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:

Mr. Rain:


Back in Wembley! Will this recapture the glory of 1972, or even 1974? One must admit, it's not very likely, but Dead fans always live in hope....
This version comes out of Playing in the Band, which has a nice grand (if short) jam that takes us on a quick cosmic journey and even brings 1973 to mind. Some wah stylings, some Keith-type piano, a trippy Jerry, and no MIDI! But within six minutes, they're ready to wrap it up and enter a transitional hover....and out pops Dark Star!

The opening jam is nice and happy-sounding, sticking close to the theme. This is kind of a relaxing comfort-blanket Dark Star jam. Like bzfgt mentioned, Bruce & Vince are bundled in the mix into one big keyboard cluster on the right. Phil still has his deep, thick tone that's been pronounced recently -- I think that's due to his switching to the Ken Smith bass in 1990. Bob still sounds like he's playing a big boingy Slinky toy. Phil falls into the theme at 3:22, and the verse follows immediately. Jerry just about croaks his way through.

A keyboard keeps the theme going after the verse, so they stay on that track. Jerry takes a short break after 5:30, and the keyboardists step up with a little piano solo. Jerry comes back with delicate lines, gets twisted into a knot at 6:30, and disperses. The music gets more spacey by 7:30, and the next couple minutes are quite gooey, formless reflections dissolving, gradually shading into atonality without quite stepping over. And still no MIDI at all! Jerry briefly brings up the theme again at 9:25, but it's just a little reminder; the band promptly fades out so the drummers can take over.

As is the norm for Drums around this time, the first half is a regular drum duet, then it gets more into digital effects & sampling, spooky sounds swooshing across the stage. Kind of a dark psychedelic trip, actually. Space continues the creepy Twilight Zone feeling at first, with some eerie piano from Bruce. But soon he lapses into a more comfortable laid-back piano solo (sounding like a sleepy Keith Jarrett), Jerry & the others providing some intermittent backing. After 4m they've worked it up into a nice relaxing jam, but they don't keep this going: after 5m they're clearly heading for Dark Star again. (There was more space in Drums than there was in Space!)

Jerry & Bruce restate the main theme, and Jerry feebly sings the second verse, sounding like he's about 90 years old. Then, boom, Phil brings out the MIDI bass, and before long the others succumb to a MIDI feeding frenzy. This is more wacky than scary, everyone bringing out their silliest sounds. It's the Dead in clown costumes, so to speak, tooting their horns in a cartoon traffic jam. Phil's actually the most unpredictable in his MIDI sounds -- sometimes a keyboard, sometimes a marimba, sometimes who knows what. After Jerry switches to his flute tone it gets a bit more straightforward, and by 7m it's almost "normal" again, with Jerry going fuzzy and Phil on a synth-like drone. They stay weird for another couple minutes, Phil chiming & Jerry bassooning, but by 10m it's clearly calming down, the energy's fading away. (There's been hardly any drumming the last few minutes.) Finally at 11m, Jerry returns to the Playing in the Band theme, and they finish that song. By now the band's starting to sound rather weary with a couple big goofs, so that could account for the lack of energy in this Dark Star.

I agree that this is a good, solid Dark Star. It lacks much oomph (maybe the band was just tired), and never quite takes off. Even the big MIDI freakout is kind of limp, maybe because we've already heard a bunch of these. That said, this is also a very friendly version -- the whole stretch from Playing through Dark Star pt. 1 is a good example of how the Dead can still tackle jamming in their classic style without resorting to MIDI. Vince is relatively subdued in the mix, not nearly as bothersome as before; Bruce meanwhile is stepping out more, duetting with Jerry at times.
There are a few audience tapes, all clear but rather distant and none too great; Dalton may be the best (but Liff and Andrew are also fine, not very different).


JSegel:


At Wembley, they do a PitB sandwich with Dark Star inclusive of Drums and Space, then on to Wharf Rat.

They jam out on the PitB thing for a number of minutes till it fades out and they start the Dark Star intro. Dropping into a mellow groove, Jerry takes his time to make a statement, he starts low and mellow. Bobby goes off on his harmonic bendy thing and stabby chords. This is Bruce Hornsby playing a normal piano and then Vince Welnik on other keys sounds... sometimes.

Verse comes in and is light and mellow, a brief bit of intensity on the line three drop to em, keys go vibraphone sound, into the refrain, they get to the last riff and it’s a bit bubbly, to the outro seamlessly into more groove, no fermatas. They sound like they are plugging away at something, Phil is breaking out a bouncing bass line, sort of jazzy but solid, keys are nice piano warbling. He moves into more synth sounds as Jerry gets it higher and more chromatic, to an eddy up top circling around a few notes.

