150638 Boston 14:22
First verse at 4:09.
Main theme at 11:36.
Goes into Drums.
A slow tempo at the outset here. Vince hangs on the theme for a while, and Garcia says his piece. Jerry and Phil manage to get something going right away, and they head away from the song pattern, although they don’t stray very far. We get a pretty vigorous jam that culminates at 3:05 with Lesh trying to bring back the theme. They don’t fall into line right away, but finally Hornsby acquiesces and we head into the verse.
Garcia gets a flute or piccolo thing going as the second jam begins. Welnick has a kind of ghostly organ sound going tonight, which is rather pleasing. At 6:43 Jerry suddenly snaps back into a regular guitar tone, which he keeps for one minute and then goes back to flute sounds. The jam thus far is pretty straightforward, but it seems to be gradually getting a little weirder and less bound to the usual structure. By about 8:30 it’s getting pretty spacey. Hornsby is ranging up and down the keyboard, and Lesh is likewise showing a lot of vertical movement.
It keeps going in this direction—further out. Both keyboards are very active, and Jerry and Phil are very busy. Weir seems barely a factor, though, just adding a few side comments. Just after 11:00, Phil and then Jerry unexpectedly start hinting at the theme, and when it comes it gathers the jam for a few moments, but they let it start to spin out again. At 12:45 Garcia starts a repeated high variation on the theme, kind of like Bright Star. This all makes it seem like they’re planning to perform the second verse. Instead they let the jam disperse again, with Hornsby swelling and then Lesh playing a rocking riff for a while. This dies down, and there are drums.
This is another short one that has plenty to recommend it. The jamming is just free enough to be interesting, and just conservative enough to be cohesive. Not bad at all.
What was said:
JSegel:
Jerry is already in the headspace at the end of Ship of Fools and plays a bit of the intro then starts a melodic line. He’s ready for it, and is off after they go to a real intro riff into the groove. It’s mellow but nice, Phil starts bouncing along after a little bit. Jerry’s off on a nice melodic lead getting higher and continuously moving along. After his climb over the crest, Phil does some lead bass and then Jerry comes back in with higher stuff with echoes. The organ is providing a nice bed for the piano to do little swirls in. He ceded to the keys and they set up verse one.
Slight fumbles between guitar and voice on the first line but the second is clean, they drop for line 3, and Jerry leads to the refrain, and Phil to part 2. Sort of a mess falling into it but they move into a new slower groove. Jerry comes in on midi flute. Alto flute, more like, he sounds like he’s getting better control over the tones. Back to guitar for the next section, as they level out. Holding pattern.
It becomes more swirly, everybody moving at different speeds, Jerry goes back to flute. It dies off into a brief atonality, back to mode, then introducing chromatics as it becomes more atonal and disparate. Sea of Holes.
Phil roots it at the lull and they go back more modally.
They quietly speed up and go more jazzy, rolling toms and fast bass and guitars. Pianos arpeggiating and Bobby squawking. Jerry riffs it down and moves it back to the melody, once, like pick up on where we are cats, then he starts the old endless melody. It settles out into the theme groove in a very delicate way, Lighter tones from the guitars. Keys still a bit wobbly. Things slowly fade to a background melody on guitar and then bass. Jerry drops out. The other guys flail around for a bit till they leave and the drummers to start the Drums track.
Drums are drumming away for a while, pounding. Heavy duty, heaviest I’ve heard, I think. E-drums come in after several minutes, as they usually do. But the beat goes on. Finally it moves to small hand drums in shorter bursts. And the springs.. lead to Space, which starts very quietly with sustained tones from keys and guitar. And then the bassoon, or English horn is in there. Echoed by 20th century art music piano. It does get a bit Terrapin in there at times. Back to guitar for a phrase and back to oboe-y thing. I think it’s also the digital reverb on it that bugs me about a lot of the synth tones. Eventually it backs off to a more acoustic renaissance sounding bit with evil low synths, nice. Very 70s. Soft holding patterns in major feeling. Then Phil has to go and do Jesu, and Jerry does it. They get to a slightly sideways take on it and then hover, with a coda of synthy guitar halos. Into Foolish Heart.
Nice version, I love the endless melody playing and when Jerry is on a roll like that, it’s the best. I love it when he’s like, play it once and then expect the band to pick up on it while he goes off immediately. Challenging but results in good music. A lot of good playing here, including the heavy drums section!
adamos:
As Ship Of Fools is wrapping up Jerry touches on the introductory notes and then a few moments later they launch in although rather gently. Vince works the riff as usual and Jerry heads out on a pretty, mellow line. Phil is weaving slowly underneath while Bob does his textured accents and Bruce adds some nice accompaniment. The drums are gentle as well. Before long the pace picks up, relatively speaking. Jerry works upwards and Phil is prominent as well.
Things slow down a little again and Jerry plays some nice cascading notes with Bruce and Phil active too. It's a good collective brew that eases up after 3:00. Phil touches back on the theme but they keep strolling along for a bit longer before locking into it and then starting the first verse. Jerry's vocal is gentle and weary and he forgets some of the words.
After the verse they reset (with more Phil than Bob) and then hover briefly perhaps deciding where they want to go. Jerry switches to MIDI flute which fits in fairly well with the overall vibe of the performance thus far. He works it actively for a spell with Phil interweaving and subtle accents from Bob. He then shifts back to a regular guitar sound and by 6:50 things are starting to get spacier and more open. Jerry plays some quicker, winding notes and they collectively swirl sort of like they are floating in the heavens.
There's some ebb and flow and then at 7:35 Jerry goes back to MIDI flute and heads high accented by flourishes from Bruce. Phil remains active and comes through well in the mix. Vince blends in some organ sounds and occasionally touches back on the riff. Things start to swirl up again and get more freaky; sort of mellowly frenetic if that's possible. Bruce is working it and there are hints of the theme in spots. Around 9:15 or so they emerge from the swirl and dance around in Dark Star-ish territory for a bit before heading out into the unknown again.
After 10:00 the intensity starts picking up again and they rise to a swirling, quick moving peak with the drums now coming in stronger. It crests around 10:48 with Jerry leading them out on a line. At 11:02 he touches back on the theme and Phil joins in as well and everyone coalesces into a loose thematic jam. It has a pretty feel and it does seem like they might be setting up for the second verse. But they continue to float along with Jerry winding lower and Phil going deeper accented by sparkly piano from Bruce. Vince is pretty active with the organ sounds as well.
They keep it going for a little while and then as it starts to dissipate Jerry plays a lovely, gentle variation of theme as noted by bzfgt. It's Bright Star-esque and Bruce's piano work adds to the pretty feel. After 13:00 Phil reasserts theme and they hover around it for bit longer with Bruce and Phil prominent and Vince swirling away. Bob injects some subtle figures too. This slowly starts to fade and Phil works some notes with Bob and Bruce complimenting and then soon after they give way to Drums.
It's a good performance. I like the overall feel and while they don't venture too far out there's an open quality and lot of swirl. The thematic elements are nice too and there are some pretty moments.
Mr. Rain:
Unusually, two slow Jerry songs in a row: Ship of Fools & Dark Star. (Then he gets two big songs after space, too -- was Bob feeling hoarse or what?)
One neat thing, when Jerry signals the opening after Ship of Fools, they launch immediately into a nice little Dark Star pre-jam of about 20 seconds, before Jerry repeats the opening theme. So you could consider that a false start, but I'd say Dark Star begins 20 seconds earlier, as it's tracked on other copies. (I kept this Miller timing for convenience.)
Once everyone's started, they seem a little tentative. But maybe because they don't sound as assured as on 9/10, there's a little more exploration here, more feeling-around, and they wander off from the theme after a minute. So I like this opening jam much more. Bruce is loud & clear in the mix, which is good; Vince has his wheezy organ tone again. Bob's barely there, just adding bits of punctuation. Phil feints at the main theme a few times, but Jerry's not ready. After some flurries from Jerry, they finally settle into the theme at 4m, and Jerry gasps out the verse. (He totally mangles the "transitive nightfall of diamonds" line.)
Once the main jam begins, Jerry dives straight for the flute MIDI, an interesting combination with Vince's organ. Like folky flute jazz, man. I'm noticing there's so much more space in the music than there was on 9/10. As Jerry returns to his normal snappy guitar tone, then back to flute again at 7:40, the rest of the band keeps getting drippier, the music oozing like wet paint. Things get very spacey after 8m, everyone's just floating around. (Bob's all but invisible, but Bruce's flourishes make up for him.) Phil's strong & pushy at the center. Jerry dives into some Tiger-like runs (along with Vince) around 10:20. After 11m, Jerry & Phil start teasing the theme amidst the confusion, but it takes til 11:40 for the structure to reform, and almost immediately it dissolves in spaciness again. After 12:45 Jerry & Phil tease the theme a little more, like the second verse is coming, but nope -- Jerry promptly leaves the stage, and the other guys ramble on aimlessly for a minute before Drums.
Space is very distinct from Dark Star: at first it's like the soundtrack to a Herzog film. But after a few minutes, under Bruce's influence it turns into a much more structured & melodic piece than usual for Space (though Jerry chooses to sound like a kazoo). When Jerry resumes his normal guitar tone at 5m it becomes quite affecting, with Jerry & Bruce hinting at "Shenandoah." What's funny is that Dark Star was a lot more spacey than this "Space" is; but it's also kind of sad that this is the kind of structured improvisation they don't do in Dark Star anymore. Anyway, when it ends Jerry carries on with Foolish Heart instead of resuming Dark Star. (They'll pick up Dark Star again two days later to end the Boston run; but rather than just finish the second half, they'll do the whole thing over.)
You never know how you'll respond to one of these late Dark Stars. Even though technically this wasn't as good or wide-ranging as 9/10, I liked listening to this one more. You could say it's kind of a sleepy, disjointed version -- they don't jam it out all that long, it doesn't get into a really freaky space or a meltdown, and it just kind of dribbles away in the last few minutes. And yet....the feeling's there of searching for something, fumbling around in a psychedelic haze, almost finding it & losing it again.... So it's a very suggestive version. And mix-wise, Jerry Phil & Bruce are at the fore, which I like to hear.
Oodles of audience tapes, more than I can compare at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment