211. 1993-03-17

79050 Landover

Main theme at :05 and 2:16.
First verse at 2:26.
Goes into Drums.


In hindsight, much looks different (how’s that for a platitude!). In the last years, I still expected every Grateful Dead show to be a transformational experience, and this led to disappointment. Now, I remember the disappointment, and hence these shows often sound better than I expect them to. Playing in the Band is short, but it gets nice and spacey toward the end, and by the seventh minute, it feels like the perfect time to ooze into Dark Star. When they do—as we future-dwellers know they will—I know to temper my expectations, but as Playing winds down, I get a little tingle of anticipation as they downshift into the familiar introduction.

The first order of business is the main theme, which Garcia has gotten back into playing, somewhere along the line here. At :42 he springs forth with a sweet, familiar line and, somewhat surprisingly, the MIDI kicks in a few seconds later. He has been using it sparingly lately, and I feel almost nostalgic for it now! He uses it sparingly here, too—it crowns his line for a few seconds and then seems to recede of its own will. We’re left with the sweet familiar sound of Garcia and Lesh’s lines winding around each other; the rest of the unit doesn’t do much out of the ordinary, so this intro section is plain but nice.


It's also short—at 2:26, Jerry sings the verse (which seems to briefly take a wrong turn at “crashes”). Out of the verse, and back to the same sort of thing that preceded it, with Vince hammering the theme a few times, as is his wont. He knows how to get out of it now, though, and our patience may soon be rewarded.


At 4:24, Jerry turns into a flute and, as the kids say, I’m here for it. The music starts to pull out of joint, largely thanks to Lesh; Weir seems to be coming in at odd angles too, now. They seem like they’re edging toward a space jam, which is a welcome development in its own right, as Dark Stars have been rather straight-edged lately. Since this comes before Drums, we know it is a race between weirdness and outright dispersal, so we have to hope the center holds, but not too obviously.


So far, they are walking this line quite well; in the neighborhood of 7:30, there is an insectoid jazz club vibe developing that is sufficiently intriguing that I feel deflated when Garcia disappears at 7:47 and does not return. The remaining jam seems to get even better, but we’re on borrowed time now.


In the end, this is one of the most frustrating Dark Stars we’ve yet reviewed. It has some of the best and most interesting post-verse playing we’ve heard in a long time, but no sooner does it get underway than Jerry ducks out. I really love what’s here, but it’s impossible not to yearn for more.


What was said:

210. 1992-12-16

140831 Oakland 8:46 (7:02).


Main theme at 1:44 and 3:26.
Second verse at 4:07.
Goes into All Along the Watchtower.


Space is really cool, but kind of lazy! It doesn’t telegraph Dark Star until the very end, which is tracked as part of Dark Star here. The first couple of minutes is just Space slowly congealing, until 1:44 when Garcia lands on A and starts fooling with the theme. The loose vibe carries over from Space; the drummers are involved, but in a low-key, cymbal-tapping manner until we hear some traps at 3:12. The band swings back into the theme and soon we get the second verse, as they decide to finish the Dark Star from the 12th (there’s one show in between, on 12-13).


It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if they just ended it after the verse; happily, they decide to let it play out a little longer. Garcia sounds energized now, and his piercing lead surely pleased the concert-going public, some of whom may have remembered headier days. There’s nothing too far out, but the band gets a subtle hitch in its step that gives this its own feel and saves it from sounding merely rote.


Weir is more of a factor here than he has been recently, perhaps in part because he’s audible—his crunchy interjections last until at 7:18 his wail cries respond to a similar initiative on the part of Welnick. The latter switches to a wandering piccolo line at 7:27, ceding the seas to Weir. Then at 7:50 Bob gets more insistent with a kind of partial wah effect; Lesh’s walking bass undergirds the sequence, and Garcia gets fuzzy at 7:49, so at this point things are really popping off. One can’t help but glance at the counter, though, and regret that things are ending rather than beginning. Jerry’s tremolo at 8:28 puts an exclamation point on the whole segment, and then they slide into Watchtower.


This is good—well, I’m almost tempted to say it gets great, except this is a fleeting impression, as no sooner has one’s toe got to tapping than it’s over. High marks for what’s here, but it’s not nearly enough. Dark Star can be good in concentrated doses, but it requires a more sustained effort to get to the places we really want it to go.




What was said:

209. 1992-12-12

140829 Oakland 12:57

First verse at 3:00.
Goes into Drums.


Garcia initiates Dark Star after The Women are Smarter ends, flashing the intro and then noodling around for 20 seconds or so before it gets underway in earnest. Once again the opening jam feels a little thin, without much participation from Weir at first. After a couple minutes Welnick picks up a cue from Jerry and starts running the theme, and the band falls in line as we head to the verse.


The intro riff returns and deposits us back in a basic Dark Star jam. Vince shifts to electric piano; for a moment I thought Hornsby was back sitting in, but apparently not. At around 5:20 it starts to sound to me like Garcia’s trying to break out of the pattern a little, as he gets almost a slowed-down Sputnik thing briefly going and then hits on a repeated note. Lesh seems likewise eager to get something happening; he is very active here. The music weirdens accordingly. Vince goes along with this, and Weir is doing whatever the hell he does in this era, which is kind of abstract to begin with.


At 7:49 Lesh gets a little riff going and plays it out, and Vince adds some horror movie sounds for texture. Garcia has dropped out, and the focal point is the bass. It becomes a full-blown space jam, minus Jerry. Weir wakes up, perhaps as a result of Garcia’s absence, and he starts to get some slashing licks in across Lesh’s bouncing line.


Vince returns to the piano sound, and he is playing some interesting stuff at times, but he seems a bit restrained, playing like an accompanist most of the time. This is best at the moments when he breaks out a little, such as at around 11:50 when they hit a peak. Garcia never comes back, and they head into Drums.


There’s a vicious jam at the end of Space which sometimes gets tracked as part two of Dark Star. Indeed, this is what the end of Dark Star might have been like had Garcia remained involved. Lesh gets a riff going to set them on their way, the drummers sneak back in at some point, and Jerry plays some wailing distorted lines. It seems about to meander, but by around 12:15 it’s really going. Weir gets a MIDI piano thing going, and Welnick plays off of it, while Lesh and Garcia uncork some action. At 14:20 of Space, Jerry brings out I Need a Miracle, and that’s where we wind up.


Although Garcia bails on it, the end jam of Dark Star is pretty good, all things considered. If we count the end of Space as part of Dark Star, as some people do, then it’s even better. However, there aren’t any features of this jam that definitively make it Dark Star, if such a thing matters. The highlight of Dark Star proper is probably the part without Garcia. So, this is an interesting and at times rather good version, but one can’t help being a little disappointed that Jerry didn’t see it through.


What was said:

208. 1992-06-22

32490 PA 4:01

Main theme at :05 and 2:15.
Second verse at 2:47.
Goes into Drums.


The end of Victim or the Crime peters out into noodly hints of Dark Star, and then they fire it up. Garcia plays the theme and then plays some really nice standard issue Dark Star leads. Vince is, as often is the case, pretty committed to the theme here. Lesh is fairly quiescent, and the band as a whole is playing rather gently. After a short spell it gets to the second verse; this could be seen as the completion of the Dark Star that began on 06-08, with a brief middle section on the 18th.


They end it immediately after the verse, not passing Go nor collecting the proverbial 200 dollars. This is a bit listless, although Jerry’s guitar lines never entirely fail to please me.




What was said:

SUPPLEMENTAL: 1992-06-18

32487 Charlotte 6:00

Main theme more or less throughout.
Verse melody at 2:36.
Goes into All Along the Watchtower.


After Space, Garcia starts noodling around with the Dark Star theme. He seems to be playing with a delay effect. They play with the theme until Garcia plays the verse melody at 2:36, going all the way through it, although it doesn’t really do the “shall we go” parts. Weir is involved but rather difficult to hear much of the time; the others are more or less present. There’s some lovely stuff by Garcia in the back half, and this is certainly a pleasing little trifle, if nothing more.


