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:

adamos:


Space starts with ominous wailing sounds then shifts into patient MIDI-fied exploration of the outer regions. Around 2:18 there is already a hint of Dark Star-ness and they continue to slowly coalesce around something. By half way through it feels like Dark Star wants to be born it's just a matter of when. They continue to patiently weave around each other spinning up a delicate, spacey, melodic brew. The intensity builds in a still gentle way and then they let it crest for another 40 seconds or so of gentle runway. Then Phil works the notes and they are ready to launch. A lovely prelude.

Dark Star proper embarks to sustained enthusiasm from the crowd; some of the previous feel remains as they glide along within the thematic framework. Vince plays the repeating figure while Jerry weaves a patient line and Phil works underneath. Gentle, jangly accents from Weir are blended in as well. Bruce begins to insert more piano as well but I agree that the mix does not feel cluttered. The momentum picks up a little after 2:40 and the whole thing just sounds lovely.

They continue to work groove staying in thematic territory and moving with greater pace while still maintaining a delicate feel. Things loosen up just a little and Jerry gets into a slightly Sputnik-esque repeating thing at 5:20 as noted by bzfgt. He then goes high and delicate while Vince washes over it with complimentary keyboard sounds and Bob adds little figures of his own. Then at 5:51 they rejoin the theme and take it into the first verse. Jerry's vocal is weary and a little scratchy but fits the overall vibe.

After the verse they reset and continue along. Vince starts working the repeating notes again but then spreads out further. Bruce starts to come in more as they go along but he's relatively laid back so far. Jerry and Phil interweave nicely and they spin up a nice melodic tapestry. Around 9:15 they ascend to a small but energetic peak that spins up a shift in the proceedings. Jerry goes lower and MIDI-fied and Bob comes in more strongly with some rev and the pace starts to quicken.

Things are getting weirder although they're still staying within the basic framework. Bob switches to a loud sound and then it feels like they are descending into some kind of abyss. Strange things are afoot but rather than fully unleashing it they suddenly pivot into Playing In the Band reprise. It sounds good and celebratory however and fortunately it is only a waypoint on the larger journey.

As the reprise runs its course they bring it down and work in a transitional zone briefly before Jerry inserts the theme and they fall in around it. They play with the verse melody for a bit as noted and then ease up and go into the second verse. Jerry's vocal sounds distant on the recording.

After the verse they reset again and then quickly let the structure dissolve way. Vince is active and Jerry inserts some almost Jaws-like sounds complimented by Phil. Things get more cacophonous and electronic and after a short lull the intensity ratchets up further and they rise to a freaky peak. It crests around 8:2o but they aren't nearly finished with getting weird. Jerry wanders out with MIDI horn and other sounds and Vince and sometimes Bruce are active and Bob is injecting his own weird sounds. They ease up a little briefly and then accelerate again with Jerry leaning into a pre-Tiger type spin up. They ascend again letting it rip; the peak breaks around 11:38 but they take their time with the descent.

Things stay weird for a good spell and are electronic and sort of tribal at the same time. Slowly they ease up and run it out and after a couple of wind-down minutes they ease into Throwing Stones.

This is a really good version. The delicate prelude in Space is nice and the opening segment sounds lovely too. They do stay within thematic territory quite a bit but it's well played and sounds good. The PITB reprise proves to be a good waypoint and then things get freakier in the second half.


JSegel:


Continuing the series of hot band jams, they are coming from China/Rider/WomenAreSmarter/Drums/Space to the start of Dark Star. Which goes into PitB and back to Dark Star!

Here, the Drums track is really moving up top as a continuation of the Women Are Smarter beat for a while, then they go for drum soloing. Second half gets electronic and echoey. And melodic. And echoey. It’s long, 15 minutes of pee break for the guitars. Actually, bass comes back in when it starts to get weird on the garage door springs. The track switches to Space when whale voices come in. But fairly quickly it goes midi orchestra Sea of Holes. Then to jazziness and back and forth. I hear strains calling for Dark Star about a third of the way in already, but it spaces out with generally arhythmic swells, that all lead toward Dark Star. Phil tries to pull some rhythms into a 12/8 and they end up big waves. They sort of play with the Dark Star intro riff and then finally begin it together, big cheers.

Dropping into the groove, this recording is hi-def, lotsa range on bass and guitar. It seems, well, groovy. Sort of comforting and benign. Bob has a background low-vol high-compression “Cali” distortion tone, Jerry has the straighter tone, but keys are doing both. They drive on it. For minutes. Oh, there are two keyboardists… I get it. It’s Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnik. This is moving into a phenomenal jam that finally lets go to the Dark Star world again at around halfway and Verse 1 happens.

Jerry chokes out on the first sung note, but holds it together as the band is keeping it steady to hold him up and then they switch it up to the e minor on the third line now. The refrain comes in shambolically, every which way.

The outro melody goes into Phil riffing, Jerry comes in with leads, he and Bob trade a bit, cool. Keys are overbearing and very 90s.

They move into a rolling groove, though, until a sudden switch to midi bassoons and crap. Everything goes sideways. Into a holding pattern groove with odd chords, when guitar emerges it’s still moving between sounds, and moving atonally. He goes into fast little runs. Everything breaks down, short phrases, cries. A flute sound. Then they begin Playing in the Band, sounds like a Mellotron holding chords behind? It halfheartedly limps toward the song after a little jam and finally gets there, amazing.

But no verse here, it goes through changes and to the chorus! It’s the end of PitB, from some unknown beginning of the song? The previous night? Anyway they come down from that trip and space out and then find their way back to Dark Star. Though it goes into weird jam first. Bass riffing with long key chords and then spacing out before dropping right back into the groove y’all.

They even go through a song-form improv! Dropping to the e minor on line 2 as used to be normal. The line three exploring goes on and on. Bob insists on the chords after a while and verse 2 happens.

Jerry sounds, well, better, in that he holds the notes on both guitar and voice. And he remembers the words. They groove til the last moment and let the refrain happen, which goes into more Dark Star riffing, though keys go south a bit.

Bass goes wild, drums follow. Keys are trying, and the bassoon-thing, but they sort of suck in this tonally. It goes into the movie-theatre-type sound. My dog is leaving the room, I mean really. She’s left. Atonal skronk goes on, building to who knows what climax which erupts all over the keys and finally takes the tempo down.

Drums catch a beat for a sec, but everyone walks all over, guitar-as-synth is going all over the place. It’s all very cinematic. They build it up, lots of abstract tone getting intense. Drums build it up into a pulsed duh-dat duh-dat and it goes completely atonal. When it moves down the bassoon is back mocking the guitar.

Dog came back in, so I guess it’s ok. Lower intensity but still atonal. This has got to be a trip for the MSG crowd, seriously. They bring it down and it’s back to guitar sounds as if the band were right there this whole time, no way!

They cruise around in a sort of minor mode until finally going with Throwing Stones (into Touch of Grey and short Lovelight.)

It’s a pretty cool Dark Star, all told. I like the straying into PitB, that was weird.

Sort of similar to the last one, this time Dark Star encompasses the Drums and Space tracks and then again moves into Throwing Stones (and Not Fade Away to end the show).


Mr. Rain:


A rarity: a post-Space Dark Star! This had happened previously (1/20/79), and occasionally Dark Star had started a set in the '80s, but in general the pattern was Dark Star>Drums>Space, and now they're reversing it. (Not something they would do very often in the '90s, unless "finishing" a previous Dark Star. A Dark Star's a big thing to tackle when you're in the closing stretch of a show!)
Oh, a couple new players too. We're finally rid of Brent!

Space starts as a MIDI-fest, with a slightly threatening New Age ambience. It's not super discordant or noisy, but it has a haunted & uncomfortable spectral feel, all echoes & shadows, like ghosts going "boo!" After a few minutes they've turned to more natural sounds (actual piano & guitar), and it becomes more of a pretty jam with glossy synth backing. The playing gets very busy & jumbled around 7-8 minutes, the band getting excited, Phil getting thumpy, the 'spaciness' falling away to a general swirl. But after 9:15 the mood gets calmer again, and Jerry brings out his trumpet sound. So far they've kept the "reveal" hidden; but now Phil teases the Dark Star riff to big cheers, the band hesitates, then commits.

The opening jam is relaxed, and it sounds like they're enjoying it. For the first time in a while, Phil revives the old technique of returning to the main theme every so often, then launching off on the jam again. Phil's got a thick bass tone, and Jerry's playing in "classic" mode without MIDI effects, which is nice. Bob's really quiet & inconspicuous in the SBD mix, but playing with his usual grungy stabs. The drummers' tapping is kept in the background. I like the interplay of Bruce's piano with Jerry, but Vince's sweeping synth on the side is very annoying (but fortunately not too loud).

After 5:50 they settle on the main theme for good, and the verse follows at 6:20. Jerry's so croaky it might as well be an instrumental verse. Vince's damn synth is getting more irritating by the minute.

Vince keeps playing the theme for a while after the verse, and instead of getting spacey they stick close to the theme in a regular jam. It's not too inspired, but after 9m they start climbing in a sudden swirling peak. Then ugh, at 9:45 Jerry brings out some ugly MIDI stuff at last. They descend into weirdness, the jam shading into cacophony. (Phil turns into a bellowing whale after 10:50.) It's not a full meltdown, but it provides a suitably wild & noisy climax to finish Dark Star. Then Jerry brings up Playing in the Band (a reprise finishing up the version from the previous night, 9/19). The playing rapidly turns normal again; they don't linger on the jam for long, but hit the verse after a couple minutes.

You'd think that would be the end of Dark Star; time to coast to the end of the show with some more rockers. But not yet! Vince gets revved up during the Playing outro, and the band keeps the jam going. At first it could be a Playing jam continued, but Jerry drops the key back into the Dark Star range, and strikes up the Dark Star lick (at :45 in the new track). Then another relative rarity: Jerry plays the instrumental verse melody, common enough back in '69 but not heard so much recently. (He'll do it more often later in the '90s.) After that ends there's a drifting feeling, like no one has any idea what's coming next, but they don't want Dark Star to end so they keep the theme going. Jerry's decided to sing the second verse for real, at 3:08.

Then what? It's still not over! In fact, they're stepping out into Space again! Time for Jerry's MIDI motor to start running, and a discordant hurly-burly begins. This is in line with the '89 Dark Star spaces, a noisy, cartoonish frenzy of effects (with added synth shrieks and banging piano). Even a pause for breath just gives them a chance to escalate into an intense stretch after 7:00, everyone giddily blasting away in a feedbacky freak parade, Bruce hammering a beat while Jerry goes nuts. The MIDI carnival marches on and on, elephants trumpeting and lions roaring. It finally subsides after 12:30; Jerry tinkles away in a run-on line while the others back him, and the music gets slow and quiet. There's a "calm after the storm" feeling, Jerry & Bruce trading lines (and Vince mercifully quiet), the band just gently floating in a tranquil sea for a couple minutes before Jerry strikes up Throwing Stones.

This was pretty good; to some extent the band sounds rejuvenated by the new players, and ready to prove themselves again. Dark Star opens mildly but they keep it going & going til it turns into something fierce and memorable. Space itself turns out to be just the prelude to a bigger, wilder Space. There's a contrast between the "normal" jamming traditional-Dark Star style, and the freaky MIDI portions where the beasts spring out. I like the addition of Bruce's piano (he's more ornamental than Keith was), but Vince's ghastly synth sound is awful and jarring. It's not only ugly but inexpressive, and clashes with the rest of the band.

There are at least a half-dozen different audience tapes of this show -- yikes! Thing is, whether it's the sound system in the Garden or the New York tapers, almost all of them sound great, very clear and pretty close to the SBD tape in quality. Brotman is one of the best, though there are several close rivals.