Lexicon: Themes and Modular Jams

Here is a key to some of the terminology we will be using in our exploration of Dark Star. There are several themes that reappear in various versions, including both modular jams and musical themes that reappear in several Dark Stars.

                              THEMES

Some of these themes were named by Light Into Ashes of the Grateful Dead Guide; these will be marked "LIA." Others were named by ourselves, or are of unknown origin.



Introduction Theme
This appears at the beginning of most Dark Stars, particularly when they do not emerge from another song or ongoing jam.

1970-02-13

Main Theme
This appears near the beginning of Dark Star in many early versions, but eventually it comes to introduce the verse.

1971-10-31 4:22

216. 1994-03-30

14832 Atlanta 10:29

Verse melody at 2:52.
Main theme at 4:18.
First verse at 4:48.
Goes into Drums.


The final Dark Star follows a Playing in the Band that gets rather freaky at the end. Garcia kicks it off, and right away it is a bit more laid-back than the last one—the funky and frenetic approach seems to have been a one-off. Nevertheless, it bounces along nicely, moving at a good clip.


What the hell is Garcia doing starting at 2:02? He’s got some really freaky stuff happening, like he’s tuning a radio; then there’s a rather Hawaiian rendering of the verse melody at 2:52. The playing here is completely unlike anything we’ve heard in a previous Dark Star! When they hit the main theme, Weir almost takes the lead for a moment. There’s a sense of possibility here, and the crowd seems to recognize this with a cheer when they hit the verse.


Jerry follows the verse with some more conventional Dark Star leads, which are welcome here…now we’ve got four minutes for this to go somewhere. As usual, it will have to go out without falling apart entirely, as the latter is a constant danger when Drums are in the offing. By around 7 minutes in, the music has quietened considerably. There’s a little segment where Jerry and Vince are the focus, and Weir drops out for a little while.


We get hints of Sputnik, and at 7:41 Garcia sounds like he wants to start playing Comes a Time! He works a little melodic bit that sounds like the intro to the former, and Vince follows him. The drummers are very restrained throughout this segment; their time is coming, but they allow this delicate jam to unfold. Garcia keeps his Comes a Time lick going, with various permutations, but the band doesn’t quite coalesce around it—rather, they seem content to let it spill away and to cede the stage.


It's very difficult to evaluate this one—even though the band almost certainly didn’t know this would be the last time, it has sentimental force nevertheless. There’s not a whole lot to it, really; on the other hand, and fittingly enough, it has elements that are absolutely unique. What an amazing thing Dark Star is, that it could last so long and go so many places. We are fortunate to have these recordings, and in the end the finale could have been a lot worse. Even though their commitment to Dark Star waned in the last few years, they were still trying new things to the last.


What was said:

215. 1994-03-16

139174 IL 11:15

Main theme at :06 and 4:20.
First verse at 4:31.
Goes into Drums.


This time there is no spacey jamming preceding Dark Star—Long Way to Go Home ends with a vocal coda (which the audience seems to love!) and Garcia, again playing the Lightning Bolt with the acoustic patch, immediately plays the introductory riff. We’ve now arrived at that portion of the Dead’s career many would prefer to pass over in silence, but Jerry sounds really good here, breaking off crisp licks as the band plays a tight and bouncy take on the two-chord pattern.


In fact, this might be the funkiest take on the introductory jam we’ve yet heard, and Garcia’s staccato licks are almost reminiscent, at times, of Shakedown Street. They’ve found a whole new feel here, and it’s a delight to hear, as the protean qualities of Dark Star are still in evidence after 26 years. They know they’ve caught something, and they lean into it—it’s not spacey or mysterious, but it is the sound of the Grateful Dead finding a groove. They’re also going pretty fast, and this is particularly evident when Jerry sings the verse, for which they do not slow the tempo, as they sometimes did in the past when it got brisk in the intro jam.


They continue as they started after the singing subsides, and now Garcia’s line gets more melodic and majestic, even as the band cranks away. They get the idea, though, and soon the music starts to stretch and breathe. The tempo is still quick, but the gestalt changes to something more expansive, if still rather tightly structured. When Lesh climbs at 8:00 things start really popping, as guitar and bass embark on their familiar winding dance.


Welnick is rather timid tonight, almost sounding like TC at times as he swirls around without substantially affecting the direction of things. Weir stays within the funk concept for the most part, which works just fine. Lesh and Garcia have given us a moment, though, and now it’s going to wind down in the direction of Drums, which take an increasingly tribal approach to the funk template that’s been set.


This is surprisingly good, if a bit limited. They explore a single tempo and beat, but they do it really well, and it is engaging throughout. It is perhaps a conservative decision to maintain the tempo throughout the verse--there will be no reset, no need to find a new approach--but it works well enough. This is way better than I expected (or feared).


What was said:

214. 1993-09-22

13801 MSG 8:15

Main theme at 2:08.
First verse at 2:25.
Goes into Drums.


With David Murray sitting in, the band uncorks a 16-minute Estimated Prophet that gets suitably freaky on the home stretch; perhaps because they’re feeling their oats now, they break out Dark Star next. We know, however, that Dark Star doesn’t necessarily mean that there is an improvisational adventure on the horizon, anymore. We just have to see what we get.


Lesh seems to be the one pushing for Dark Star, and after some preliminaries which could as easily be tracked as the last bits of Estimated Prophet, he gets the result he’s looking for. Murray stays out of it entirely, letting them get it together. They bring it to the verse rather quickly, which might not be a bad thing since we’ve only got 8 minutes and we’re unlikely to hear the second verse.


The jamming is pretty normal at first. At about 4:05 Murray creeps in, and he sounds good. Garcia is deferential; he works his way back in, but they seem a little tentative still. Since we’ve just heard them both unleashed on Estimated, this ought to work, but time is running out.


At 6:55 the playing gets more abstract, and it seems like we’re finally getting somewhere, but they’re about to hand it off to the drummers. It’s getting better, but they’re letting the center unravel, and we know that it’s ending.


And so it does. This is nice as a little tag-on to the massive Estimated Prophet, but isn’t up to a whole lot in its own right.


What was said:

213. 1993-09-13

12096 Philadelphia 5:32


Main theme at :06 and 2:58.
First verse at 3:12.
Goes into Terrapin Station.


Playing in the Band is not very long, but it really starts to get out there, and they decide to take it into Dark Star. Garcia is employing the acoustic patch (now playing Lighning Bolt), which is a strange choice here, and he continues this into Dark Star, which begins with the intro lick but without a pause. Garcia plays the theme a few times to start it off, and then a fairly typical introductory jam ensues in which Jerry lays out for a while.


Phil plays with the verse melody a little here, and there are gestures in the direction of E monor. Jerry comes back at 1:15, still playing the acoustic patch. The jam picks up energy here; it’s a very full sound, with everyone going at it hammer and tongs. Although the faux-acoustic isn’t my favorite sound, Garcia plays some beautiful stuff here.


It’s a shame the band isn’t letting Dark Star off the leash these days, because they sound really good on a lot of these last versions. One gets the sense that if anything did happen, it would be something good! We get the first verse after three minutes, though, and then there’s another minute before they pull up into Terrapin Station. I’d like to say they make the last minute count, but it’s not really enough time to sink their teeth into anything, although it’s certainly not bad.


It seems like Dark Star is on its last legs, and in fact it’s not entirely clear why they keep playing it. It’s nice to hear Jerry play these familiar licks, but there’s nothing much happening.


What was said:

212. 1993-06-23

108984 Indiana 7:13 (6:30)

Main theme at :52 and 2:18.
First verse at 2:26.
Goes into The Wheel.


This is a show mostly known for a titanic Terrapin Station that goes into a wild jam. Between that and a 15-minute Space, there has already been a wealth of improvised music in the this second set by the time we get to Dark Star, and much of it is very good, to boot. As Space reaches its conclusion, Garcia has some kind of bowed sound going, which is almost certainly the result of an electronic gate rather than a Jimmy Page maneuver. Lesh moves it into Dark Star, which starts with the theme rather than the intro lick.


