141316 Shoreline 10:12 (8:40)
First verse at 3:52.
Verse melody at 5:15.
Goes into Promised Land.
A pretty short first set Dark Star; this basically fills the Bird Song role in the set. It starts out with some ensemble noodling, before Garcia finally kicks it off with the intro riff after a minute and a half. The tempo is rather brisk tonight. This is a good recording, as you can make out all of the instruments very well. Hornsby is pretty active, and it’s nice to hear what he’s doing as he comments on Garcia’s lines. They get up to an early peak at about 3:30, and then Vince starts in with the theme and Jerry sings.
They barely slow down for the verse, and thus they don’t seem to need to reload after the verse, they just keep chugging away. Garcia becomes a horn and gives us the verse melody, playing it three times through; Hornsby doubles him the last time. He gives us some more horn flourishes in lieu of the chorus, and then gets a little more guitar-like and keeps wailing away.
Hornsby is plugged into what Jerry’s doing throughout, at times mirroring his line. Lesh seems a bit quiescent tonight; he just keeps everything running pretty straight. At the nine minute mark it seems finally ready to open up, but that’s not what’s going to happen tonight; rather, they let it wind down and crank up Promised Land.
This is a slight but enjoyable rendition. It’s not ambitious or particularly memorable, but it gets a little bit of jamming into the first set in a pleasant way.
What was said:
JSegel:
A bunch of futzing about before they make it into any semblance of Dark Star. Finally somebody plays an intro lick and they move into a groove. Keys are doing jazz chords on the riff, in fourths. It eventually comes into a sort of bouncy vibe. They sort of hammer out the theme riff, and get to a fairly buff verse. Jerry sounds in control, singing with some vibrato. The refrain is ragged, though the vocals are nice. The outro gets out of sync with itself but they lock into a groove again afterwards, and the midi-follower plays through song form theme. Almost an eminor on line 3. After these lines, the midi trumpet goes on as they groove. Piano is playing some nice things, and follows Jerry’s cascades when he switches back to guitar tone. After a bit the piano takes the lead. Jerry flies up out of mode and Bruce follows, then they make it back and it moves on with more lead guitar. They bring it down as if it will move elsewhere, and where it goes is oddly to Promised Land. Ok, that was sprightly but short.
adamos:
According to Jerrybase this is the first set one Dark Star since 11/15/71. They take their time getting started. Phil plays around and there is cymbal wash and other various dabbling by the players. Then at 1:31 Jerry plays the notes and they launch in. Everyone is clear in the mix and there's some bounce in their step. Jerry heads out on a line and Phil works it underneath. Bruce seems to be putting extra emphasis into his piano runs and accompaniment or perhaps that is just the recording. Vince plays the riff and blends in other things as well.
Things are moving with pace. Around 3:17 Bob inserts some strong textures as they continue to bounce along. They aren't looking to venture far however and by 3:40 they are locking back into the theme and then moving into the verse. As bzfgt noted they pretty much keep their foot on the gas during the verse; no dramatic pauses here. Jerry's voice sounds pretty good.
After the verse they quickly reset and keep rolling along, Vince still working the riff. Jerry shifts to MIDI horn and plays the verse melody with Bob blending in textures and Bruce adding accompaniment. Phil continues to weave along underneath. Jerry brings it to a small peak of horn flourishes and then around 6:27 shifts back to a guitar sound. He plays a nice high repeating thing at 6:36 and then ascends further to good effect. There's some pleasant sounding, energetic interweaving going on. Bruce is playing off of Jerry well and asserts himself in various places.
By 7:30 things are easing up a bit as they continue to glide along. Bruce takes the lead briefly and Jerry plays off him and for a moment it sounds like things could possibly open up and get a little weirder. But they stay latched on to the groove and keep rolling. By 9:00 things are easing up and Jerry plays some high, muted notes (maybe he's pinching the strings) and they slowly wind down and then Bob starts signaling Promised Land.
It's a pretty nice version. They keep it close to the vest but play energetically and there's some nice interweaving and pretty sounds.
Mr. Rain writes:
ReplyDelete"1991-08-16. What's this, a first-set Dark Star? Haven't heard one of those in, oh, twenty years...
They don't give any teases or hints in advance. Actually, this starts out like 12/6/73! They just back into it with somewhat random noodling, like this is just any ol' tuning jam -- and not until 1:30 does Jerry deliver the opening riff. A unique start!
Bruce is very loud in the mix, which emphasizes his tie to Jerry as he's constantly responding to Jerry. Bob also gets turned up with his odd chord stabs. Vince brings up the theme again at 3:30; everyone joins him and Jerry sings the verse at 3:52. This seems to be swingin' a lot more than usual, and Jerry's voice is at its '91 best -- they've got some pep in their step tonight!
Jerry takes an unusual approach in the main jam -- as Vince keeps playing the theme, Jerry switches to a trumpet tone and plays the verse melody right after the verse. Then there's some okay "trumpet" playing until he becomes a guitar again at 6:30. The jam's very upbeat, pounding drums, punchy bass. Bruce is on top of Jerry a lot like Keith used to be, like an echo. Vince has some unfortunate synth tones in this one, when the rest of the band has a mostly natural sound. At 9m they start winding it down for a transition -- you might think, a transition to the second verse, but no, they hop into Promised Land on cue.
Not a hint of darkness or spaciness in this one! A short, peppy, family-friendly version from a happy band. It's mainly special for its unusual start & finish, which buck expectations & surprise the audience. (They were mixing things up this summer: the Scarlet>Victim>Fire in the second set is another example.) The first-set placement makes a promise they'd never fulfill, but it's a relief to hear a full Dark Star that's not tied to Drums>Space in some way, that is its own piece. Not a deep Star, but a light one."