140163 Meadowlands 17:07 (Dark Star I. 11:02; Dark Star II. 5:25)
First verse at 5:37.
Main theme at II. 2:08.
Second verse at II. 3:49.
I. goes into Playing in the Band, II. goes into Attics of My Life.
Here we finally get to a Dark Star for which I was in attendance. After the crazy setlists in Hampton, we weren’t really expecting Dark Star to make another appearance so soon. Perhaps if the more savvy among us had heard the tape from Hampton we’d have thought differently, as the band had really committed to Dark Star there in a way they hadn’t done since before the hiatus. In any case, when they opened the second set with it in New Jersey, the audience was ecstatic.
This time, they structured the whole second set around Dark Star. Weaving into the Playing in the Band>Uncle John’s Band>Playing Jam segment way this does makes the second set feel like one big jam. I will confine my remarks to the Dark Star segments, but this set should really be heard as a whole.
Garcia starts out by talking around the theme before wending his way into a beautifully tortuous lead line. It’s not long before the Midi effects creep in; this time they form an aura around Jerry’s clean sound, somehow. Lesh is fairly prominent here, although they keep it pretty close to home, staying in a groove. At around 2:30 a horn tone comes out on Garcia’s guitar. He’s pretty mobile with the effects, and the clean sound keeps poking through.
They have a really lush sound this time. Mydland continues to work his way further into the spirit of Dark Star. Tune in around the four minute mark, and all four front line players are weaving lines around each other to stunning effect. Weir drops back into chordal stuff pretty soon, though. Jerry keeps alluding to the Dark Star melody; they’re not going out, but they’re exploring a bit more before the verse this time, until it finally pops in without warning at 5:37.
One thing that stands out on this one is how beautiful Garcia’s playing is, albeit in a more digital way than a 70s head would be used to. They plough right back into the groove after the verse. They get to around the 8 and a half minute mark before it sounds like it might be breaking up a little—there’s a turning point here. Garcia and Mydland lock in together at 9:15 and Weir, who seems to have a touch of MIDI going now, provides some hijinks with a sort of hybrid horn section/car horn bit. It slowly gets weirder, and by 10:30 finally seems to be heading out.
Jerry launches some flurries and is echoed by Brent. Lesh is finally getting strange, and it all starts to go sideways. By 11:30, though, it all subsides and Garcia calls for Playing in the Band. There’s more good jamming to come, but for now this segment comes to an end right when it might have been heading out somewhere interesting.
The three songs that remain before drums get into some pretty crazy MIDI-fied jams that in a way continue the Dark Star initiative, so it may not be apt to judge this one in isolation. Nevertheless, I’ll skip to the back half after the Space segment. I Need A Miracle trickles back into Dark Star, and now Phil Lesh is louder and more assertive than heretofore. They’re bringing it all back around, though, with the outer reaches having been visited during the Playing jam and Space, and they consequently maintain the groove here, although they allow themselves some indulgences in the form of MIDI effects.
They take it into the main theme after a couple minutes, but instead of going right for the verse they luxuriate in the Dark Starness of it all for a while, finally getting to the verse at 3:49. They’re just wrapping it up at this point; anyway, if you skip all but the Dark Star tracks, you’ll have missed a lot. After the verse, they wind it right down and take it into an emotional reading of Attics of My Life (although it would be kind of hard to imagine an unemotional rendition!).
This was a great set and a great experience. Taken in isolation, however, this Dark Star is nowhere near as exciting as the one from Hampton. On the other hand, they still seem to be into it, and fortunately there are several more excellent renditions to come.
What was said:
Mr. Rain:
Dark Star>Playing>Uncle John>Playing>drums>space>Home>Miracle>Dark Star reprise>Attics>Playing reprise.... The Dead are getting ambitious again! They hadn't split Dark Star in an interwoven suite like this since 6/24/70, and hadn't even interpolated another song inside Dark Star since 4/24/72. (Maybe you could count 12/31/78 with its Dark Star tag after the Other One, but that's pretty meager.) Are they up to the challenge?
After the tuning mini-jam flourish, Jerry bungles the opening riff (not that anyone would notice in all the hollering). The opening jam is brisk and friendly. After a minute Jerry has a kind of midi echo around his notes, and keeps switching tones thereafter (after 4m, there's an extra tinkling sound added to his notes like Tinker Bell's flying around his guitar). Phil's very active, almost back to his old self though more laid-back. Meanwhile Brent's using the most irritating synth tone possible, smothering it everywhere in his overbearing manner. They smoothly wind down to the verse at 5:37, which despite Jerry's ragged singing is done in a jaunty manner. (Brent kind of sounds like TC gone mad.)
