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:

JSegel:


#194 12/12/90 Denver: 13:46

Multi-night run in Denver. This Dark Star is after Aiko Aiko, and goes into Terrapin Station, with the Drums and Space following. A few hints and they start the intro riff, and go trippingly into the Dark Star groove. It’s a nice exploratory jam, Jerry stretches out with rising phrases, keeping it a guitar. Some great soloing, just keeping it going for several minutes. He settles into an arpeggio eddy (Sputnik-y), everybody swirls along.

Coming over this crest they move to the groove again and set up for the verse at about 7 minutes. Jerry sort of yells it out, trailing off on each line after a strong first note, Phil on a riff for line 3. The refrain is nice, and to the outro riff.

Jerry sticks some notes right off so they rally to a low groove, keys on the riff for a bit. Jerry goes for the distortion box. He pulls some nice licks out of the hat, up and down, fast picking. Then he switches pickups to a tone-rolled off thing, but then that marimba sound comes in, must be Phil. To a warbly synth thing, so Jerry moves to the song form riff, the vocal melody, three lines and then he goes off again. They groove along and it eventually goes back to sounding like their regular instruments. Phil is moving around on a complicated riff, Jerry is soloing and keys are mirroring him, Bob also to a certain extent.

When it dies down, he switches to midi flute thing, drums fade. Phil goes into an octave riff, Jerry finds a melody. I guess the flute is leading us to medieval land, though the band is still taking it a bit sideways. A keyboard fades in and out on a pad.

Jerry comes from underneath with the Terrapin intro chords.

Nice playing, a pretty good version.


#195 12/14/90 Denver: 9:10

Denver gets a second (or second half of) Dark Star in a couple days, this one comes out of a long He’s Gone into the Drums and then Space and then as “Dark Star”, which last 8 1/2 minutes.

As usual the Drums track has the shape of being both drummers rolling on a rhythm for the first half and then moving into hand percussion and then electronic weirdness, though it appears to be a Bill solo at the top.

This Drums track is only (“only”) 7 minutes and the following Space is ~9 min, as is Dark Star. Space follows as the flanged echoes get ultra weird, (some audience hoots) and then little guitar snippets come in and then noisy scraping high pitched sounds… I think the midi follower trying to interpret bridge or string scraping. Anyway, tonal sounds, a synthy flute and almost-a-guitar-as-a-bass bounce around for a while. It’s atonal and rhythmically idiosyncratic to each player. The midi voice presets get stepped through, saxes and bassoons, etc. As it moves on it gets more spatial and prettier, more florid and eventually cadential lines leading to the Dark Star world, by way of variations on the theme, though then there’s a little play with the intro riff from Jerry as well, just in case someone wasn’t picking up on it. At this point, it’s Dark Star, though it’s mostly just guitar and bass and one spacey keyboard. Sort of nice and mellow, rolling around the theme, until he decides to play the vocal melody on midi trumpet. That’s sort of weird. It goes on with this for a bit, Bobby comes in.

A couple minutes in, they sort of start over with the theme, though with actual guitar sounds. They hold it until some drums come to join them, and a verse approaches.

And it’s verse 2! A wavering “Mirror shatters” but it starts to hold together by line two, with an insistent pulse from the kick drum and bass, drop to the em on line three and into the refrain, it takes until the outro before upper drum sounds are heard, he keeps on with the tha-thump, tha-thump on the kick and no real snare until the jam develops. Keys start to go clustery, Jerry takes the jazzy notes.

It’s a sort of latent jam, like it’s building to something but instead eddies out on little circular bits. It sounds like the rhythm section has one idea of the beat and Jerry has another. They try another build, ostinato bass and Jerry steps on the distortion pedal and they jam out bringing up the intensity, but it’s a quick little thing and then some chord hits signal that they move into “Need a Miracle”.


As far as Dark Stars go, it’s a weird one. Nice mellow guitar and bass version of the theme jam and a decent short jam ending it, but the rhythmic element is odd: propulsive but understated, most of the time only kick drum. Plus, while they do a verse, it’s verse 2! Where did this one start, was it two nights ago? So everything in between, including the entire show on Dec 13, has been encompassed by this Dark Star.


adamos:


#194 1990-12-12 After Iko Iko ends there's a three or four second pause and then they launch right into Dark Star. Jerry's tone sounds a little brittle on the recording but he heads out on a snappy line. Vince works the repeating riff gently. Phil shifts in and out of a MIDI effect that I thought was the keyboards at first but it bounces along. Jerry is still moving with some pace but the overall feel is somewhat relaxed. Bob adds accents intermittently but isn't very prominent.

They stroll along weaving around the groove and picking up momentum as they go. Around 4:25 Jerry starts getting into Sputnik-ish territory as noted and they swirl and spin upwards. After this crests they head lower and shift back into the theme with a nice, gentle feel. They glide along briefly and then move on to the verse.

After the verse they reset and Jerry stays in thematic territory while Vince works the riff. Before long Jerry brings in some distortion that adds a fuzzy edge to the mix. There's still kind of a casual vibe however as they continue to glide along. More MIDI starts to seep in; this time something bouncy and almost spooky from Bob. They continue to operate within the framework of the melody, winding and weaving. Over time Bruce starts to become more apparent as noted by bzfgt but he's a minor figure on this recording.

Around 10:45 there's a small ascent as Jerry reaches upwards. Things quickly calm however and they reach a quiet hover point out of which Jerry shifts into MIDI flute. This blends in reasonably well with the overall mellow feel of the performance. Things get a little tentative at this point while they work out what they want to do. Then it starts to get a more active again and it feels like something more interesting is brewing. Some kind of synthesizer-ish sound injects itself as they swirl around with the drums asserting themselves as well. And then a moment later Jerry begins strumming Terrapin Station bringing Dark Star to a close.

It's a pretty good version. It's not particularly adventurous but it has a nice, casual vibe and the jamming within thematic territory is good.


#195 1990-12-14 Two nights later Dark Star reemerges in Denver to finish what it started. They begin easing towards it in pretty, ambient fashion in the back of Space. It's a nice transitional passage and as the Dark Star track begins they are still dancing around it. Jerry teases a proper start early on but then keeps winding forward. Around 1:10 or so Phil starts fleshing out the theme more as Jerry works the melody. Their interplay accented gently by the keyboards is appealing. Some MIDI seeps in, tastefully applied. The whole thing has a gentle, lovely feel.

At 2:58 they briefly return to the theme proper (to crowd applause) and continue to spin up a pretty web. The pace picks up a little but it's still pretty laid back. There's some more thematic work after 4:00 and then Jerry starts up the second verse.

After the verse they reset and Jerry and Phil carry forth at a quicker pace. Bob's sharp textures become more apparent and the keyboards assert themselves too. The momentum builds and things start to get somewhat atonal while at the same time not. Then around 7:56 Jerry kicks on the distortion and it's time to take it up a notch. There's some fuzz and rev and they might just take it for a ride but before much can happen they pivot and move on to I Need A Miracle.

I like this for what it is. There's not a lot to it but the extended transitional passage starting in Space and carrying on for a good while into the Dark Star track has a gentle, pretty feel. The post-verse segment had promise but it was getting late in the show and they seemed ready to move on.

Mr. Rain:


1990-12-12. Dark Star springs out immediately after Iko Iko; it's almost an Iko>Dark Star. (Takes them a couple seconds to regroup, but Jerry's in a hurry.)

Pleasant opening jam. I like Jerry's feedback tinges near the start. Phil toys around with some MIDI-marimba after a minute (which is unlike him), but drops it after about 20 seconds. As noted, Bob is quiet & not very conspicuous, and Bruce is not initially apparent at all, which gives Vince a lot more room to spread. Can't say he does anything great with it except make irritating sounds. (After a couple minutes I noticed another keyboard, synth or electric piano in the center-right. Seems like it must be Bruce, but doesn't sound like him at all; he's on regular piano elsewhere in the show. Maybe Vince is on double-synth duty while Bruce sits out?)

The jam's very straightforward, a stroll through Dark Star lane. Jerry kind of recalls Sputnik between 4:30-5:15, though it doesn't jump off to anywhere. They fall into the theme at 5:25; the verse follows at 5:50. Jerry's voice is in a little better shape now, though still struggling.

Vince keeps repeating the theme, but the jam gets looser. Jerry turns on some distortion, Phil turns back to his MIDI-marimba at 8:30, and it seems things might start getting wild. But then Jerry plays the instrumental verse melody at 8:45, as if to signal that he's not going into space. The jam's nice and loose after that, though staying conventional. It peters out and by 11:20 it sounds like they're about to stop; but Jerry takes up his MIDI flute and rambles around for a couple minutes on that. What's interesting here is that nobody else is doing much now, they all seem to be waiting on Jerry, just providing some backing touches to his flute meanderings. But it builds up and by 13:30 they're gaining some band confidence again; Phil strikes up some ugly MIDI sounds, as if to say, "Aha! Now we're steppin' out!" And right then, Jerry undercuts him by strumming Terrapin, and Dark Star is over.

This Dark Star is okay but kind of empty. It's separated from Space, and Jerry seems determined to keep out the weirdness. Phil keeps pushing for some MIDI madness, but Jerry just keeps saying no. The result is basically a stripped-down, sleepy Dark Star, not very adventurous or memorable; and being slathered by Vince synth-marmalade does it no favors. (The Space later in the show is still relatively tame; maybe Jerry was in a subdued mood.)

Of a few audience sources, Darby or Grabski are the best (& sound very similar; Grabski is more bass-heavy). Very good sound and good alternatives to the SBD; Jerry's more piercing and the synth less obtrusive, the whole atmosphere a bit more mysterious; Dark Star's like a cloud drifting by & changing shapes. However this isn't a Dark Star that really reveals extra depths on further listens.

1990-12-14. They complete Dark Star at the end of the Denver run, a clever twist; it comes out of Space tonight. Bruce didn't play this night, so it's just Vince on keyboard.

Space is really annoying, an ear-poking MIDI riot. It's like if Brian Eno was doing "Music for Dentist's Offices." But by the end it calms down into a more relaxing, droney ambience. Dark Star drifts into being very nicely; this is one of the best Space>Dark Star transitions I recall lately. Vince is a lot quieter, and even better, THE DRUMMERS AREN'T PLAYING! So it's a very dreamy, mostly Phil/Jerry rendition, calm & meditative. Now I remember what it was like hearing a Dark Star without drummers thumping through it! Jerry plays a haunting verse melody at 1:25, then switches to a decent MIDI-trumpet passage; then at 2:58, the theme, which they play around with for a minute, teasing & then bringing it back. Jerry sings the second verse at 4:22. Phil plays an interesting bass variation through the verse, making it more trippy -- why didn't he do this more often?

After the verse, the playing's more solid, the drums have joined in, and the band seems ready to take off. No second Space tonight or even any MIDI, just straightforward Dark Star jamming. Once again, the Phil & Jerry duet is at the center; the rest of the band is background. It builds up, Jerry kicks on the distortion with some feedback at 8:00, and for half a minute it sounds like they're going to deliver some raunchy 1984-style Dark Star shredding. But it doesn't last: Jerry breaks it down for a clumsy transition to I Need A Miracle....a very unwelcome segue. Like a dream yanked away by an alarm clock.

You know, short as this is, I liked it more than 12-12. There's just more of a Dark Star mood here: Phil's feelin' spicy, Jerry's in the mood, there's less MIDI action, and Vince lays back more. Particularly the first part without the drums captures an almost 1969 Dark Star vibe. So it's disappointing that they break it off so soon.
All the AUD sources sound great, whether you go with Grabski, Darby, Miller, or Katzeff. More than the SBD, they really capture the intimate feeling of this performance, despite the audience hollers (and Vince is barely a factor).