What was said:

207. 1992-06-08

150518 Richfield 8:49

Main theme at :05, :34, and :53.
First verse at 1:09.
Main theme at 2:22 and 7:12.
Goes into The Last Time.


A relatively rare post-Space Dark Star, this one begins a bit tentatively without the drummers, who return to the stage after about half a minute. Weir is not in evidence here and much of the time. The short intro section just repeats the theme until Garcia comes in with the verse. Garcia starts to vary the theme after the verse, but that is where we come out again.


This is the first Dark Star without Bruce Hornsby, and Vince sounds pretty good here, mostly employing a pleasing and full-bodied organ sound. Jerry clicks on the kind of distortion he uses on All Along the Watchtower and Morning Dew in this era at 4:09 and the band starts to kick up a bit. There’s a rousing peak at about 4:48 or so, and then at 5:05 Garcia crashes his lead into a fuzzy A chord a few times the way he sometimes does. As they come down it seems like Weir is playing a horn MIDI for a spell.


From here things disperse a bit. Garcia still wants to go, but the rest of the band drops down to almost nothing, with Lesh dropping out for a bit. At 6:42 he returns and they pull together for a few moments, but the band still seems hesitant. They finally end it and play The Last Time.


Garcia seems game for much of this, but the rest of the band doesn’t seem that into it. There is a nice peak in the middle, though.


What was said:

206. 1992-03-20

141785 Canada 14:08

Main theme at :06.
First verse at 1:22.
Main theme at 8:40.
Verse melody at 8:52.
Goes into Drums.


This sounds a little tentative at first, but not in a bad way. Welnick is employing a more or less classic organ sound—I guess not a B3, since that was apparently proscribed? It works more or less the same way for me, though. Everyone is clear in the mix, and it’s well-balanced; the recording has an intimate sound. Hornsby is still hanging in with the band. They go right to the theme, and there is about 80 seconds of what amounts to throat clearing before Garcia sings the verse. Jerry’s vocals are no doubt aged, and it’s become difficult for him to sing Dark Star, but he sounds pretty good here.


Vince goes right back to the theme, but at this point he can be trusted to leave it behind when he needs to. Garcia is playing kind of softly, though when he leans in he’s loud enough. As they approach the four-minute mark he gains a MIDI halo around his notes, but he’s using it more sparingly and tastefully these days. The music is full-bodied and rather pretty. Hornsby is active, but he’s not doing much that’s interesting yet. Vince, on the other hand, is rather psychedelic, although he’s adding color rather than developing many ideas.


Weir caught my ear at 5:55 or so; he weaves a line into the mix here, which is a nice contrast to his usual stabbing interjections in this era. Then he starts to sound a little like an accordion, of all things; his contributions in general seem a little more interesting than I can recall them being lately. Hornsby and Welnick get an offset rhythm started from around 7:00; Lesh is playing a mobile line with short, non-sustained notes. On top of this Garcia plays some off-kilter descending runs. At 8:09, Jerry switches to a more legato line which seems to rein them in; he plays the theme, and then runs through the verse melody. Lesh and the drummers undergird it with a lilting beat, and they play right through the chorus.

They come out of it with a cool, syncopated groove in A; for a moment it seems like a throwback to the days when they’d compose new jams on the fly with unique grooves, although it sort of slides back into a more recognizable Dark Star groove at times. This is actually kind of interesting, as if some of the Dark Star’adjacent universes are closer than one would think. At 11:45, Jerry cooks up a strumming lick that they fall in line with, and after a little bit he cedes the stage, and they ride the groove out a little longer until the drums take over.


This is another Dark Star that is really solid and engaging without being quite long or interesting enough to entirely satisfy our yearnings. It has a really cool sound to it; maybe partly because of the recording, or perhaps due to their sound at this stage, the band really seems connected and in communication with one another. What is frustrating is that this rendition seems to point to powers that remained largely untapped; they seem capable of much here, yet they chose to do much less than they could have. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quite a bit.