They dive back into the jam afterward; the guitarists start going in a more subdued direction, but Brent keeps dolloping his Brent noise syrup over them until he catches on and tones it down a bit by 8m. Over a couple minutes they get more quiet and spacey, going a little "out" after 9m with a jazzy tinge. Some atonal sounds creep in, and then more midi effects from everyone, and it seems like they may be headed to a freaky space like on 10/9. But instead they pull up short; after 10:30 Jerry & Brent get lost in some fast runs, then at 11:15 Jerry pointedly announces the end of the jam and signals Playing in the Band. (The others aren't quite ready to follow, so there's an awkward pause til they can all start the Playing riff; I'm not sure this strictly counts as a >.)
On 10/9 Playing>Uncle John>Playing had preceded Dark Star; now it follows. The first Playing jam features Jerry on his flute midi tone, then some mu-tron wap-wapping which takes them into more introspective territory before a solid Uncle John's. They have the choice of going back to Dark Star after Uncle John's, but Jerry moves to continue the Playing jam instead. The jam after Uncle John's gets pretty heated, the kind of wild freaky intensity that had been missing from the Dark Star (and perhaps the highlight of this set). After 5:45 in the Playing jam there's even a kind of Sputnik, which fits well. As sheets of drum noise take over, they wind down with a Playing riff reprise, then Phil & Brent jam a little longer before giving way to the drummers. Drums starts out as an actual drum duet and gradually gets more electronic; within a few minutes they're sailing up the river with Kurtz on a digital tide. After a long spooky reverberating drone, the rest of the band returns with percussive midi effects, and for a few minutes they frolic in a kind of wild jungle fantasia. It's all sound effects, a bizarro-Dead in some alternate universe. All the midi effects are quite at home in this psychedelic playland, offering a fresh tonal variety to the weirdness.
Then after a couple of short songs, Jerry & Phil surprisingly take up Dark Star again coming out of I Need A Miracle, in a deft tonal shift that works. This is basically the Dark Star opening jam again, with some midi tinges after 1:30 but mainly played straight. This time they linger for a long time on the main theme, drawing it out pleasantly & almost hypnotically for a couple minutes before Jerry sings the second verse at 3:50. Brent keeps doing his stuff in the verse, and Jerry adds a rather distracting midi noise.
Then the final Dark Star riff, and Jerry climbs down deliberately to an unexpected but wretched Attics. (Comparison with 6/24/70 here would simply be painful.) But that's still not the end: they return right to the Playing theme. No more jamming though, they're getting sloppy and ready to finish, so they quickly wrap up Playing with a rushed reprise.
Here Dark Star isn't the centerpiece; instead it serves as the bookends of the set. The main action happens in the Playing jam, and Space. This time Dark Star is kept apart from the excitement, sticking close to the song part; when it does start to get out there, they rein it in and stick to the set plan, and the exciting parts take place elsewhere. Dark Star itself is mostly just pretty decoration, without much variation in the jam; the variety that formerly might have happened within different sections of Dark Star is now distributed around the rest of the set. Another thing that may drag it down (other than Brent's lack of taste) is that Jerry keeps poking around for different midi tones, which makes me feel like this Dark Star is all surface effects without going deep. But I can't grade it too harshly since it's obviously not meant to stand on its own, it's just one section of a larger symphony.
Lots of audience tapes for this show, generally good-sounding; this one might sound the best (& maybe this one a close tie). Brent is reduced a bit which helps, but the digital haze pervading this performance I find a little more annoying on audience tapes, plus I'm finding the density of later-era Dark Stars is conveyed better on the SBD tapes. Audience tapes of earlier years could sometimes present shows sounding way more vivid & different than the boards; but even the clearest arena AUDs of '89 can just sound kind of muffled & cluttered in comparison.
JSegel:
East Rutherford: 16:59 (11:36 + 5:23) – Nightfall of Diamonds
This is good sequence, Dark Star starts off the second set and moves into PitB (which encloses UJB) before heading to Drums and Space, though comes out of them to I Will Take You Home and I Need a Miracle before coming *back* to Dark Star, moving into Attics of my Life and then back to a PitB reprise. Wow! Nesting dolls. In some ways I still think of both the drums and space sections as egested sections of Dark Star, you know.
