.) At 10:05 Phil gets back to the Marbles line and the guitarists rejoin him in a nice tripping groove. It's a solid jam, but Phil abandons the line after a minute and they head to other shores.

No one has a destination in mind, but they're confident enough to just keep playing anyway, keeping up the momentum. Jerry shows off some pretty picking after 11:50, which he transitions into that catchy three-note riff at 12:15. This does sound familiar, but I think from listening to this version before? Jerry really gets off on it, continuing his pretty picking. Magical stuff! But after a minute this too subsides, and Jerry slips into the main theme at 13:40, in a low register, and they follow him easily. Some nice theme playing before the verse at 14:20. The verse shows a little rustiness, but gets another crowd cheer.

Phil's very forceful in the verse outro figure; Bob strikes harmonic chords while Jerry gets into a repeating lick. Instead of heading to distant space they settle for spacey Dark Star jamming. Jerry steps on the wah at 17:15 for atmospheric effect; not Tigerish yet but part of the jam fabric, notes drippy & lingering. (This is especially effective on the audience tape.) Around 18m Phil leads them down a foreboding trail of chords but this doesn't quite go anywhere, and by 19m they're just hovering. Jerry starts hinting at the Tiger; Phil's bass develops some snarly undertones and he starts droning. Menace fills the air (but the crowd's enjoying this!). While Phil drones & Jerry hits the feedback, Bob & Bill play some jaunty beat in contrast. By 21m this is turning into a very scattered Tiger, Jerry lashing out in bursts. At 21:30 Keith even dives in on the Rhodes (when he was on regular piano he stayed out of this part). This becomes a very interesting Tiger freakout by 22m, Phil droning & Keith Rhodesing & Jerry creaking & Bob trilling. (Phil does some of his stereo blooping around 23:30, which he didn't do back in his actual bass solo.) Instead of building to a full harrowing meltdown this gradually dissolves into a spacey goo, Bill keeping a backbeat while everyone makes freaky percussive sounds. By 25m the drums have stopped and they're in the howling winds of space, blown by gusts of feedback from all guitars. Shades of 1968 Feedbacks return!

As Phil's drone builds, Jerry smoothly starts He's Gone underneath, and the band slips calmly into it, a mellow move after the fierce noisefest. Great transition; but this must be heard on the audience tape -- with the audience screaming in joy at He's Gone and fireworks booming, it has an emotional punch that the soundboard doesn't deliver.

I liked this Dark Star quite a bit, more than most of the recent versions. This has the most joyful opening jam heard in quite a while, which keeps getting happier as it goes. They have that '71-style tendency of getting into a nice jamlet and then dashing off to the next one without developing it. In the second half, the Tiger>Feedback is also very cool and intense. A '73 classic for good reason.

Barry's stereo audience tape is also excellent, and the Dark Star sounds extra spooky on this tape with the stadium echo. (You can hear fireworks going off throughout.) I highly recommend checking out the audience tape to put yourself in the middle of a reverent stadium crowd getting increasingly excited as Dark Star crashes around them.