What was said:

205. 1992-03-09

141629 Landover 11:03
Main theme at :05 and 1:29.
First verse at 2:40.
Goes into Drums.


Garcia and Phil get kind of sideways on the intro lick, after a Corrina end jam that likewise gets a bit sideways while hinting at Dark Star. They head right into the main theme. Bruce Hornsby is still hanging in with the band, and he joins Vince in hammering out the theme licks. When they come apart Bruce is rather busy, while Vince spreads some textural chords around. Jerry’s gotten back to playing the theme, and he sprinkles it in a few times, keeping the opening jam close to home.


The verse arrives early, leaving some room for maneuvering afterward, particularly if they forgo the second. Vince goes right back to the theme; he has a pretty pleasing organ sound going tonight, although Hornsby has a tinkly vibe, probably playing an electric piano, albeit with a straight piano sound. Jerry and Phil wind around in the usual way, and Weir is very active with his inscrutable interjections. A very promising bubbly and jazzy jam emerges, lurching along drunkenly but not aimlessly.


This is starting to disperse by 6:40. It still lurches, but it loosens and quietens into an almost pointillist scene. At 7:35 Garcia kicks on a MIDI trumpet, and the jam is still hanging together—loose, but in a confident way. It seems to be heading to space, but taking its time getting there. Jerry has a few bluesy thoughts that are like clouds scudding across the sky, neither changing the jam nor particularly clashing with it. By the ten minute mark they seem to be letting it all slip away. At 10:30, Jerry starts a strumming riff that the others latch on to, but after a few seconds they abandon the whole thing and pass it on to the drummers.


This is really enjoyable music—in fact, it’s been a surprise how much I have enjoyed these latest versions. On the other hand, this really doesn’t add up to much—they don’t seem to have enough commitment left to Dark Star to make a whole lot out of it, anymore.


What was said:

204. 1991-10-31

139276 Oakland 16:46 (I. 10:50; II. 5:54)


Main theme at 1:13 and 1:54.
First verse at 3:43.
Main theme at II. 2:40.
Second verse at 3:58.
Goes into Drums, then into The Last Time.


Gary Duncan of Quicksilver fame sits in, and he jumps right in at the very beginning. He is game, although it’s a little jarring to hear another guitarist try to put his stamp on the song. Garcia takes off at :39, and Duncan backs off for a while, although he’ll get another whack at the spotlight before the verse. The latter comes pretty early, and then they’re off again.


Garcia isn’t holding back, guest or no, but there are a lot of elements in the mix here. It verges on cacophony at times, in fact. At about 6:30 they start to bring it way down, although Lesh keeps plugging away. Then at 7:03, Ken Kesey comes in with a rap, and the band builds behind him. Kesey is a dynamic presence, and he gets louder, finally hollering out the ee cummings poem about Buffalo Bill and ceding the field to the band. They seem to conclude that Kesey provided the necessary climax, though, and let it go to the drum segment.


Space seems like an integral part of the Dark Star segment tonight. Duncan is involved here too, and he seems happy to add to the weirdness, but again he stands out as a foreign element. His involvement tonight underscores how the Dead function as a unit even during the seemingly chaotic parts of Space, in any case. Toward the end of this section he gets a funky little riff going that is amusingly incongruous at first, but it winds up being the thread that leads them into the next jam.


This segment almost sounds like it could go into Other One at first, although it has a lazier, lurching beat and a bluesy orientation. Surprisingly, Duncan is the center of the action now, as the band coalesces around his riffing and takes off. After two and half minutes, they spin it out and swing into the Dark Star theme. Then they blend it with the cadence of the preceding blues jam before heading to the verse. Deftly done.


There’s not much left after this; they do swing back into the Dark Star zone for a little while, but less than a minute later they go into The Last Time.


This is all pretty cool. There’s not a lot of extended jamming, but it’s an action packed segment of the show, and Kesey’s rap is pretty dynamic. It’s especially fascinating to see how the band adjusts to Duncan—at first, he’s almost a contaminant, but they reorganize around him and absorb him into the Dead gestalt. Good stuff.


What was said: