149609 RFK 10:58
First verse at 1:59.
Goes into Drums.
I am happy to say I was in attendance for this. I “called it,” which impressed the guy next to me so much he talked to me a little too much during the first few minutes (I only “called it” because I wanted to hear it, and not by dint of any mystical attunement to the band or the cosmos). Welnick plays the main theme quite a bit in the early going, underscoring how straightforward this is at the outset, and it gets to the verse before it goes anywhere. They seem to be all on the same page in going to the E minor on the third line now, which seems to be well-entrenched at this point—it’s how the song goes, now.
Both keyboards are very much audible and, for a change, distinguishable. On the other hand, they haven’t done much yet—Vince goes right back to the theme after the verse, and Bruce is in a low-key supporting role thus far. Garcia and Lesh are leading the charge, with Weir’s distorted and tangential stabs rounding out the scene.
By 4:30 the tempo seems to be increasing a little. Welnick, having finally abandoned the theme, is now a swelling sea; Garcia starts bobbing around on it with an Other One-adjacent cadence, and getting everything starts moving as they swing into a frenetic jam which ebbs and flows a few times, finally peaking at about 7:15.
Shortly thereafter Weir gets some strange MIDI going, although everyone else seems to be avoiding the stuff. They bring it back to a screaming peak at 8:04, and Weir really starts getting strange with the MIDI runs. This is a really ferocious section, midway between a space freakout and an Other One jam. There’s a final blast with Jerry playing a triumphant riff; this rallies them, until at 10:45 the bottom drops out and they flee the stage.
It's not clear why this is so short; maybe they felt like they’d said what they had to say. It’s certainly a great jam, even if there isn’t all that much of it.
What was said:
JSegel:
Nice sequence with Help on the Way, Slipknot, Franklin’s and Estimated Prophet (with intro hints at the end) leading to Dark Star. A lot of jazzy jamming happening throughout that. They were playing with Dwight Yoakam! After a real intro they drop into a pleasant groove in the mode, big compressed guitars twinkling. Jerry lilts through it, beautiful bouncing licks. Bob comes in with some odd little lead bits as well, with his whammy bar. Verse at 2 minutes, Jerry sounds pretty good, relatively. They go for a scary line 3, Bob with big swells on the drop to em. To the refrain, a nice one, led by Phil through the changes, and to the outro.
They drop back into the groove, organ has the riff with Jerry, and then he starts up new lead parts, slowly building it while the organ jams out a bit. They eddy out in the fourth minute and it starts to stir up a hazy psychedelic stew which spins faster and faster over then next minute into a 6/8 sort of thing, then at 5:50 a major key descending chord progression and lick! But it doesn’t stick and they keep on at the quick paced picking till it peters out a bit, they stick with it and bring it lower, Jerry goes for the anthemic lead line again at 6:45 while Phil is scrubbing away and again a bit later. Everybody is quickly spinning this major key thing still and they start to bring it up to a frenzy, organ moving over the chromatics, to a head at 8 min, where the drums keep pounding and the band goes tonally sideways.
Coming out of this frenetic space, they sound sort of like going into TOO, but it sorta keeps rolling on in a mellower space and gets back to the Dark Star mode a bit. Jerry and drums pick up on a triplet fall and melodicize it, taking it out and to the Drums track.
Nice playing on everybody’s part! A lot of good decent tones and upbeat guitar licks.
Drums starts with duo tribal beat stuff, actual rock drum solo type stuff!
Halfway through it changes as usual to the weirder quieter stuff with e-drums and echoed springs, Bill’s drums still underlying it all.
Space begins when distorted guitars swell in. It’s not really part of Dark Star perhaps this evening, just another atonal space jam. Full on with ring modulators and the midi stuff by midway.
It moves on to Stella Blue.
adamos:
As Estimated Prophet winds down there's a brief transitional period with some dueling thematic teases and then they gather up and launch in. They sound energetic again at the onset although they soon settle into the groove. Jerry heads out on floaty line with a touch of wateriness while Phil works it underneath. Bob's brash, intermittent textures come through strongly. Vince gently works the theme while Bruce dances around the piano keys. By 1:59 they are already moving into the first verse. Jerry's voice is a little strained but in decent shape relatively speaking.
After the verse they reset and then return to the groove, taking their time with it. Jerry gets stretchy and bendy and then winds through lower notes before reaching higher again. Vince has spread out a bit and the collective interweaves nicely, building momentum as they go.
It starts to shift into a gallop as they stir things up with various notes flitting around. Some ebb and flow follows but they continue stirring the brew. Notes are flying off of Jerry's guitar and Phil has a driving bass line and after 7:00 they rise up to peak and then work a raised plateau before reaching further upwards around 7:50 in dramatic fashion.
The peak crests at 8:05 but they are still on the attack. Jerry plays driving lower notes with some crunchiness to them. Bob asserts a series of loud MIDI sounds that add to the madness and the drummers are putting some oomph into it. The jam is fierce and starts veering into TOO territory. Eventually the intensity eases a bit but they keep it moving, working and weaving along. Around 9:35 Jerry starts working some repeating notes that others follow, creating a reaching, uplifting feel. Bob continues to scream out with his accents. By 10:30 or so things appear to be running their course and they wind down before letting it go for Drums.
It's a good version. The opening segment is brief but nice and they really dig into the post-verse jam. There's a driving feel with some ferocity and drama. The peaks are good and there's some even uplifting-ness blended in with the ballsier approach.
. Quite a heavy pre-drums here: Help>Slip>Franklin, Estimated>Dark Star. Yikes! You'd think Branford was there or something.
Anyway, Estimated unravels at the end, everyone must be expecting Eyes of the World as usual -- but no, Jerry signals Dark Star and takes them to a different space. The last 30 seconds of Estimated are pretty cute as the whole band keeps teasing Dark Star but not quite starting it.
Once it really begins, the band's all together, sounding pretty jaunty. Vince is mercifully low in the mix on Miller's tape, kind of a ghostly organ background repeating the theme for a minute. The opening jam is nice but brief, quickly arriving at the verse at 1:59; Jerry's singing is a little stronger than usual for '91.
The main jam opens with Vince repeating the theme again, but after a minute he loosens up and gets all swirly. Bruce is laying back and not doing a whole lot -- in fact the main exchange here seems to be between Jerry & Vince. Actually it all sounds kind of low-key and introverted. But then after 5m Jerry gets pokey with an Other One-type string of jabbing notes, and they play around with that for a few minutes, the energy rising and getting very frenetic. Vince brings some good B3-style organ washes. By 7:30 they're really tearing into it, with Bob screeching some high notes and turning on the whistly MIDI at 8:15. (What's curious is that no one else uses MIDI in this performance; Jerry resorts to his standard distorted tone instead.) This is basically a straight Other One now, and a fierce one. They calm down around 9m, just riding the rhythmic wave for a while until it peters out after 10:40. Time for Drums.
The second part of Drums with all the electronic effects is pretty heavy; then Space is promising with lots of buzzes & whines, a robot future. All kinds of sounds follow in a noisy & creative MIDI Space, the traffic of a mechanical sci-fi city. The last minute is a very pretty transition back to normal tones, which becomes a lengthy opening to Stella Blue.
So this was basically a short Dark Star that turns into an Other One. Good as a hybrid, it reaches a fine energetic peak. But it's somewhat troubling for Dark Star's future, since the song is just used as a reference point and soon abandoned. They never bother "finishing" this performance with the second verse....instead they'll mostly refuse to commit to Dark Star for the rest of summer '91.
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