The band sounds focused from the outset here, and the intro jam is tighter and more punchy than the previous ones have been. Garcia dips into the theme a few times and they roll to the verse—one almost gets the impression in these latter-day versions that Jerry is thinking “Oh, we’re playing Dark Star now? That means we’re not jamming anymore!” At least this one doesn’t go into Drums, so it seems likely he’ll be on board for the duration.


Vince hangs on the theme longer than usual after the verse—tight and punchy seems to be the approach here as well. Garcia gets into some downward arpeggios that are almost reminiscent of Fire on the Mountain, which I thought of before the verse as well. Listen from about 4:45, as Jerry uncorks some lightning-fast runs—they may not be stretching this out anymore, but his playing here sounds fresh and engaged, as well as being more nimble than usual.

By about 6:30 Jerry starts playing The Wheel, and although it’s still tracked as Dark Star it doesn’t take long for the band to fall in line. It’s kind of surprising this pairing didn’t happen more times, as the transition is smooth and effortless.


It’s hard to fault the band for being perfunctory in such a jam-filled set, but it’s clear that Dark Star isn’t where the main action is anymore. This is quite good, though; there’s some excellent playing, although Garcia is clearly the main attraction this time.


What was said:

211. 1993-03-17

79050 Landover

Main theme at :05 and 2:16.
First verse at 2:26.
Goes into Drums.


In hindsight, much looks different (how’s that for a platitude!). In the last years, I still expected every Grateful Dead show to be a transformational experience, and this led to disappointment. Now, I remember the disappointment, and hence these shows often sound better than I expect them to. Playing in the Band is short, but it gets nice and spacey toward the end, and by the seventh minute, it feels like the perfect time to ooze into Dark Star. When they do—as we future-dwellers know they will—I know to temper my expectations, but as Playing winds down, I get a little tingle of anticipation as they downshift into the familiar introduction.

The first order of business is the main theme, which Garcia has gotten back into playing, somewhere along the line here. At :42 he springs forth with a sweet, familiar line and, somewhat surprisingly, the MIDI kicks in a few seconds later. He has been using it sparingly lately, and I feel almost nostalgic for it now! He uses it sparingly here, too—it crowns his line for a few seconds and then seems to recede of its own will. We’re left with the sweet familiar sound of Garcia and Lesh’s lines winding around each other; the rest of the unit doesn’t do much out of the ordinary, so this intro section is plain but nice.


It's also short—at 2:26, Jerry sings the verse (which seems to briefly take a wrong turn at “crashes”). Out of the verse, and back to the same sort of thing that preceded it, with Vince hammering the theme a few times, as is his wont. He knows how to get out of it now, though, and our patience may soon be rewarded.


At 4:24, Jerry turns into a flute and, as the kids say, I’m here for it. The music starts to pull out of joint, largely thanks to Lesh; Weir seems to be coming in at odd angles too, now. They seem like they’re edging toward a space jam, which is a welcome development in its own right, as Dark Stars have been rather straight-edged lately. Since this comes before Drums, we know it is a race between weirdness and outright dispersal, so we have to hope the center holds, but not too obviously.


So far, they are walking this line quite well; in the neighborhood of 7:30, there is an insectoid jazz club vibe developing that is sufficiently intriguing that I feel deflated when Garcia disappears at 7:47 and does not return. The remaining jam seems to get even better, but we’re on borrowed time now.


In the end, this is one of the most frustrating Dark Stars we’ve yet reviewed. It has some of the best and most interesting post-verse playing we’ve heard in a long time, but no sooner does it get underway than Jerry ducks out. I really love what’s here, but it’s impossible not to yearn for more.


What was said:

210. 1992-12-16

140831 Oakland 8:46 (7:02).


Main theme at 1:44 and 3:26.
Second verse at 4:07.
Goes into All Along the Watchtower.


Space is really cool, but kind of lazy! It doesn’t telegraph Dark Star until the very end, which is tracked as part of Dark Star here. The first couple of minutes is just Space slowly congealing, until 1:44 when Garcia lands on A and starts fooling with the theme. The loose vibe carries over from Space; the drummers are involved, but in a low-key, cymbal-tapping manner until we hear some traps at 3:12. The band swings back into the theme and soon we get the second verse, as they decide to finish the Dark Star from the 12th (there’s one show in between, on 12-13).


It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if they just ended it after the verse; happily, they decide to let it play out a little longer. Garcia sounds energized now, and his piercing lead surely pleased the concert-going public, some of whom may have remembered headier days. There’s nothing too far out, but the band gets a subtle hitch in its step that gives this its own feel and saves it from sounding merely rote.


Weir is more of a factor here than he has been recently, perhaps in part because he’s audible—his crunchy interjections last until at 7:18 his wail cries respond to a similar initiative on the part of Welnick. The latter switches to a wandering piccolo line at 7:27, ceding the seas to Weir. Then at 7:50 Bob gets more insistent with a kind of partial wah effect; Lesh’s walking bass undergirds the sequence, and Garcia gets fuzzy at 7:49, so at this point things are really popping off. One can’t help but glance at the counter, though, and regret that things are ending rather than beginning. Jerry’s tremolo at 8:28 puts an exclamation point on the whole segment, and then they slide into Watchtower.


This is good—well, I’m almost tempted to say it gets great, except this is a fleeting impression, as no sooner has one’s toe got to tapping than it’s over. High marks for what’s here, but it’s not nearly enough. Dark Star can be good in concentrated doses, but it requires a more sustained effort to get to the places we really want it to go.




What was said:

209. 1992-12-12

140829 Oakland 12:57

First verse at 3:00.
Goes into Drums.


Garcia initiates Dark Star after The Women are Smarter ends, flashing the intro and then noodling around for 20 seconds or so before it gets underway in earnest. Once again the opening jam feels a little thin, without much participation from Weir at first. After a couple minutes Welnick picks up a cue from Jerry and starts running the theme, and the band falls in line as we head to the verse.


The intro riff returns and deposits us back in a basic Dark Star jam. Vince shifts to electric piano; for a moment I thought Hornsby was back sitting in, but apparently not. At around 5:20 it starts to sound to me like Garcia’s trying to break out of the pattern a little, as he gets almost a slowed-down Sputnik thing briefly going and then hits on a repeated note. Lesh seems likewise eager to get something happening; he is very active here. The music weirdens accordingly. Vince goes along with this, and Weir is doing whatever the hell he does in this era, which is kind of abstract to begin with.


At 7:49 Lesh gets a little riff going and plays it out, and Vince adds some horror movie sounds for texture. Garcia has dropped out, and the focal point is the bass. It becomes a full-blown space jam, minus Jerry. Weir wakes up, perhaps as a result of Garcia’s absence, and he starts to get some slashing licks in across Lesh’s bouncing line.


Vince returns to the piano sound, and he is playing some interesting stuff at times, but he seems a bit restrained, playing like an accompanist most of the time. This is best at the moments when he breaks out a little, such as at around 11:50 when they hit a peak. Garcia never comes back, and they head into Drums.


There’s a vicious jam at the end of Space which sometimes gets tracked as part two of Dark Star. Indeed, this is what the end of Dark Star might have been like had Garcia remained involved. Lesh gets a riff going to set them on their way, the drummers sneak back in at some point, and Jerry plays some wailing distorted lines. It seems about to meander, but by around 12:15 it’s really going. Weir gets a MIDI piano thing going, and Welnick plays off of it, while Lesh and Garcia uncork some action. At 14:20 of Space, Jerry brings out I Need a Miracle, and that’s where we wind up.


