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:

JSegel:


They start it from the intro riff, into the theme jam, organ takes the riff, and Jerry plays around. It’s very mellow. It builds into a nice jam by a minute and a half or so, sounds like it could be a good one. Over that little crest, back to mellow area, organ still plugging away at the riff. I wish he would have learned Pigpen’s old line if he was gonna be repetitive about riffing on the organ.

Jerry picks up the riff again, they really love it lately. He used to do the ‘play it once and move on’ but not lately.

Verse at 2:50, and it’s verse 2! Whoa. Where did this one start? Days ago? A very quiet mellow verse that finally pegs the landing on line 3 with a big sound. To the refrain, they pound it, Vince pitch bends the organ, to the latter half of the refrain, and the outro, which lands on a big drum hit and everybody drops out, cool! Drums start the drum solo immediately.

16:20 of Drums, in the formula of starting with drum solo and moving in the third minute to e-drums and percussion and then it stays there forever. It gets low and rhythmic and weirder as it goes on, ending in the full slow panned echo feedback. Space starts with more synths, buzzy guitars, it stays quiet and low for 4 of 7 minutes, then suddenly it’s loud bassoons. Etc. Oddly this moves into a version of the Spanish Jam (with a TOO rhythm, and midi trumpet) for a couple minutes before heading to The Other One.


Quick and dirty, nice little version of Dark Star. Of verse 2!


Adamos:


As Victim Or The Crime runs its course they drift along for a bit and then start shifting towards Dark Star. After this brief preamble Jerry plays the notes and they launch in. Vince heads to his familiar riff and Jerry plays a pretty, gliding line. There are some gentle percussion accents; Phil is relatively quiet in the mix but works his line underneath. Bob's textures come through now and then.

Slowly the momentum picks up and Jerry adds some fullness to his notes before starting an ascent around 1:10. He reaches upwards accented by Vince. There's a brief mini-peak and then they keep rolling on. Bob pokes through some more but still in spots.

At 2:15 they refocus on the theme and then head into the second verse at 2:47, presumably tying it into the 6/8/22 performance. Right after the verse there's a few notes from Bob and then they immediately give way to Drums.

There's not much to this but I like the idea of 6/8, the 6/18 interlude and 6/22/92 all being loosely connected.


Mr. Rain:


Hey, it comes before Drums this time. The last 90 seconds of Victim or the Crime subside into quiet spacey drifting with the drummers holding back; by 7:40 Jerry's teasing at Dark Star, and before long he plays the familiar intro. Vince is using his organ sound and mostly sticks to the theme like glue. Jerry loosens up a little, but the jam is short & stays tied to the theme. As on 6-18 they stay pretty quiet & laid-back. Bob is once again a non-entity, only occasionally playing a note or two; it's a surprise when he joins in the theme at 2:25. Jerry sings the second verse at 2:48, finishing the Dark Star from 6-8. All in all, a tired & sloppy effort. There isn't even a bit of jamming after the verse, they just drop straight into Drums after the lick.
Later on, Space is suitably weird & disorienting, filled with trippy MIDI. It heads into the Other One via the newly revived Spanish jam, which is played with a lot more spirit than Dark Star was.

I wonder if the idea of splitting up Dark Star between shows was considered in advance, or cobbled together after the 6-8 Dark Star sputtered out unfinished. Well, given that these are the most pathetic Dark Stars yet played, it hardly matters. It's kind of sad to hear the crowds cheer whenever the theme appears, knowing how little they're going to get. The problems are many: the band barely seems interested in playing Dark Star anymore. Vince can't provide what Bruce did. Bob isn't even playing most of the time, leaving a hole in the music. The drummers could wisely sit these out, but choose to thump mindlessly through them. Jerry, who could be subdued when Bruce was present, is back in the lead again, carrying the rest of the band; but Phil is the only guy really pairing up with him. 6-8 has a brief flash of strong jamming, but otherwise the whole idea of using Dark Star as a springboard for exploration has vanished. Strip away the space, the improv, the collective quest, and there isn't much left.