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:

JSegel:


This is following a long, long Drums and Space. 16 1/2 minutes of drums, and another 9 of Space. Drums is pretty formulaic, with the pounding drum solo followed by electronica, though the bulk of it is in a rhythmic groove. And maybe real vibraphone? (Though echoed.) Or just better samples. Latter half is echo feedback play. Sudden entrances of other instruments signal the Space track, bass and guitar. Mostly sound like themselves, atonal wandering. Jerry with a distorted tone. It takes a few minutes before keys come in and it gets louder and weirder, but then Phil goes for a walking bass thing and it skews jazzy, with piano melodies. It gets a bit weird again, but then drifts to Dark Star, which starts when Jerry does the intro riff and they sink into a drumless version of the theme groove. Organ plays the riff over and over, drums sort of fade in, the band takes time to get there, but only a minute in verse one comes. Decent singing, Keys playing the riff continuously through lines 1 and 2, they sort of gap for line 3, but continue through the refrain. It’s sort of fast. To the outro, and back to the groove, keys continue, Jerry noodles about, gets caught up in little eddies and finally the organ breaks to held chords changing the feel. Out of this with pitch-bending organ to several waves of intensity, Jerry slowly building it up and down.

At 4 minutes, he switches to a distorted tone, keys play more sporadically and they build it up more, which is nice, heading to a bigger crest. It goes slightly sideways at the top and then on the way back, goes to a repeated line, sort of a song-form area. Leaves off to more organ playing the theme. To a sparser area, quieter.

More organ bending against guitar noodling. Drums drop down and then out. Weirder midi synth sounds appear in the back. Jerry starts a new build, drums in again, organ on long odd chords, piano too.

Then at 7 minutes, Jerry plays the theme again and they move to a mellow jam on it, maybe setting up for verse two. But no, instead they move into “The Last Time.”

Sort of quick and not particularly good, there are some nice parts in the middle there, but nothing develops really.


Mr. Rain:


The first Dark Star with just Vince on keyboards. And a rare post-Drums Dark Star. (Corrina, before Drums, petered out without any Dark Star teases, though it did end with a lengthy Dear Prudence tease before collapsing.)
Space is rather ominous but tired, mostly just meandering around in a lonesome vein, like they're wandering in a dark & empty house. Sometimes they break out some comically dated MIDI effects; a pseudo-jazz segment with bass & piano doesn't get far. But Space ends up with some upbeat flourishes. Jerry starts hinting at Dark Star 8 minutes in, and they nicely noodle their way into it.

It's quite unusual to hear the intro of Dark Star coming out of Space. With no Bruce, just Vince on organ tone, it sounds almost empty -- almost like classic Dead with no drums. (Drummers show up after 30 seconds, unfortunately.) I get the impression of a very listless band. They putter on the theme for just a minute before Jerry sings a quick verse at 1:09 (his voice in good shape).

The jamming sounds really disjointed afterwards like they're all on separate pages, and it takes a minute for them to really cohere. Vince swirls around colorfully; the music picks up momentum after 3m; Jerry switches to a fuzzy tone at 4m in a "hot" approach, and they reach a quick almost Other One-type climax 5 minutes in. Quite the turnaround! However Bob's so quiet in the mix he seems really uninvolved, barely there, just the occasional interjection, so it's carried by Jerry/Vince/Phil. The jamming gets calmer & relaxed, centered on Jerry's nonstop noodling. Vince switches to a piano sound while keeping up the sweeping synth backdrop (or is the piano sound Bob on MIDI? maybe that's why I don't hear him on guitar). Jerry returns to the theme after 7m. It's nice & more focused, but they just putter along for a couple minutes before stumbling to a close. The Last Time appears in a desperate attempt to pick up some energy.

In some ways this was a lifeless Dark Star, the sound of a band that's not in the mood and just feebly dragging itself through the show. So short it's kind of a Cliff's Notes version. Somehow, for a few minutes in the middle, they revive and a little cloud of furious energy blows in, then blows out again. Bruce is badly missed. Dark Star continues its decline.


Adamos:


In the last minute of Space they start slowly drifting towards Dark Star with Vince playing piano-like sounds in Bruce's absence. After a very brief pause Jerry kicks it off with Vince switching back to the organ riff and other swirls. Phil slowly becomes more apparent and the drummers join in after thirty seconds or so. There are hints of Bob but he's not particularly present. After some rote thematic playing they head to the first verse at 1:09 which the crowd still greets enthusiastically. Jerry's voice sounds pretty good.

After the verse they reset (including an electronic sound that almost sounds like strings) and gently wander forth. Jerry works up a mellow but nice line with Vince back at the riff. Phil interweaves gently underneath as Vince branches out further. By 3:30 they've got a little bit of momentum going and Jerry reaches higher with just a touch of a triumphant feel. He shifts lower around 3:55 and then kicks on a distortion effect, playing rather quickly. They rise to a small peak with Jerry getting into a repeating thing.

The wheels start to come off a bit at 4:53 and they descend a little before getting into another revvy thing. They ease up and there's some ebb and flow with Jerry doing a bit more fuzz before shifting back to his typical tone. Bob comes through more in spots with some MIDI horn. They move along without any particular cohesion or momentum. Jerry is still pretty active but there isn't much of a collective groove or jam going on and Phil seems to have dropped out.

After 6:30 he comes back in and they start building towards another small peak but the ascent seems to stall out. From there they bubble along in mellow thematic territory for a spell. It sounds nice but there isn't a lot happening and after a while they let it go and move into The Last Time.

There's really not a lot to this performance, although I agree that Jerry seems more active and energetic than in the last two.