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:

Mr Rain:


Part Two of the Denver Dark Star! The sound quality's better than the 12th, with Bob & Vince better-balanced.
Space is busy but unremarkable (and to me, rather irritating with all the MIDI effects). As it builds up, there's no hint it's going into Dark Star; it sounds more like they're revving up for a rock number like Watchtower. But Jerry slowly puts his foot on the brakes and lays out a transitional pattern; and 1:00 into Miller's Dark Star track, he's recognizably teasing Dark Star. The band's still milling around busily, but at 1:45 Jerry starts up the theme and they circle round. (Vince is using a very irritating whiny-flute tone.) Rather than sing a verse right away, Jerry takes a little detour, dancing around the theme for a couple minutes & delaying the verse; the band drags out the theme til he finally sings the second verse at 4:07. (Betcha he blanked out on the words for a while.)

They exit the verse very sloppily but with some spirit. This time, rather than dive for the nearest song, they actually jam on Dark Star for a few more minutes. And what do you know, the jam's way more energetic & lively than on the 12th -- Bob's more active, Jerry's got more juice, there's a compelling momentum. This is rockin' a lot more than the subdued, low-key mood on the 12th. (But Vince for some reason insists on sounding like a cartoon character.) In the last minute Jerry really heats up with a fuzzy tone, climaxing with a long trill -- you want to say to them, 'Keep going! You're on a roll!' But no: Jerry cuts it short for a very awkward & unwelcome shift to Watchtower. Well, on with the show, I guess.



It's an irony that I've noticed before: sometimes when they're just briefly passing through Dark Star on their way somewhere else, they can actually play it better than when they're doing a full-fledged performance. Depends on the group mood -- but fitting for the Dead, that they achieve their best moments by accident. In this case, 12-16 works better as the "main" Dark Star while 12-12 is more like the hazy aftermath (or the fumbling prelude). Strikingly different moods, anyway.




adamos:




As Space winds down and the Dark Star track begins they drift along briefly with some mellow interweaving accented by Vince playing flute-like keys. At 1:20 it almost sounds like Phil is moving into some Dark Star notes but they keep strolling along until 1:45 when Jerry starts it up. It unfolds gently and pretty. Vince's sound reminds me a little of a Mellotron.

They move through thematic territory nice and easy. Jerry adds some distortion after 3:00 and they continue in and around the theme. They move into the second verse at 4:07 tying things back to the version on the 12th. Jerry's voice sounds weary.

After the verse the reset and carry forth with more pep. Vince's sound gets a little sharp in the mix but then he shifts into his version of the riff. Jerry works a more energetic line with Bob injecting prominent textures and Phil bouncing along underneath. Jerry climbs higher and the collective interweaving is more engaged now. Bob is much more present than in other recent versions at least on the recording.

They keep it rolling for a good spell, easing up briefly after 6:50 but then locking back in. Jerry brings back the fuzz at 7:48 and Bob has a wah-ish effect as noted by bzfgt. Things have come together nicely and Jerry brings some more oomph culminating in an extended trill. And then just when it seems like things could really take off they pull the ripcord and shift into Watchtower.

It's a good albeit brief performance and better than the first half on the 12th. The first part is loose and mellow but nice. And then the post-verse jam is more compelling and showed promise; they just weren't interested in extending it further.




JSegel:




Later in this multi-day run at the Oakland Colosseum, they do it again. Or finish what they started, maybe. This one follows the (27 minutes of) Drums and Space that come out of (12 minutes of) Playin’ in the Band and heads off to All Along the Watchtower. So it’s just 7 minutes of Dark Star, really. Enough Drums/Space time to get to the bathroom and back at the Colosseum.

PitB is nice, it leaves the drummers to start the Drums track, which is of the usual formula of rolling drums up top giving way to e-drums and springs, but then they go on to the flanged echo thing at a very quiet level for a long time, into the Space track a ways before other instruments join, which are midi-synth things. Flutey, sort of classical sounding, against Bob’s distorted little bits. Other sounds enter as well, it remains pretty quiet a lot of the time. About halfway through Jerry strikes up the trumpet, and then moves through other horn sounds, in sort of jazzy/classical riffing. Somebody’s got a harmonizer on their echoes, creating upward waves. Then everybody’s a horn. Last couple minutes get back to almost-guitar tone, it builds a little with wandering tonality lines. After some modal play, it gets prettier, and winds down to Dark Star, but with no intro riff, just that on an A chord, Jerry plays the riff once, the keys pick up on it and they move into the groove. Audience loves this, super mellow groove with no drums for a while, allusions to the theme riff and Jerry noodling above it mellowly.

Drums slowly enter after a minute or so, Jerry tries some distortion, organ warbles around. After two minutes in, they riff toward a potential verse, but it sort of takes its time.

And it’s verse 2, four days later! At 2:40 into the track, a nice quiet version of the verse lines, Jerry doesn’t sound raspy, but very soft. To the refrain raggedly, Vince’s pitch bend after and before the outro riff. They move into a relatively stronger version of the groove with some nice lead guitar. Bob does some wailing swells, and they eddy out at one point, drums keep chugging away quietly. Jerry catches another eddy of ascending notes at 5:15, then over into the stream again, slight alterations to the mode. Weird chromatic keys move in in minute 6 and it starts to get more frenetic, distorted guitars, Jerry goes to a tremolo and then they start All Along the Watchtower.

Sort of a nice mellow, very low version of the Dark Star part of all this, but short and sweet