Although Garcia bails on it, the end jam of Dark Star is pretty good, all things considered. If we count the end of Space as part of Dark Star, as some people do, then it’s even better. However, there aren’t any features of this jam that definitively make it Dark Star, if such a thing matters. The highlight of Dark Star proper is probably the part without Garcia. So, this is an interesting and at times rather good version, but one can’t help being a little disappointed that Jerry didn’t see it through.


What was said:

208. 1992-06-22

32490 PA 4:01

Main theme at :05 and 2:15.
Second verse at 2:47.
Goes into Drums.


The end of Victim or the Crime peters out into noodly hints of Dark Star, and then they fire it up. Garcia plays the theme and then plays some really nice standard issue Dark Star leads. Vince is, as often is the case, pretty committed to the theme here. Lesh is fairly quiescent, and the band as a whole is playing rather gently. After a short spell it gets to the second verse; this could be seen as the completion of the Dark Star that began on 06-08, with a brief middle section on the 18th.


They end it immediately after the verse, not passing Go nor collecting the proverbial 200 dollars. This is a bit listless, although Jerry’s guitar lines never entirely fail to please me.




What was said:

SUPPLEMENTAL: 1992-06-18

32487 Charlotte 6:00

Main theme more or less throughout.
Verse melody at 2:36.
Goes into All Along the Watchtower.


After Space, Garcia starts noodling around with the Dark Star theme. He seems to be playing with a delay effect. They play with the theme until Garcia plays the verse melody at 2:36, going all the way through it, although it doesn’t really do the “shall we go” parts. Weir is involved but rather difficult to hear much of the time; the others are more or less present. There’s some lovely stuff by Garcia in the back half, and this is certainly a pleasing little trifle, if nothing more.


What was said:

207. 1992-06-08

150518 Richfield 8:49

Main theme at :05, :34, and :53.
First verse at 1:09.
Main theme at 2:22 and 7:12.
Goes into The Last Time.


A relatively rare post-Space Dark Star, this one begins a bit tentatively without the drummers, who return to the stage after about half a minute. Weir is not in evidence here and much of the time. The short intro section just repeats the theme until Garcia comes in with the verse. Garcia starts to vary the theme after the verse, but that is where we come out again.


This is the first Dark Star without Bruce Hornsby, and Vince sounds pretty good here, mostly employing a pleasing and full-bodied organ sound. Jerry clicks on the kind of distortion he uses on All Along the Watchtower and Morning Dew in this era at 4:09 and the band starts to kick up a bit. There’s a rousing peak at about 4:48 or so, and then at 5:05 Garcia crashes his lead into a fuzzy A chord a few times the way he sometimes does. As they come down it seems like Weir is playing a horn MIDI for a spell.


From here things disperse a bit. Garcia still wants to go, but the rest of the band drops down to almost nothing, with Lesh dropping out for a bit. At 6:42 he returns and they pull together for a few moments, but the band still seems hesitant. They finally end it and play The Last Time.


Garcia seems game for much of this, but the rest of the band doesn’t seem that into it. There is a nice peak in the middle, though.


What was said:

206. 1992-03-20

141785 Canada 14:08

Main theme at :06.
First verse at 1:22.
Main theme at 8:40.
Verse melody at 8:52.
Goes into Drums.


This sounds a little tentative at first, but not in a bad way. Welnick is employing a more or less classic organ sound—I guess not a B3, since that was apparently proscribed? It works more or less the same way for me, though. Everyone is clear in the mix, and it’s well-balanced; the recording has an intimate sound. Hornsby is still hanging in with the band. They go right to the theme, and there is about 80 seconds of what amounts to throat clearing before Garcia sings the verse. Jerry’s vocals are no doubt aged, and it’s become difficult for him to sing Dark Star, but he sounds pretty good here.


Vince goes right back to the theme, but at this point he can be trusted to leave it behind when he needs to. Garcia is playing kind of softly, though when he leans in he’s loud enough. As they approach the four-minute mark he gains a MIDI halo around his notes, but he’s using it more sparingly and tastefully these days. The music is full-bodied and rather pretty. Hornsby is active, but he’s not doing much that’s interesting yet. Vince, on the other hand, is rather psychedelic, although he’s adding color rather than developing many ideas.


Weir caught my ear at 5:55 or so; he weaves a line into the mix here, which is a nice contrast to his usual stabbing interjections in this era. Then he starts to sound a little like an accordion, of all things; his contributions in general seem a little more interesting than I can recall them being lately. Hornsby and Welnick get an offset rhythm started from around 7:00; Lesh is playing a mobile line with short, non-sustained notes. On top of this Garcia plays some off-kilter descending runs. At 8:09, Jerry switches to a more legato line which seems to rein them in; he plays the theme, and then runs through the verse melody. Lesh and the drummers undergird it with a lilting beat, and they play right through the chorus.

They come out of it with a cool, syncopated groove in A; for a moment it seems like a throwback to the days when they’d compose new jams on the fly with unique grooves, although it sort of slides back into a more recognizable Dark Star groove at times. This is actually kind of interesting, as if some of the Dark Star’adjacent universes are closer than one would think. At 11:45, Jerry cooks up a strumming lick that they fall in line with, and after a little bit he cedes the stage, and they ride the groove out a little longer until the drums take over.


This is another Dark Star that is really solid and engaging without being quite long or interesting enough to entirely satisfy our yearnings. It has a really cool sound to it; maybe partly because of the recording, or perhaps due to their sound at this stage, the band really seems connected and in communication with one another. What is frustrating is that this rendition seems to point to powers that remained largely untapped; they seem capable of much here, yet they chose to do much less than they could have. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quite a bit.


What was said:

205. 1992-03-09

141629 Landover 11:03
Main theme at :05 and 1:29.
First verse at 2:40.
Goes into Drums.


Garcia and Phil get kind of sideways on the intro lick, after a Corrina end jam that likewise gets a bit sideways while hinting at Dark Star. They head right into the main theme. Bruce Hornsby is still hanging in with the band, and he joins Vince in hammering out the theme licks. When they come apart Bruce is rather busy, while Vince spreads some textural chords around. Jerry’s gotten back to playing the theme, and he sprinkles it in a few times, keeping the opening jam close to home.


The verse arrives early, leaving some room for maneuvering afterward, particularly if they forgo the second. Vince goes right back to the theme; he has a pretty pleasing organ sound going tonight, although Hornsby has a tinkly vibe, probably playing an electric piano, albeit with a straight piano sound. Jerry and Phil wind around in the usual way, and Weir is very active with his inscrutable interjections. A very promising bubbly and jazzy jam emerges, lurching along drunkenly but not aimlessly.


This is starting to disperse by 6:40. It still lurches, but it loosens and quietens into an almost pointillist scene. At 7:35 Garcia kicks on a MIDI trumpet, and the jam is still hanging together—loose, but in a confident way. It seems to be heading to space, but taking its time getting there. Jerry has a few bluesy thoughts that are like clouds scudding across the sky, neither changing the jam nor particularly clashing with it. By the ten minute mark they seem to be letting it all slip away. At 10:30, Jerry starts a strumming riff that the others latch on to, but after a few seconds they abandon the whole thing and pass it on to the drummers.


This is really enjoyable music—in fact, it’s been a surprise how much I have enjoyed these latest versions. On the other hand, this really doesn’t add up to much—they don’t seem to have enough commitment left to Dark Star to make a whole lot out of it, anymore.


What was said:

204. 1991-10-31

139276 Oakland 16:46 (I. 10:50; II. 5:54)


Main theme at 1:13 and 1:54.
First verse at 3:43.
Main theme at II. 2:40.
Second verse at 3:58.
Goes into Drums, then into The Last Time.


Gary Duncan of Quicksilver fame sits in, and he jumps right in at the very beginning. He is game, although it’s a little jarring to hear another guitarist try to put his stamp on the song. Garcia takes off at :39, and Duncan backs off for a while, although he’ll get another whack at the spotlight before the verse. The latter comes pretty early, and then they’re off again.


Garcia isn’t holding back, guest or no, but there are a lot of elements in the mix here. It verges on cacophony at times, in fact. At about 6:30 they start to bring it way down, although Lesh keeps plugging away. Then at 7:03, Ken Kesey comes in with a rap, and the band builds behind him. Kesey is a dynamic presence, and he gets louder, finally hollering out the ee cummings poem about Buffalo Bill and ceding the field to the band. They seem to conclude that Kesey provided the necessary climax, though, and let it go to the drum segment.


Space seems like an integral part of the Dark Star segment tonight. Duncan is involved here too, and he seems happy to add to the weirdness, but again he stands out as a foreign element. His involvement tonight underscores how the Dead function as a unit even during the seemingly chaotic parts of Space, in any case. Toward the end of this section he gets a funky little riff going that is amusingly incongruous at first, but it winds up being the thread that leads them into the next jam.


This segment almost sounds like it could go into Other One at first, although it has a lazier, lurching beat and a bluesy orientation. Surprisingly, Duncan is the center of the action now, as the band coalesces around his riffing and takes off. After two and half minutes, they spin it out and swing into the Dark Star theme. Then they blend it with the cadence of the preceding blues jam before heading to the verse. Deftly done.


There’s not much left after this; they do swing back into the Dark Star zone for a little while, but less than a minute later they go into The Last Time.


This is all pretty cool. There’s not a lot of extended jamming, but it’s an action packed segment of the show, and Kesey’s rap is pretty dynamic. It’s especially fascinating to see how the band adjusts to Duncan—at first, he’s almost a contaminant, but they reorganize around him and absorb him into the Dead gestalt. Good stuff.


What was said:

203. 1991-09-26

149553 22:10 (I. 15:28; II. 6:42)

First verse at 8:47.
Main theme at II. :25.
Second verse at II. :36.
Goes into Saint of Circumstance, then into Attics of My Life.


A broody tuning at the head of the second set coalesces into a little jam that turns into the second Dark Star of this six-night run. This starts out jaunty, almost bouncy even, with a tempo that feels a touch brisker than the 24th. The keyboardists really go to town here, and as usual Welnick hammers the main theme at the outset. Garcia’s line feels like it’s everywhere, weaving and bobbing through the keyboard soup.


At 5:30 Lesh starts in with the main theme, but no one seems to pay that any mind. There’s a little peak attendant on Garcia’s jabbing notes from around 6:05, and as it winds down Lesh tries the theme again, but again they keep rolling along. It’s a great wash of sound, fluent and full-bodied. Garcia gets jabbing again at 8:15 and takes them to another peak and, sure enough, this gets Phil running the theme, which finally takes them into the verse.


The jam after the verse isn’t much different than what preceded it, at first—no space, but not exactly straight either, just a massive sonic swirl. At 11:00 Garcia starts ascending, buoyed by Hornsby’s mirroring line, and they come to a peak at about 11:30 which quickly disperses. They wind down like water swirling down a drain, until Jerry gets a jaunty line going that they all hang on to. It’s been a subtle process, but things have gotten steadily weirder; Phil’s bass line is all the way away from Dark Star now, in particular. At 13:30 Garcia gets a Crazy Fingers-like pattern going, but that’s not where this is going; they jam a while longer, and after Jerry kicks on the distortion at 14:55, they start to edge their way into Saint of Circumstance.


The Other One comes out of Space tonight, so we get a classic combination here. They drop back into Dark Star and worry the theme for a short spell before going right to the second verse. They play it pretty straight off the back side, giving the outro a pretty placid and straight kick-off. At II. 3:15 there’s a wind-down that stretches and stretches. Instead of ending, a soft and peaceful segment emerges, with Lesh playing drawn out notes as Jerry and the keyboards produce languorous melody. They come to a stop at 6:14, after which they come back with a few seconds of sort-of Attics of My Life before kicking it off properly, so arguably this isn’t a segue but a full stop.


This is some really psychedelic music, and it seems to me to be an especially unique version, quite different even from the one two days prior. The keyboards are an essential ingredient now, rather than an uncertain accompaniment. The music surrounds you and takes over, a buoyant wash of sound.


What was said:

202. 1991-09-24

150638 Boston 14:22

First verse at 4:09.
Main theme at 11:36.
Goes into Drums.


A slow tempo at the outset here. Vince hangs on the theme for a while, and Garcia says his piece. Jerry and Phil manage to get something going right away, and they head away from the song pattern, although they don’t stray very far. We get a pretty vigorous jam that culminates at 3:05 with Lesh trying to bring back the theme. They don’t fall into line right away, but finally Hornsby acquiesces and we head into the verse.


Garcia gets a flute or piccolo thing going as the second jam begins. Welnick has a kind of ghostly organ sound going tonight, which is rather pleasing. At 6:43 Jerry suddenly snaps back into a regular guitar tone, which he keeps for one minute and then goes back to flute sounds. The jam thus far is pretty straightforward, but it seems to be gradually getting a little weirder and less bound to the usual structure. By about 8:30 it’s getting pretty spacey. Hornsby is ranging up and down the keyboard, and Lesh is likewise showing a lot of vertical movement.


It keeps going in this direction—further out. Both keyboards are very active, and Jerry and Phil are very busy. Weir seems barely a factor, though, just adding a few side comments. Just after 11:00, Phil and then Jerry unexpectedly start hinting at the theme, and when it comes it gathers the jam for a few moments, but they let it start to spin out again. At 12:45 Garcia starts a repeated high variation on the theme, kind of like Bright Star. This all makes it seem like they’re planning to perform the second verse. Instead they let the jam disperse again, with Hornsby swelling and then Lesh playing a rocking riff for a while. This dies down, and there are drums.


This is another short one that has plenty to recommend it. The jamming is just free enough to be interesting, and just conservative enough to be cohesive. Not bad at all.


What was said:

201. 1991-09-10

157119 MSG 24:28 (I. 12:19; II. 12:09)

Main theme at :06
First verse at 3:38.
Verse melody at 10:48.
Second verse at II. :51.
Goes into I Need a Miracle.


They come in kind of raggedy here; they begin with the theme, with the drums staying out and Weir cutting against the beat. Branford is assertive from the jump, again playing the soprano sax. They get some momentum going after about a minute, and there’s a kind of lush soundscape with the sax swirling around. Garcia kicks on the flute effect after another minute, and Hornsby tinkles away, but Welnick is more textural at first. At 3:26 Lesh kicks in with the theme, and they go right to the verse.


Now it’s time to get down to business. Vince runs the theme while Garcia and Marsalis trip around. Vince has some cool sounds going, mostly organ-like but with some ominous swells. From around 6:30 Garcia plays some melodic stuff that hints at a minor tonality and shifts the mood. It is pared down to mostly Jerry, Phil and Vince now. Weir comes back at 7:40 with some volume swells, and Branford follows him back in. There’s no sign of Hornsby yet, but the music is starting to build again.


I think I can hear Bruce at 8:53, he is just playing quietly, I think. There’s a lot of sound going on, though, as they wax and wane a few times without coming to a peak. Hornsby is back in evidence at 9:45, and this leads to another gradual crescendo. There is a minor peak at 10:35 or so, and they start to tail off. They run through the verse melody a full three times, and then almost play the chorus, but instead they get a galloping beat going that is soon taken over by the drummers.


Space tonight is a really cohesive and engaging ambient jam, although it doesn’t have much evident connection to the first half of Dark Star. It gradually comes around to a Dark Star jam, and the main theme leads into the second verse very soon after. They choose to keep going, and it gets hairy pretty fast after the verse, heading right into a space jam. Garcia puts on the bassoon sound, and Marsalis is now on tenor.


