184. 1984-07-13

152162 Berkeley 15:55

First verse at 1:28.
Main theme at 9:51, 12:10, and 13:09.
Second verse at 13:22.
Standalone version (encore).


This was a nice surprise for the crowd at the Greek, I imagine. Garcia gets right to business this time, floating above the band with grace. They hit a nice groove here, and Lesh is a bit more active out of the gate than he’s been on the last few versions, although that’s a low bar. Surprisingly, Jerry hits the verse in under a minute and a half. This might not be a bad thing, given that the second verse is back and place, and thus this clears out a nice space for improvising in the interim.


They repeat the intro lick and swing back into the groove; 18 seconds later Garcia kicks on a distortion effect. Mydland is more of a force here than he was in 1981, although he doesn’t lead or do anything to disrupt the groove. On the other hand, the interaction between Garcia and Lesh is more prominent than it has been, with the bass taking a more melodic role. The band sounds very comfortable and fluid throughout here.


At around 6:55 Garcia seems to be working toward some kind of peak, but he pulls back. What we get is a lot of dynamic motion, which is a bit more like they used to do it in 1969, where the band would swell and drop several times in a matter of minutes. There are lots of allusions and partial quotes of the main theme throughout.


Jerry works his way into a repeating figure that really gets going from around 8:54. Everyone latches on and the music swells, and Garcia tops it off with a quasi-Bright Star section from 9:20. He drops down into the theme at 9:51, at which point it seems like the second verse is coming; instead, Jerry heads off into a kind of Sputnik sequence. This is a nice passage, if a bit brief, and soon Jerry’s hinting at the theme again, but he takes them to another minor peak at around 11:30.


From there Garcia winds his way up to a high A at 12:07, which is a sufficiently clear cue to Brent that they some together to play a bit of the theme in unison. There’s a woozy two-chord stretch after this that takes us to the next verse. Weir plays a little subtle slide stuff here that is tasteful and good, believe it or not. After the second verse, they let it fizzle out for about a minute, and the concert is over.


The two drums again make the music a lot more static, and the band stays in a groove, which seems to be a marked trend (if we can talk of trends when Dark Stars are so thin on the ground). There is nothing very surprising here, aside from the fact that they played Dark Star at all, and played it as an encore. Having said that, the music is quite wonderful in a low key way.


What was said:

pbuzby:


I think the "stuck in a groove" phase of Dark Star ended in 1989 when they found a new, more MIDI-heavy form of Space that became the main event in that piece. But we'll get there soon.


adamos:


Kind of wild that at this point they were almost 10 years past the last pre-hiatus Dark Star. I wonder if some of those grand versions felt like a distant memory, or conversely if there was any jam-related muscle memory that would kick in - not that they were opting to explore it. I suppose Sputnik-esque and quasi-Bright Star would qualify to a degree.


Mr. Rain:


1984-07-13. The story goes that there was a full moon and meteor shower that night, inspiring the Dead to play Dark Star in this outdoor venue; they were projecting space images on a screen while the band played it. Phil introduces the encore: "If you just have a little patience, for perhaps 5 or 10 more minutes we're gonna try something special tonight, one night only." Audience rapture.
One guy in the audience remembers it well: "After the second set the band left the stage and the lights went down and they unveiled some large screens. Everyone was filled with anticipation because they started showing photos of stars, galaxies, planets, and the like. Then Phil came out and stepped up to the mike and said, "We're going to do something special for you; one night and one night only," and then he exited the stage. If that doesn't excite you then nothing will."

We're getting into the era where there are lots of audience tapes of every show. For this one, Quirk and Wagner are tied for the best with Severson not far behind -- all excellent tapes. In this case the board tape's very good (not always the case in the '80s).

Jerry seems to start Dark Star before the others are quite prepared, but it opens smoothly. From :15-25 Phil plays a variation of the opening lick that he used to do. (Just before the verse, there's an audience cheer: a shooting star went across the sky.) The opening jam zips by and before you know it, Jerry's already singing the verse at 1:30. This is a Dark Star in a hurry! He sings without much feeling, and it seems rushed -- partly due to the heavy drumming which doesn't allow any tempo shift.

Nonetheless, the jamming is much better than the last few versions, intense and energetic. After the verse Jerry switches to his Tiger fuzzy tone; Phil's got his usual deep bass tone; Bob is inconspicuous; Brent's up in the mix doing his keyboard tinkles on electric piano; the drummers thump away like mad. Jerry builds to a tense peak after 4:30 then de-escalates; at 5:30 he switches back to a clearer tone, and the music calms down a bit. Brent sounds more assertive than he did in '81, bouncing off Jerry and sometimes dominating; by now he's all but sharing the lead with Jerry. Phil has a lot of his old zest back, wrapping jaunty basslines round Jerry like the old days. Bob, on the other hand, is a lot more recessed, striking chords in the background.

Around 7:30 Jerry takes them back to the theme, which gets repeated for a bit as they seem to be settling down for the verse. But instead, after 8m Jerry patiently builds in circular fashion up to another hot peak that arrives around 9:30, then calms down for the theme with Brent at 9:45. Audience applause -- but still no verse! Instead Jerry detours again with his Sputnik-type figure at 10:10, which takes them off on a further theme jam that climbs until Jerry & Brent sync on the theme again at 12:05. But once again, rather than head right for the verse, Jerry nicely draws out the theme in a mellow drone until he sings at 13:20. This verse is a little more patient and atmospheric than the first verse -- less busy drumming, and Brent playing a ghostly whine.

The usual post-verse lick leads to a sweeping grand finale -- with nothing to segue to and the old outro figure long forgotten, they have to work up an ending, so Jerry trills away and fades out in a little haze of feedback. It sounds a little inconclusive since no one's sure when to stop, but it works well, and it's certainly distinctive among Dark Star endings.

This one's pretty good. The Dark Stars from '78-81 sounded downright impaired, like the band was barely able to play it anymore (though some of this may have just been lack of practice or bad timing). But here in '84, some of their power is restored; Jerry's in the mood and Phil's vigor has returned, and the jamming's dark and dense with a soaring feel. Though at first it sounds like Jerry's going to rush through this, he takes every opportunity to extend the jam and linger on the theme for some time.
What's missing are any of the old signposts or motifs they could use as jumping-off points; bzfgt notes the dynamic shifts that were a big feature of older Dark Stars and are still present here, but at this time they stay strictly in one Dark Star groove without much variation, not straying far from the theme or finding new pathways. Cosmic exploration & spacey weirdness are not to be found here -- that came earlier in the show, in the wild & trippy motorcycle Space, which is now a vehicle of its own. They already have a regular slot for psychedelic adventure without Dark Star.
Also on the minus side, the drummers do their best to pummel the jam down and make sure it never escapes, though they calm down over time and it gradually loosens up. And I'm not fond of Brent's busy, assertive playing, nor his increased sharing of the spotlight with Jerry; he's all over this in a kind of cheerfully numbing way.


JSegel:


My best friend in high school played bass in our band, I used to borrow his bass to play in a cover band with older guys who played a lot of Dead. I showed my band’s bassist the songs, he subsequently became a full-on, often-traveling Deadhead for years. He moved to Humboldt, I moved to Santa Cruz. We’d meet sometimes, usually in Berkeley (his sister was managing the UC Theater), unsurprisingly on dates such as July 13, 1984, his 21st birthday.

That said, I have nearly no memory of this concert except the environment of the Greek Theater and the sky.

So it’s the encore here, with a shooting star going overhead at the time. They start with the intro lick, fumbling into it a bit, into a relatively quick-paced groove. Phil is actually playing lead bass again instead of just holding down the roots, the jam has a lot of off-beat interplay but lands on the one often.

Verse almost immediately, at 1:20. Sort of haggard vocals, drums chugging the four-square beat right through it all. Nice descending piano lick on line three. A slight pause punctuated by tom toms for the refrain, and the outro moving directly back into more groove jamming as if it never stopped. Jerry hits the fuzz for a bit, though the lines are making arches over the continuous accompaniment. Good playing in general, Jerry ends up finding some feedback tones for a minute, the band keeps going, he goes back to lead playing, heading toward very plaintive stretches at 4:30, when they come down from this area, it starts to move toward a lower intensity, lots of electric piano runs, they band takes it down a bit.

It’s sort of a new area, Phil is more on syncopated lower tones, the band in general gets a bit sparser before beginning a new climb over a small hill and back to the theme at 7:30, they stretch it apart and play with the song, Phil maneuvers some heavy downbeats for a couple lines as if it were a song-form section, but it wanders away.

They bring it to a plateau at the end of minute 8 and up into a higher intensity jam area for a while, Jerry playing high Bright Star-like licks. Coming down the other side, back to the theme proper, they might have headed to the verse there at 10 minutes but Jerry steps into a low Sputnik and they continue forward.

They continue in the jam chugging away endlessly. Jerry heads back to a higher octave version of the theme at 12’, then they hold it there for a bit, Brent playing some planing chords against it, like a new chord progression. The theme holds but the band comes down a bit and the second verse happens at 13:20.

Phil is on a riff throughout the lines, Brent is mirroring the melody. Drums pound through the refrain, endlessly. The outro riff is started by Phil, the others join in and it ends with a coda of holding little licks and notes warbling around. Jerry turns his fuzz back on to stretch it out at the end with some fast little runs and tremolos, the drums finally turn to cymbals and the guitars extend a feedback note.

_______
To me, it's still an odd version, very straight in a lot of ways, endless (but quite good!) jamming on the groove and that’s about it. Ah, for my complaining about the spaciness of the early 1974 versions, this is what I get I guess. It was a great way to end the concert, of course, and nice to hear the song for the only time in the mid-1980s. I guess they weren’t really gonna take it out into space for the encore despite the space background projections.


adamos:


Jerry and then Phil get the intro going and then they're off, gliding along with some pace. Brent's electric piano stands out as being of that time period. Jerry works a nice high line and Phil seems more active which is good. The drummers thump away and Bob seems less present in the mix. The collective sound is pretty nice though.

By 1:28 they're already into the first verse. Jerry's voice sounds weary and worn and I agree that there's not much emotiveness in his delivery.

After the verse they restate the intro and then keep rolling along fairly energetically. Jerry switches on some fuzzy distortion and heads out. Phil and Brent are both active and the drummers keep banging away. There's some ebb and flow and Jerry gets more stretchy. They rise up and ease back, cruising along. The feel gets a little more contemplative around 5:30 or so and they seem both slow and quick at the same time.

The momentum starts building again with Jerry working upwards but then they ease up again and kind of float along. Pretty nice interweaving with Jerry, Phil and Brent. Bob pops up from time to time but his textures seem to be distant in the mix. They roll along with Jerry getting into a low, repeating thing. By 9:00 the intensity starts increasing and they rise up to a nice peak that gets Bright Star-ish and adds a touch of triumphant feel to the proceedings.

Around 9:45 they ease up and revisit the theme. At 10:05 Jerry introduces a Sputnik-like sound. He doesn't stay with it for long but it resets the scene and they work in this dreamier zone for a spell. Jerry rolls along in lower territory with Brent adding a lot of color. The momentum starts to build again and they rise up a bit, winding and weaving before touching on the theme again at 12:05. Things get gentler with a pretty feel and Jerry keeps weaving on.

They delicately move into the second verse at 13:20. Jerry is a little more emotive this time although the delivery is still a bit rough. After the verse they reset again and then swirl around with Jerry back to a fuzzy tone. They rise up a little and create a brief soundscape with Jerry getting into some mellow tremolo. And then slowly they let it go, giving way to crowd applause.

It's a pretty good performance overall. Phil is much more active and they seem engaged. There's still a lot of working the main groove but they venture out a little and the Bright Star-ish peak sprinkles in some of the old triumphant feel. I like the back half too and they're at least trying to make it interesting.