They futz around for a while before actually starting the riff and moving into the groove. Audience cheers massively. Jerry hits the start note of the vocal melody and takes it away, the band follows in bits with a blooping-around rhythm section, lead guitar plays shorter phrases with echoes from both echo units and from the keys. Sounds like a diffusion on the echo signal. Drums sort of plug away, Phil bobs up and down. They’re mostly keeping in time with the echoes. Sparkly digital FM keyboard sounds doubling the guitar midi now. Bobby’s got some weird filter/wah thing.
Melody at 4:50, guitar with its midi follower sounds. Some dumb licks from Bob and Brent at 5 min, Jerry gets down with some more echo weirdness in fits and spurts and back to more guitar-like melody, verse comes in at 6 min. Wow, Jerry's voice sounds pretty aged at this point, raspy on the higher notes, sort of deep on the low notes.
They sort of give way for a fermata at the end of the verse into the refrain. Crowd yells and they make it through the outro into yet more medium tempo drums and bass while Jerry and Brent doodle the higher registers. The guitar is more guitar like, though there’s still a lot of echo on it. He starts to add some more midi sounds by 8 or so minutes, oboe and then some percussion, it all goes a bit sideways about 10 minutes in. Atonal chords, weirding out echo midi stuff. Odd keyboard chords. They move into fast chromatics at 11 min, it holds in the fast freneticism for a while, then gives out at 12 and they move into Playing in the Band.
Later in the set, after I Need a Miracle peters out, Jerry picks up the Dark Star thread again, with a sparkly midi-follower, though he heads off to a more distorted tone for a few seconds, then back to the guitar with midi-follower, Dark Star melodics by a minute into this section. Bobby goes for some distorted tones, while Jerry plays with the sparkle-follower. Are we getting another verse? They play around for a while while we wait, chasing their tails. Verse 2 at 3:40 into this section, almost a fermata on line 2, but not everybody goes with it. They finally allow a rest at the end of the verse into the refrain. They go through the outro and back for a second into a groove that peters out almost immediately into applause, and they begin Attics of My Life.
(The midi-sparkle is tough to listen to.)
Mr. Rain:
Yeah.
This one was tricky to review since the real heart of the set is Playing through Space; the Dark Star's just an added attraction, even a warmup if you will, just "eh" in hindsight.
But just in these two '89 Dark Stars so far, you see how the Dead can deploy Dark Star differently now. They can use it as just a tune, separated from the real deep jam & Space of the set, or they can merge it with Space again for a big freakout. So they now have more options with Dark Star than they used to.
adamos:
Dark Star kicks off and weaves back into an extended second set suite! The renewed vigor with which they were approaching the song continues. After some anticipation-building tuning they launch in to tremendous applause. After some dancing around the theme Jerry heads out on a line with Phil sounding full and buoyant underneath. Brent is quite active and Bob blends in his textures as well.
After a minute or so some echoey effects seep in and then continue to come and go, almost like Uncle Albert is starting to kick in and you're not quite sure what's going on yet. The playing feels brisk and engaged. Jerry works a high, sharp line with Phil doing one of his own. Bob's raspy textures poke through intermittently with some prominence. Brent is a bit too active but he's trying to add in lots of flourishes and color.
There's a thick collective tapestry being woven and they continue forth at a snappy pace with various effects coming into the mix. They start edging back to thematic territory and then move into the first verse at 5:37. Jerry's voice sounds a bit rough and strained but they maintain some pace and then launch right back into the jam.
Jerry weaves high spinning up a dreamy, floaty feel. Brent is still overactive but they collectively start to slow up and create a more drifty feel while still maintaining forward momentum. They keep weaving with various MIDI effects coming and going but not taking over. By around 9:00 they've reached a hover point and then Jerry and Brent play off each other with Jerry ascending upwards and Bob bringing in some horn sounds. Phil keeps working his line and things get stranger and more electronic.
By 10:07 it seems like they are ready to let it go but then they keep going with Jerry getting into to some fast moving notes that Brent jumps in on as well. They spin this up briefly and then start to ease up and contemplate what's next. Jerry signals Playing In the Band but it takes them a moment to reset and launch in. I agree that it's not really a ">" although it's not a dead stop either.
PITB is upbeat and spirited before transitioning into a more contemplative and MIDI-fied groove. Things get spacier before they move into Uncle John's Band which is a pretty respite before kicking things up again in the back end. This leads back into a PITB jam where things get watery and freakier before eventually giving way to Drums and Space. Post-space brings I Will Take You Home and I Need A Miracle and by this point I can't imagine anyone was expecting a return to Dark Star.
But as Miracle winds down Jerry and Phil smoothly shift back into Dark Star territory. There's a triumphant vibe initially that feels like a victory lap although the night is not over yet. They work the theme for a good spell settling into something a little more dreamy while continuing to keep it moving. Then they ease up and go into the second verse at 3:49. After the verse they quickly bring it down and out of the lull comes the lovely sound of Attics Of My Life starting up.
After Attics there's a brief PITB reprise to close the set. And We Bid You Goodnight.
A really good set-long sequence. Dark Star was the headline but not actually the meat of what took place. However it framed the set and made it special and they approached it with some vigor. I agree that the performance itself doesn't measure up to Hampton but it served its purpose well on this night.
pbuzby:
I haven't heard 10/16/89 in a while but I remember that Dark Star as the calm version, in contrast to the turbulent one from 10/9/89. It fits with the family friendly vibe of the rest of the 10/16 set with I Will Take You Home and Attics.
Mr. Rain:
This one was tricky to review since the real heart of the set is Playing through Space; the Dark Star's just an added attraction, even a warmup if you will, just "eh" in hindsight.
But just in these two '89 Dark Stars so far, you see how the Dead can deploy Dark Star differently now. They can use it as just a tune, separated from the real deep jam & Space of the set, or they can merge it with Space again for a big freakout. So they now have more options with Dark Star than they used to.
adamos:
Dark Star kicks off and weaves back into an extended second set suite! The renewed vigor with which they were approaching the song continues. After some anticipation-building tuning they launch in to tremendous applause. After some dancing around the theme Jerry heads out on a line with Phil sounding full and buoyant underneath. Brent is quite active and Bob blends in his textures as well.
After a minute or so some echoey effects seep in and then continue to come and go, almost like Uncle Albert is starting to kick in and you're not quite sure what's going on yet. The playing feels brisk and engaged. Jerry works a high, sharp line with Phil doing one of his own. Bob's raspy textures poke through intermittently with some prominence. Brent is a bit too active but he's trying to add in lots of flourishes and color.
There's a thick collective tapestry being woven and they continue forth at a snappy pace with various effects coming into the mix. They start edging back to thematic territory and then move into the first verse at 5:37. Jerry's voice sounds a bit rough and strained but they maintain some pace and then launch right back into the jam.
Jerry weaves high spinning up a dreamy, floaty feel. Brent is still overactive but they collectively start to slow up and create a more drifty feel while still maintaining forward momentum. They keep weaving with various MIDI effects coming and going but not taking over. By around 9:00 they've reached a hover point and then Jerry and Brent play off each other with Jerry ascending upwards and Bob bringing in some horn sounds. Phil keeps working his line and things get stranger and more electronic.
By 10:07 it seems like they are ready to let it go but then they keep going with Jerry getting into to some fast moving notes that Brent jumps in on as well. They spin this up briefly and then start to ease up and contemplate what's next. Jerry signals Playing In the Band but it takes them a moment to reset and launch in. I agree that it's not really a ">" although it's not a dead stop either.
PITB is upbeat and spirited before transitioning into a more contemplative and MIDI-fied groove. Things get spacier before they move into Uncle John's Band which is a pretty respite before kicking things up again in the back end. This leads back into a PITB jam where things get watery and freakier before eventually giving way to Drums and Space. Post-space brings I Will Take You Home and I Need A Miracle and by this point I can't imagine anyone was expecting a return to Dark Star.
But as Miracle winds down Jerry and Phil smoothly shift back into Dark Star territory. There's a triumphant vibe initially that feels like a victory lap although the night is not over yet. They work the theme for a good spell settling into something a little more dreamy while continuing to keep it moving. Then they ease up and go into the second verse at 3:49. After the verse they quickly bring it down and out of the lull comes the lovely sound of Attics Of My Life starting up.
After Attics there's a brief PITB reprise to close the set. And We Bid You Goodnight.
A really good set-long sequence. Dark Star was the headline but not actually the meat of what took place. However it framed the set and made it special and they approached it with some vigor. I agree that the performance itself doesn't measure up to Hampton but it served its purpose well on this night.
pbuzby:
I haven't heard 10/16/89 in a while but I remember that Dark Star as the calm version, in contrast to the turbulent one from 10/9/89. It fits with the family friendly vibe of the rest of the 10/16 set with I Will Take You Home and Attics.
Mr. Rain:
Ha, good summary of 10/16! Couldn't be more different from the vibe of the one coming up on 10/26/89....
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