This is some really free jamming, now. The drummers duck out not long after the verse ends, but the jam is still pretty intense. Just about everyone is walking all over, with Weir providing a more textural commentary on the side. It continues to build in intensity, reaching meltdown status from about II. 6:40. This (along with Space tonight and in Nassau) is probably the most “out” stuff Marsalis ever played on!


There’s a bit of a lull at II. 8:45; Garcia is back sounding like a guitar, and the music loses some of its cohesion. It was “out” before, but it had an intense core that is now unravelling. At II. 10:15 Garcia is playing some sweet melodic stuff, and Marsalis latches on to it, but in a more frenetic mode. Finally, Jerry switches to the sound he’ll use on Miracle, and there’s some preliminary marshaling of forces well into the next track before they kick it off.


The first half of this is just OK, but the second half is a monster. Space is also excellent, although it seems a bit disconnected from the rest. The jamming after the second verse is definitely the highlight.


What was said:

200. 1991-08-16

141316 Shoreline 10:12 (8:40)

First verse at 3:52.
Verse melody at 5:15.
Goes into Promised Land.

A pretty short first set Dark Star; this basically fills the Bird Song role in the set. It starts out with some ensemble noodling, before Garcia finally kicks it off with the intro riff after a minute and a half. The tempo is rather brisk tonight. This is a good recording, as you can make out all of the instruments very well. Hornsby is pretty active, and it’s nice to hear what he’s doing as he comments on Garcia’s lines. They get up to an early peak at about 3:30, and then Vince starts in with the theme and Jerry sings.


They barely slow down for the verse, and thus they don’t seem to need to reload after the verse, they just keep chugging away. Garcia becomes a horn and gives us the verse melody, playing it three times through; Hornsby doubles him the last time. He gives us some more horn flourishes in lieu of the chorus, and then gets a little more guitar-like and keeps wailing away.


Hornsby is plugged into what Jerry’s doing throughout, at times mirroring his line. Lesh seems a bit quiescent tonight; he just keeps everything running pretty straight. At the nine minute mark it seems finally ready to open up, but that’s not what’s going to happen tonight; rather, they let it wind down and crank up Promised Land.


This is a slight but enjoyable rendition. It’s not ambitious or particularly memorable, but it gets a little bit of jamming into the first set in a pleasant way.




What was said:

SUPPLEMENTAL: 1991-06-28; 1991-08-17; 1991-09-06; 1991-09-08

1991-06-28 150679 Denver 1:33

1991-08-17 107826 Shoreline 1:07

1991-09-06 5560 Richfield 3:29

Denver has a nice little bit in the middle of Wharf Rat where Jerry plays the melody line. At Shoreline, Space starts to hint at Dark Star, and they swing into the main theme for about a minute before going into Morning Dew rather than finishing the previous day's version. Something similar happens at Richfield, but they stick with it for a few minutes before playing Watchtower.


1991-09-08 1069 MSG 9:05


There’s a nice jam between Saint of Circumstance and Drums; it is sometimes tracked as “Dark Star Jam.” It certainly has overtones of Dark Star, but I wouldn’t call it a full-fledged instrumental version, or even really a Dark Star Jam. I was at this show, as it happens, but I don’t have any memory of this anymore! Garcia ducks out a few minutes before the end, and there’s a nice section with Weir, Lesh and the keyboard players. In any case, it’s good music, but it’s doubtful whether it belongs here.



What was said:

199. 1991-06-22

112775 Chicago 7:31

Verse melody at 1:10.
Main theme at 2:25.
First verse at
Goes into Playin’ in the Band reprise.


In the closing minutes of Space there are hints of Dark Star, and then Garcia starts his backing theme lick. They start is up without playing the opening riff. Garcia plays the verse melody and, interestingly, he keeps it going and they go to the E minor the third time through. I’m not sure if they’ve done that before.


Welnick has a pretty nice organ sound tonight—a sound that’s perilously close to the forbidden B3, in fact. Hornsby is on the other side of the mix this time, so it’s easy to tell them apart, and in fact I think the two keyboards sound better mixed like this instead of lumped together in the sound stage.


I wondered if they were going to play the second verse to finish off RFK, but it just peters out and they reprise a Playin’ in the Band that, for once, they had started earlier in the evening.


This stays pretty close to home, but it sounds like they’re having fun.


What was said:

SUPPLEMENTAL: 1991-06-17

2496

This is another show I attended. There are several little Dark Star teases throughout. I’ve heard some people complain about this but, maybe because my crew and I had just been at RFK, we enjoyed this aspect of the show, although we wouldn’t have complained if they’d broken down and played it.


The first relevant segment is in the first set after Brown Eyed Women. Weir starts strumming Dark Star, and Lesh joins him after a few seconds. It never really comes together; Garcia plays the chorus a little, and then they swell to the point where you could almost think they were just about playing Dark Star, at which point they go into When I Paint my Masterpiece. Hornsby even gets some Dark Star licks in during the song.


In the second set, after Ship of Fools they again start fiddling around with Dark Star. It’s not completely clear at first, but then Garcia starts playing the verse melody, and again they render the chorus instrumentally. Lesh almost plays the intro lick coming off the back of the chorus, but as if he knows that this would indeed cross the Rubicon, Garcia quickly kicks off Truckin’.


Post-Space, there is a random Playin’ in the Band reprise, and there is a few seconds of futzing around after that which might hint at Dark Star again; Charlie Miller seems to think so, anyway.


This was the show they opened with Eyes of the World, so there was a sense of possibility that night which was quickened by the Dark Star jams that followed. Perhaps some of us even harbored a hope that the shackles of the ordinary show format would be entirely rent asunder; although nothing quite that dramatic happened, it was a very good show.


What was said:

198. 1991-06-14

149609 RFK 10:58

First verse at 1:59.
Goes into Drums.


I am happy to say I was in attendance for this. I “called it,” which impressed the guy next to me so much he talked to me a little too much during the first few minutes (I only “called it” because I wanted to hear it, and not by dint of any mystical attunement to the band or the cosmos). Welnick plays the main theme quite a bit in the early going, underscoring how straightforward this is at the outset, and it gets to the verse before it goes anywhere. They seem to be all on the same page in going to the E minor on the third line now, which seems to be well-entrenched at this point—it’s how the song goes, now.


Both keyboards are very much audible and, for a change, distinguishable. On the other hand, they haven’t done much yet—Vince goes right back to the theme after the verse, and Bruce is in a low-key supporting role thus far. Garcia and Lesh are leading the charge, with Weir’s distorted and tangential stabs rounding out the scene.


By 4:30 the tempo seems to be increasing a little. Welnick, having finally abandoned the theme, is now a swelling sea; Garcia starts bobbing around on it with an Other One-adjacent cadence, and getting everything starts moving as they swing into a frenetic jam which ebbs and flows a few times, finally peaking at about 7:15.


Shortly thereafter Weir gets some strange MIDI going, although everyone else seems to be avoiding the stuff. They bring it back to a screaming peak at 8:04, and Weir really starts getting strange with the MIDI runs. This is a really ferocious section, midway between a space freakout and an Other One jam. There’s a final blast with Jerry playing a triumphant riff; this rallies them, until at 10:45 the bottom drops out and they flee the stage.


It's not clear why this is so short; maybe they felt like they’d said what they had to say. It’s certainly a great jam, even if there isn’t all that much of it.


What was said:

197. 1991-04-01

49666 Greensboro 26:09 (I: 23:34, II: 2:35)

Main theme at :48 and 1:45.
First verse at 8:42.
Second verse at II. 1:41.
Goes into Drums, then PitB reprise


1991, a new year for Dark Star. Bruce Hornsby is still hanging around, and this time he is very active in the early innings. The intro jam is brisk, and is organized around the main theme, which the various players return to periodically throughout. Garcia also plays around with the verse melody at 2:05, after which he plays some magnificent runs that culminate in a Bright Star flourish at 3:05. After some more exploration, he revisits the verse tune at 4:54, then turns into a flute at 5:45.


This is what, as the cliché has it, could be called a “bravura performance” by Jerry, who seems to be bursting with energy and ideas tonight. The band leaves the two-chord pocket behind fairly early, although by 8:22, when Garcia signals the return to the theme, they haven’t gone too far out, either. This brings us almost immediately to the verse, wrapping up a promising first segment.


They seem to slow down just a little coming off the verse. Here begins a jam that, at first, is similar to the first one, if a bit more deliberate. It starts to get kind of soupy and weird at 10:40, with Weir and the keyboardists coloring outside the lines now, and more of an emphasis on the E minor. Pretty soon we’re in Strangeville, and the MIDI effects become more prominent, with Garcia settling on the bassoon. The keys get more twisted and carnivalesque—there’s some wild stuff going on from about 13:40 in particular. It just gets stranger and wilder from here.


I am not entirely sure which keyboardist is responsible for which sounds here; it’s usually only possible to hear one at a time with any clarity. I think it’s Vince at about 15:45 who’s letting it all hang out; if so, he seems to be finally contributing something interesting to Dark Star. At 17:48 you can briefly hear them both, and it seems like Hornsby is trilling while Vince ranges around a bit.


The section beginning at 18:30 is truly far out space rock. Now Garcia also sounds like a keyboard, which is really cool but doesn’t make things any clearer via a vis this write-up. The music soon starts to disperse a bit, becoming a space jam. The drummers start to take control, with Weir, Welnick, and maybe Lesh providing accompaniment—everyone else seems to be gone after about 21:00. Either Phil or one of the keyboardists’ left hands is laying down a swampy riff, which finally subsides as we reach the drum segment.


Space—which is considerably less freaky than the back half of the first Dark Star segment—has a kind of pastoral vibe tonight, invoking a sort of funhouse Jethro Tull. There’s not a very clear transition back into Dark Star where this recording has the track break, but the jam gets more cohesive and, at II:45, the drummers ease back into the mix. The main theme starts to emerge and pretty soon Jerry’s singing and its over.


This isn’t entirely new, but by this point the band has an odd, digital overall sound that can be a little off-putting. Aside from that, though, this is a thoroughly excellent Dark Star, and the keyboards made a positive contribution to that excellence, for a change.


What was said:

196. 1990-12-31

141868 Oakland 20:36


Main theme at :06 and 1:20.
First verse at 1:26.
Main theme at 8:40.
Second verse at 9:06.
Goes into Drums.


A New Year’s Eve Dark Star with Branford Marsalis, this kicks right off with the main theme. This is the second Dark Star with Marsalis (1990-03-29). They go to the verse almost immediately, which can be good in this era, as the jamming preliminary to the verse is often rather staid. Branford, on soprano, stays in the background at first, stepping up a little after the verse. There is some serious polyphony with the two keyboardists, Garcia, Lesh, and Marsalis; Weir mostly adds color.


At about 4:15 they start to work toward a peak, which arrives at about 4:40. Garcia then starts a driving rhythm (a bit like Other One) that gets everyone moving, and the peaks keep coming. They come over the top around the 6 minute mark, and drop into a section with a little bit of swing to it, and Marsalis comes to the fore. At 7:30 Marsalis is playing lines in spurts, and the others join him for a minute in a herky-jerky passage that then wends its way into spacier territory.


At 8:28 Jerry brings back the swing, then kicks off the theme. Somewhat surprisingly, then, he sings the second verse at only 9:06 into the piece, which seems to portend a spacey back half. Indeed, after the reiteration of the intro lick they drop right into a drumless space, without bringing back the Dark Star chord pattern. Jerry’s ready for some MIDI now, going for his bassoon sound at first (but these things rarely stay the same for long—pretty soon he’s a flute). The MIDI effects proliferate, with Hornsby and Lesh playing more traditional sounds. As so often is the case, it gets difficult to always track who is doing what.


It gets downright spooky at around 14 minutes in; there are still no drums, and the music is eerie and meandering, in a good way. This starts to almost sound like something by Sun Ra at times. Garcia and Marsalis lock in on some passages, and at other times everything seems to swirl around madly. In the 19th minute everything accelerates as Marsalis starts blowing up a storm, and the drums return; they rush to a crescendo. At 19:20 Garcia initiates a Sputnik pattern, but it fizzles out without anyone getting on board, and they let it dissipate into Drums, but not before all but starting up The Other One, which gives a strong indication of what’s coming after Space.


This is a strange and powerful Dark Star. They seem eager to get the song portion over with, which makes me think they may be tiring of Dark Star again. On the other hand, although it’s relatively brief, the music between the verses is excellent. The back half is unique, insofar as it must be the longest drumless stretch of music in a Dark Star. This is great stuff.


What was said:

194-5. 1990-12-12 and 1990-12-14

194. 1990-12-12 149736 Denver 13:45

Main theme at 1:08 and 5:26.
First verse at 5:49.
Verse melody at 8:55.
Goes into Terrapin Station.


The jump-off is rather jaunty. Vince is tinkling out the main theme quite a bit at first, but he switches to a more legato thing after a little while. Lesh puts on some kind of xylophone MIDI effect as we approach the end of the first minute, and then Garcia starts playing the theme. He then quotes the verse melody as Phil switches back to bass tones. I cannot hear Hornsby at all here, although the archive has him listed as a musician. Weir is present but sort of quiet and tame.


At 4:28 Garcia starts fiddling with a Sputnik line, and this gets Vince swirling around as the band kicks up a bit. The latter brings them back to earth at 5:21 by returning to the theme, and the band falls into line. Garcia plays the theme again, something he hasn’t been doing much of lately. They go to the verse, closing the first chapter of Dark Star.


Garcia starts back in with intro-style melodic playing, and Welnick tinkles the theme some more. After a minute or so Jerry puts on some distortion, but they’re still keeping it close to home. Lesh plays with the effects some more, starting at about 8:25, and Weir starts playing something that sounds like a bedspring. Garcia runs through the verse melody while all this is happening. It now seems like Hornsby might be here after all, playing an electric piano or something…if so, he’s been keeping to a supporting role, but here he adds some futuristic blorpy textures (unless that’s Vince’s left hand).


There’s a lull at 11:25, and Garcia starts playing flute. He changes the effects a few times, winding up a piccolo, and they fiddle around a bit. The jam seems like it’s about to get interesting now, as they leave the Dark Star pattern behind. As the music shifts and swells, Jerry starts strumming Terrapin Station, and it’s over.


This is rather minimal, but altogether pleasant. They never explore outside the confines of a basic Dark Star jam, except in the last couple minutes when it’s just about over. If one were to regard it as something akin to Bird Song, then perhaps one would be less likely to be disappointed at how short and conservative it is for Dark Star.



195. 1990-12-14 149757 Denver 8:40


Main theme at 1:10, 2:58, and 4:00.
Verse melody at 1:23.
Second verse at 4:21.
Goes into I Need a Miracle.


This is, I suppose, the second half of the rendition from the 12th. The end jam of He’s Gone hints at the I Need a Miracle toward which they’re ultimately headed, but Space is floaty and meditative, and as it wraps up Garcia starts to allude to Dark Star. Garcia toys around with the theme, then almost fakes the band into the intro lick, but they keep going. Once again, I can’t really tell what Hornsby is doing, if he’s doing anything, and Weir is less of a factor than usual.


Lesh kicks off the theme after about a minute, and again Jerry plays the theme and then the verse melody, just as he did in the back half of the front half. He then transforms into a French horn, but as is par for the course, this doesn’t last particularly long. They wander around a little, but it keeps coming back to the theme, and this leads us to the verse at 4:21.


They finally get a little momentum going not long after the verse, although they’re still playing it pretty straight. It starts to get really good when Garcia kicks on the distortion and the band fires up toward the end, but they’re just gearing up for I Need a Miracle.


This doesn’t add very much to the version that was begun on the 12th, or really to the set in which it appears. Of course it is pleasant music, but without much of a core or a backbone. They almost seem to be just going through the motions here. I thought maybe attaching this to the first half would flesh it out into a full-fledged rendition, but I’d be inclined to just skip this part if I listened again.



What was said:

193. 1990-11-01

145663 London 21:10 (Dark Star I: 10:10; Dark Star II: 11:00)

First verse at 3:33.
Main theme at II. :00.
Second verse at II. :20.
Goes into Drums, then into Playing in the Band

This kicks off at a rather deliberate pace. Once again Phil Lesh is loud and active, which is a good sign. Welnick and Hornsby seem to be lumped together in the soundstage, and Vince keeps playing the theme. Garcia starts in on it at 1:26, but then seems to think better of it, which prompts Phil to swing into it, but they veer off and keep jamming. At about 2:35 they start to break free of the pattern a little, but they keep things melodic and straightforward, and soon they’re heading right back into the theme. The verse comes along at 3:33.


Vince unveils some sort of vibraphone sound during the verse, which seems perhaps promising. Hornsby is a bit more active at the head of the middle jam, though. There’s a veritable tsunami of keyboard sounds in the seventh minute, and due to placement it’s not easy to disentangle them. Garcia, meanwhile, has been doing his thing throughout. At 7:02 Weir gets a little thing going that Jerry picks up on, and there’s some nice interplay that seems like it might be a springboard, but rather than heading for a peak they take it down a few notches. The jam picks up again but in a somewhat disorganized way. By 9:05 it seems like it might be driving toward a peak, but this dissipates, and the music disperses into Drums.


Space heavily features Bruce Hornsby, and it peters out into a little bit of noodling before they swing into the Dark Star theme, moving almost immediately to the second verse. After only a little straightforward jamming they head into a space jam, with the MIDI effects finally unleashed. There isn’t much of a transition; they just plunge right in, seeming to be quite comfortable in this mode and ready to enter it at a moment’s notice. This is more Space than Space was tonight (the drummers even take a blow for a while), in fact, so I suppose they’ve had a lot of practice. In any case, it’s difficult to describe this stuff, so I’ll let it speak for itself for anyone who cares to listen. Eventually they make their way to a reprise of the Playing in the Band that preceded Dark Star.


This isn’t the most memorable version overall, but it’s pretty solid—some nice but straightforward jamming on the song pattern, and a pretty hefty freakout to see it off. It’s really pretty good, but I can’t help feeling that the energy around Dark Star is starting to dissipate again.


What was said:

192. 1990-10-20

150273 Berlin 17:42 (Dark Star I: 13:06; Dark Star II: 4:36)


First verse at 3:28.
Verse melody at II. :54.
Second verse at II. 1:50.
Goes into Drums, then into Throwing Stones.


The European crowd sounds happy to be hearing a Dark Star for the first time since 1974 (or 1972 for the continent). This comes out of the gate with a joyful and bouncy mien. Phil Lesh is quite audible and active here, giving this a classic feel. Welnick is also quite audible, which gives it a more modern feel at the same time, as his synths wash all over everything. I can’t pick Hornsby out at first, on the other hand; he is holding back, at least for now.


They take it to the verse very quickly, and Garcia seems to come into it wrong-footed. Jerry lays out for a bit off the back end, until at 5:13 he swoops in as a flute. As is so often the case, this effect doesn’t stick around long, and he goes back to a guitar sound rather quickly. At about 6:00 Hornsby starts to add some input, but he’s a bit low in the mix.


For all the other sounds that are happening, this comes off as a Garcia-Lesh dialogue much of the time—Weir stabs and bleats on one side, and on the other Vince is a freshet of keyboard sounds, with Hornsby not being much of a factor. At 8:10 they start to shift gears, and they leave the two chord song pattern behind in pursuit of freakiness. Phil has some kind of effect on that makes him sound a bit like an organ, and he lays down an ominous base as Jerry repeats a descending melodic pattern.


At around 10 minutes in Jerry switches to his bassoon sound, and they get even spacier. This is all rather intriguing, but it’s dispersing rather than going somewhere, with Drums on the horizon. It sounds good, but it would be nice if they built it into something. They climb to a nervous peak at about 12:45, and then they let it spill and leave for the drum segment.


In instances like this one, Space could potentially be considered part of Dark Star. It’s kind of surprising they didn’t do Dark Star>Drums>Space>Dark Star more often, in fact, since Dark Star was one of the main places where their space jamming developed. As Space comes out of Drums, however, it doesn’t have any obvious continuity with the jamming that preceded the drum segment; it’s a really excellent ambient electronic piece in its own right, however, with a nice build-up in the back half.


Garcia seems to hint at Other One a little bit in the closing seconds of the track, and Lesh picks up on that a little way into the next track. There is not a clear transition where the track breaks, but at II. :54 Jerry breaks out the Dark Star verse melody, which is the first indication that they’re returning. Lesh kicks off the theme, and Jerry rather tentatively sings the second verse. Not much happens after that, although it takes them a minute or so to opt for Throwing Stones.


This is a really hard one to evaluate—not enough happens in Dark Star proper to add up to much, but if we’re including Space (which was, after all, played in the midst of all this) then this segment starts to seem pretty darn good after all. In any case, if you’re going to listen to this, don’t skip Space.


What was said:

191. 1990-09-20

156442 MSG 27:49 (I: 12:03; II: 15:46).

Main theme at 5:51.
First verse at 6:20.
Main theme at II. :40.
Verse melody at II. 1:10
Second verse at II. 3:08.
Goes into PitB reprise, then Throwing Stones.


Brent is dead, and now Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby are playing keyboards (with the latter primarily on piano). This segment begins with Space, and this must be listened to because the jamming that is developed during Dark Star really begins here. I was in the crowd this night, and by the end of space we were all looking at each other wondering “What the hell are they doing?” because after 10 minutes there were no hints of a song coming out of Space. It was one of those moments where expectations are upended and possibilities abound. When they kicked off Dark Star, no one was disappointed.


During Space, the instruments circle around each other, and a jam begins to crystallize. It’s a rather melodically oriented segment, without much in the way of frightening sounds or atonal noise terrorism; the center of gravity is Garcia’s extended guitar rumination. By the ninth minute of Space it’s starting to congeal into a regular instrumental jam, and there are no indicators of where it could end up. There’s a peak at about 9:20, and they regroup; Lesh flashes the Dark Star intro lick and the crowd reacts, and then they kick it off.


Phil is a bit louder here than he’s been on most of the recent versions. He holds down the chord pattern at first. Welnick is very active in the right channel, and then Hornsby starts to work his way in. The two keyboards leave a lot of room in the middle of the field for Lesh and Garcia though, so the extra hands don’t make a huge difference so far. Phil keeps returning to the main theme pattern, keeping the jam grounded, but they start to take flight at 2:40, generating a little early excitement before slipping back into the familiar chord pattern again.


Welnick picks up the theme melody at 3:20, and he stays with it, for the most part, for a good while. and Lesh locks right on. Hornsby, on the other hand, is thus far only providing ornamental flourishes. Garcia hits one of his Sputnik-type runs at 5:20, but it’s brief; he’s ranging around quite a bit, but the others keep returning to the theme, and he finally joins them at 5:51. This brings us to the verse.


Coming off the verse, they go back to the basic chord pattern at first. Welnick seems to have gotten off the theme melody, but he’ll keep bringing it back. There’s a peak starting at 9:18 that seems to set them off in another direction at last. Garcia starts playing MIDI tones, maybe a bassoon or something. Hornsby gets a little more active, although he has been very much a background player throughout this rendition. They finally let it spin off into a space jam, with Weir playing a very loud MIDI foghorn line. It is starting to get interesting, but they suddenly shift into a Playing reprise, even though they haven’t played the song—maybe this completes the one from the previous night? I suppose it doesn’t much matter…


This is an exciting moment, although it defers improvisation for a while. Indeed, they could have ended the evening’s Dark Star excursion here, as it came after Space and they’ve already played for a good amount tonight. Fortunately, they do no such thing, heading right back into Dark Star after this brief detour. Garcia brings them in with the main the main theme, and they snap back into it, as he shifts to playing the verse melody (Weir doesn’t suggest the plunge to E minor this time).


