SUPPLEMENTAL: 1991-06-28; 1991-08-17; 1991-09-06; 1991-09-08

1991-06-28 150679 Denver 1:33

1991-08-17 107826 Shoreline 1:07

1991-09-06 5560 Richfield 3:29

Denver has a nice little bit in the middle of Wharf Rat where Jerry plays the melody line. At Shoreline, Space starts to hint at Dark Star, and they swing into the main theme for about a minute before going into Morning Dew rather than finishing the previous day's version. Something similar happens at Richfield, but they stick with it for a few minutes before playing Watchtower.


1991-09-08 1069 MSG 9:05


There’s a nice jam between Saint of Circumstance and Drums; it is sometimes tracked as “Dark Star Jam.” It certainly has overtones of Dark Star, but I wouldn’t call it a full-fledged instrumental version, or even really a Dark Star Jam. I was at this show, as it happens, but I don’t have any memory of this anymore! Garcia ducks out a few minutes before the end, and there’s a nice section with Weir, Lesh and the keyboard players. In any case, it’s good music, but it’s doubtful whether it belongs here.



What was said:

JSegel:



1991-06-28:


Here’s a tease in the middle of Wharf Rat. Is it actually Dark Star?
Well, the melody does come in in the jam in the middle. Nobody goes to the em in the song lines. It exits back to Wharf Rat.




8/17/91 Mountain View: 1:18 (instrumental tease)
Well, it’s a tease after Drums and Space, which came out of a jam following He’s Gone. Dark Star hits pretty fast into the riff and theme, sounds like they are halfway through a song-form jam when it devolves right after the melody lines and lasts a whole minute before going on to Morning Dew.


9/6/91 Richfield: 3:25 (instrumental)
Here, there’s 3:25 of Dark Star between Space and All Along the Watchtower. I suppose you could argue that the presence of Dark Star after the Space section indicates that Space was part of it the whole time… Like several previous times, perhaps, acknowledging where the evolution of the Space section came from. Or something. The whole sequence starts with Crazy Fingers into PitB into Terrapin Station and moves into the Drums and Space thing, which leads to the Dark Star melody from Jerry out of an arhythmic space end with droney synths. Piano picks up on the melody and plays it in chords, the drums eventually come in and they go through the vocal melody, a song form instrumentally. Line three sort of just signals a continuing jam, everybody plugs away on the groove for a bit, over a little hill, where Jerry then takes an odd chromatic lick that takes it to a b-minor to A chord progression. They stay with this, it’s not exactly Dark Star anymore, and Bobby starts All Along the Watchtower.




9/8/91 MSG, NYC: 9:05 (instrumental)
Here, they have been playing Saint of Circumstance and as it ends they hold out the last coda bits into a new jam, which is labeled as Dark Star jam, it starts very lightly and delicately with slightly lilting lines intimating perhaps a Dark Star… the audience reacts as if it really is going to be. The guitar has some nice licks against the mellow background. Drums slowly and quietly edge in, they move through some small eddies in the current, Jerry still moving forward, keys and bass following as they build it up. At about 3 minutes in they all have found an odd little rhythmic riff to pull apart (though Mickey seems to just be pounding on some rhythm in his own head.)
They build the intensity to a wave that crests at about 4:20 in and it starts to swirl around more. Drums seem to lose the pulse and just hit, so the keys go back to the dit-dah rhythmic riff they had. At about 5:30, the drums start heading into a 6/8 thing and the band backs off a bit into a more TOO type jam, Phil is pumping away. Jerry seems to have disappeared so Bobby goes atonal and pseudo-jazzy. Bruce takes a solo. Bass, drums, piano and squawky guitar, it moves forward for a few minutes and then they drop out to the Drums track, followed by Space and then they do make it to The Other One finally, and onward.
To be honest I don’t feel like this is really much to do with Dark Star, though there was some nice lead guitar at the front end.




adamos:





Supplemental 1991-06-28 In the latter portion of Wharf Rat Jerry shifts into playing the Dark Star melody. There's a nice raspiness to his tone. Phil does his thing underneath while Bob adds intermittent accents; Vince plays the riff and Bruce sprinkles in further color on piano. A brief but nice interlude. After a minute and a half they shift back into Wharf Rat.


1991-08-17 In the last minute and a half or so of Space things start to drift towards Dark Star territory. It sounds like they are slowly winding up to take it for a spin. Jerry works a subtle line rounded out by Phil while Bruce dances around it and Vince adds some ethereal electronic sounds. As it shifts into the Dark Star jam track Bruce takes the lead playing the melody with Phil working off it. Vince shifts into the riff. Jerry then heads out a pretty line as Bruce moves into some lovely accompaniment. Phil continues to interweave nicely. However after just over minute it starts to dissipate and Jerry starts up Morning Dew.

1991-09-06 As Space winds down Jerry is on MIDI trumpet and things are still low-key freaky with various electronic sounds. As the Dark Star jam track begins Jerry switches back to a regular guitar sound and starts gently playing the melody. The band slowly forms around it for the first 20 seconds or so and then Bruce starts playing the melody as well. Phil steps forward too and by :48 they're taking it out for a stroll. They work the groove nicely building up some momentum as they go. The jam pivots around 2:20 while maintaining a pretty feel. There's some ebb and flow and then at 3:29 they let it go and start into Watchtower.

I was at this show. The entire Richfield run was good but there was something about the second set of this one that was special. We were in the lower bowl straight back from the stage and Uncle Albert was with us again which was part of the equation. I remember watching it all unfold and it felt like there was some kind of extra alchemy going on, like they were tapping into something transcendent. Of course that can't fully come through on tape but it was magical in the moment. I also remember as we were leaving the venue people were cheering and laughing and celebrating more than usual, like everyone knew they'd witnessed something.

1991-09-08 As Saint of Circumstance is wrapping up there's a just touch of Dark Star-ish sounds from Jerry and Bruce. This spawns a slow building jam that takes on some of that feel initially but it really sounds like its own thing. The intensity starts to pick up after 3:30 and they rise to a small peak. After it crests they shift into something a little more swirling but still relatively mellow. Then the beat transforms a bit and Bob asserts some textures and the drums come in more and things start getting more Other One-adjacent but it's still its own thing. By this point Jerry has dropped out so Bob works it for a bit and Phil keeps weaving and Bruce jumps in as well. Things get semi-jazzy and it's a pretty nice sequence that eventually gives way to Drums. I agree that it's a stretch to call this is a Dark Star jam.