It gets more and more sideways and cedes to arhythmic space with short phrases of atonal melody. Drums eventually come up under it with a tom rhythm. They bring it over a little crest into the next valley and Jerry plays the Dark Star theme, what? but quickly spaces it out as he doesn’t feel like getting there yet. Cuz he has to take a piss or something and the guitars all leave the stage and drums continue on with a heartbeat-tempo rhythm. They play on it and build it up and down for a while, contrasting sections. The scrapy echoey sounds don’t come in until maybe 7 minutes, interrupted by echoed fills. It goes into a relatively quiet flangy section that threatens to take reality away occasionally into timelessness, the drumming/percussioning coming in and out. Toward the end it winds it up into a feedback flanged echo.

The Space track comes from this. Really weird sounds are echoed and flanged around the stereo spectrum, tweaking fast modulation and slow, it comes and goes. Piano comes in with Schoenbergian chords, moving into a modal melodic thing that builds into a mirror of the Dark Star [shall we go] “you and I while we can” melody. This stays in the modal world and builds to a more rhythmic thing with the guitars playing along. (Not exactly Space…) It only lasts a couple minutes and they bring it down and swirl around Dark Star notes, piano on the riff, they finally drop back into it. Crowd cheers!

Verse 2 at once, Jerry sounds like he's barely there. Bobby on harmonics on the line 3 em. They sort of cede at the refrain, but the drums don’t fully drop until the second part of it, the Transitive Nightfall. The outro and back into sound, Jerry goes midi-marimba, keys go organ. Wait a sec I hear the guitar also, is it Phil on midi marimba? They don’t stick with it as Bill goes to tha-thump thathump, and the drums go all syndrum and everybody steps on their midi pedals. The bassoon is back. Yay it’s syndrums, midi bassoon, marimba and sparkly sound thing, very technological. It gets chaotic and the rhythm that was being kept by Bill leaves. Bob goes back to more distorto guitar like sounds. Keys tinkle.

There’s a lull and the guitars take it, Jerry switching to flute sound. I guess it must be Phil on the low voice that is some synthetic sound. Bobby stretching notes. They remain atonal. It dwindles and the flute plays arpeggios, bass goes with drone pedal notes. Bob is in with the pitch follower, Jerry goes for the distorted guitar tone. It lulls at times, but somebody keeps it going. It moves into a sparse midi trumpet section. Toward the end of the track, Jerry makes ambiguous lead statements as if leading to something, moving into a light ascending line eventually getting the PitB lead in licks and they move there.

Some nice parts. I like the piano based jam in the Space track, though it was a bit new agey. Hornsby.


adamos:


As PITB winds down they hover briefly and then launch into Dark Star. There's a light and bouncy feel initially although Jerry's tone sounds a bit thin and Bob's sounds a bit harsh. Vince works the repeating riff while Bruce dances around it. Phil sounds nice and full. They weave along in thematic territory for a spell. Jerry winds low and then high. Vince starts mixing it up a little without venturing too far. At times Jerry does that nice sounding thing that is sort of like cascading notes that was common in latter era. Around 3:23 or so they reset and then move into the first verse. Vince blends in a vibraphone sound during the verse as noted.

After the verse they briefly reset and Vince starts working the riff again before switching back to the vibraphone sound. They hover and swirl a bit spinning up a nice sounding brew. Bruce comes forward more which adds good color. This seems to spur Jerry into action again and the collective sound is appealing. They find their way into a repeating thing and it kind of feels like a ship casting about at sea. Then they pull back a little and by 7:30 or so things are starting to get stranger. They take their time and get a little stretchy. The freak factor intensifies and it feels like a maelstrom is brewing. It doesn't last long however and soon they are coasting gently with a touch of theme before giving way to Drums.

Bruce is very active in the second half of Space, essentially soloing with some accompaniment. As that winds down some thematic notes reenter the picture and they slowly ease their way back into Dark Star. Jerry and Bruce hit the theme and then within moments Jerry is singing the verse, sounding weak and hoarse.

After the verse they quickly restate the theme and start drifting out. Phil jumps in with a MIDI effect right away while Jerry gently works some notes and the keyboards add more prominent color. This too is short lived as suddenly they make a full entry into creepy MIDI town. Jerry works some low, ominous notes and the keyboards get more freakshow sounding. Bob adds some weirdness of his own and flurries of electronic drum sounds appear at various times. Jerry brings in some edgy distortion but at the same time there are lots electronic sounds happening kind of like kids running rampant in a music shop.

They work in this zone for a good while. Around 5:10 Jerry shifts to MIDI flute and works a more typical line although the electronic freakshow is still bouncing around him. Bob seems to really go for it with some screechy sounds. This continues on slowly getting a bit more focused but it's still MIDI play time. Jerry brings some more edginess back which is welcome and things begin to sound more outer spacey than just random electronica. He then shifts into a bassoon sound and works a low line before bringing back some fuzzy edge and ultimately a more normal tone. By 10:00 or so it seems to be winding down and they keep it going for another minute before moving back to Playing In The Band.

It's a pretty good version. The opening segment is nice and the post-verse, pre-Drums segment is well done. The verses themselves are weak and the big MIDI freakout in the second half is a little too electronica playtime. Something that drifts deep out into the cosmos or goes full on meltdown would have been more welcome. But they've certainly done that many times and this is what they were into on this night.