Almost immediately after this, the jam loses its center—not in a bad way, but Garcia wants to sing the verse, so he brings them back to the theme again. Coming off the back of the verse, there’s no move now to return to the two-chord structure, and things get weird right away. Strange sounds predominate as they cut loose with a really hairy jam. Jerry’s giant bassoon transitions back to a guitar, and then into God knows what. The keyboard players seem to feel liberated, generating a righteous racket.


I can’t tell what Phil is doing during a lot of this—he may be hidden behind one of these effects, I suppose. At around 9:30 there’s a more obvious bottom end, and I think he’s down there somewhere…A pounding cadence starts up at 10:30, and now there’s an audible bass line. They drive it hard, and take it to a peak at around 11:30. The music is all the more exciting as we know that, whatever happens, this isn’t going to disperse into Drums.


Listen to the band at 12:30—I don’t know what to say about it, but it’s incredible! They are making music that is very difficult to describe, and if my commentary is getting disjointed, the music still makes a kind of sense. It careens on until it finally starts breaking up and they coast for the last minute and a half before going into Throwing Stones.


Perhaps partly because of the new keyboard players, this stays rather close to home for a good while. Nevertheless, it gets out there at the end, and when it does they really let fly. There’s nothing else that sounds like this; only the Grateful Dead can do it, and it’s strange and wonderful.


What was said:

190. 1990-07-12

149523 Washington, DC 24:46

First verse at 7:17.
Main theme at 17:00.
Second verse at 18:00.
Goes into Drums.


Here’s another one I attended; it wasn’t loud enough beyond the first several rows on the field, unfortunately, but it was a good performance. After a cursory Victim or the Crime, Foolish Heart gets jammy at the end and, although they play the introductory riff, there’s a seamless transition into Dark Star. Garcia’s playing had sounded a little bit stiff earlier in the set, but by now he’s limber, and his lines are flowing and beautiful.


At :45 he has become some kind of horn, but he quickly slips back in to a guitar sound, now with a MIDI halo; a little after the two minute mark, Jerry becomes a flute for a little while. This has been typical in Dark Star—MIDI effects often come and go rather quickly. The band is sticking with the basic Dark Star pattern, more or less, but they sound really good here; the playing is confident and fluid. It’s hard to analyze the parts and see how they add up to a coherent whole, at times; this has been the case at this point for decades, of course. Lesh is walking around slantwise; Weir unleashes little staccato bursts and partial chords that slide about obliquely; Mydland is busy, mellifluous; the drummers clop away, maintaining a typical groove. At seven minutes and seventeen seconds, this straightforward but quite beautiful segment is the longest introductory jam since January 10, 1979.


Garcia hits a low A at 6:50 that announces the arrival of the main theme (which I haven’t been marking up top, as it no longer includes the guitar melody I’ve used throughout to identify its position). This brings us quickly to the verse. No one attempts the chord reversal on the “Searchlight casting…” line anymore; this is for the best, as it sounds chaotic when only some of them do it.


We emerge from the verse in a similar place to where we came in from, save that the tempo may have slowed down a little bit. The jamming begins straightforwardly, but Brent seems to have loosened his tie just a little, and Weir is pushing a bit with some distorted squalls. Garcia gets some kind of wind instrument going; for some reason, I’m having a hard time naming the analogue this time. he shifts back to guitar at around 11:40, and things start getting a bit stranger.


Lesh has been helping the drummers maintain normalcy, more or less, but once he defects the jam starts getting weird. Mydland, surprisingly, is at the forefront of this shift, with some rather oddball piano runs pushing it all out of gear. Jerry throws on some distortion and his scales seem to shift into obscure modes. By 14:30 we’ve left terra firma behind, and the band just basically goes nuts until, at 16:50 Garcia emits an unmistakable A and the band falls into line; in case anyone missed it, he even plays the now-rare main theme a few times, and here comes the second verse.


The band isn’t done; rather than fall apart in the general direction of drums, they again pull the two-chord pattern together for a little while before everyone gets in some parting shots. Garcia plays some nice chordal melodies for a while, and then Lesh teases a return to the theme before, at around 22:00, they let it start to disperse; then Weir whips them to one last little peak, and then Garcia and Lesh do some Other One-adjacent wandering for the last minute until they finally let it drop and the drummers take over.


This is a really solid version; it’s not as weird as Miami or even Hampton, but it gets where its going. 22 years into its run, and Dark Star has yet to run out of gas. Not bad at all!


What was said:

189. 1990-03-29

149396 Nassau 29:17 (Dark Star I: 18:19; Dark Star II: 2:58

First verse at 5:53.
Verse melody at II:52.
Second verse at II: 1:45.
Goes into The Wheel.


This is another one I attended. At this point, one could expect a significant amount of people in attendance had not yet seen Dark Star, and the reaction to the opening lick is duly rapturous. We have Branford Marsalis (on soprano sax) sitting in for the first time at this show; the Eyes of the World that led off the set was released on Without a Net. Marsalis dives right in, but he could be a louder here; it may be advisable, for this reason, to check other sources. The opening jam is a little chaotic, perhaps because of the extra musician, as everyone seems excited to have their say.


The intro jam is sonically chaotic, but it hews pretty closely to the two-chord template. At 5:33 Lesh kicks into what passes for the main theme these days, and the verse follows closely behind, with Garcia sounding particularly hoarse. The second line reversal of the chords has at this point mutated into a somewhat disordered uncertainty, and this seems to be the case pretty consistently now. Lesh performs the reversal, but I don’t think anyone else does.


They pop right back into the two-chord format after the repetition of the intro lick. Garcia is relatively circumspect with a guest taking up some of the space. As they approach the 8-minute mark he finally makes good on this circumspection, as the band starts to deviate from the song pattern. It quickly gets into a vigorous variant on Space, and Jerry starts in with some flute sounds. Marsalis seems at ease with all this, gamely chirruping along.


The intensity increases at around 9:50, and this sounds like nothing so much as the lead-up to a Tiger! Jerry puts on some distortion, but he’s also a lot quieter here, so the chaos is a group effort. Crossing the 11 minute mark, Jerry has a lower, brassier sound and he marches around on the bass strings, with a loping beat emanating from the drum section. At 12:20 he switches back to flute, then back to a more guitar-like timbre. Branford starts overblowing at around 13:10, which is fitting enough in the circumstances.


This section, which starts to fray around 13:50, is the most cohesive non-song jamming here, although it remains chaotic and overstuffed. By 14:30 we’re clearly in the “pre-Drums” phase, where last thoughts and desultory parting shots linger for a few minutes as the instrumentalists prepare to leave the stage. Here we can hear Marsalis better, and there’s a bit of call-and-response with bassoon Jerry before they cede the field to the drummers. There’s an amusing part where they lock together and come apart repeatedly, right before it all ends.


After Space Dark Star coalesces again for a coda, and a run through the second verse. As the timing indicates, this doesn’t add up to much; all the action is behind us at this point. At one point Garcia plays the verse melody, and as he reaches the end at 1:05 Weir suddenly remembers that this used to go to E minor! No one else pays it any mind, though. They go right into The Wheel when the verse ends.


I’m not sure this one entirely works. The band sounds overstuffed in a way I generally associate with the post-Brent era. Perhaps because of the guest musician, Garcia’s playing is rather indirect and ornamental. It’s not bad, but it’s not a latter-day classic, either.


What was said: