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:

anth67:



Yes, but....."Handsome Cabin Boy" Space. That counts for a lot.

I attended this show, and "Dark Star" isn't what I remember it for. Overall, I considered it a great show, the first one I could state that about for a couple years and...the last, alas. A fully realized "Shakedown" opener and (yes) "Eternity" were 1st set highlights. Lots of spacey songs, and "Days Between" & a hot "Good Lovin" made for a sweet finish. Jerry was awake on this night, the underachieving DS (strangely) notwithstanding. [The night previous had indeed led to disappointment.]




adamos:


On to 1993. Playing In The Band opens up and does its thing nicely, relative to the era. As it wraps up Phil works some repeating notes and then Jerry starts up Dark Star and they move right in. Vince works the riff and Phil sounds buoyant underneath. Bob's textures are coming through better again in the mix.

They play the theme and then Jerry heads out a mellow, floaty line. His guitar tone is a little thin but then he adds some MIDI glow that softens it up. The pace is relatively slow but with intention and there is still forward momentum. Jerry winds and weaves somewhat delicately. Phil sounds more sprightly and brings some fullness while Vince dances about on piano. The drummers keep it understated. It's all relatively straightforward but sounds nice. And then at 2:26 they move into the verse. Jerry's vocal seems a little more energetic.

After the verse they reset and head back out. Bob brings some fuzzy jangle and Vince goes back to riff. Phil comes through very well on this recording which adds nicely to the proceedings. Jerry switches to MIDI flute and 4:24 which fits in well with the overall feel. Things start to open up and get a little weirder. Bob is quite active. Jerry switches back to regular guitar at 5:33 and they continue to stir the cauldron. After 6:00 or Phil starts working a line that seems to frame things. Things are oozy and semi-spacey and sounding good.

They ease up a bit and hover briefly; Jerry starts up something Sputnik-ish at 7:10 but it doesn't fully take off. But he circles back and blends it into the mellow weave. They ease up again with Phil holding it down and it feels like they are ready to pivot the jam. Then suddenly Jerry drops out and the others carry on. It has a spacey jazzy feel with Phil leading the way and Bob and Vince playing off him nicely. Slowly the drummers start to pick it up and before long the shift to Drums has occurred.

What's here is good. The Spring tour was considered a bit of a rebound at the time and the playing seems to reflect that. The opening segment is brief and mellow but nice and the jamming after the verse is compelling. Phil also stands out nicely. Plenty of potential that was unfortunately cut short by Jerry dropping out.


JSegel:


In spring, they’re out again and here in Maryland they move through a long endless second set with Dark Star emerging from PitB and heading off to Drums and Space, to TOO.

There’s 5 minutes of improv after the song part of PitB, mostly in the groove with some fast runs from Jerry on lead with his various effects, autowah sometimes and distortion sometimes. As it settles, it’s more classic band sound. It gets slightly atonal and aggressive, with Phil chugging a note right at the end there as Jerry suddenly plays the Dark Star intro and everybody switches gears. Unexpected. They drop into the groove, Jerry plays the theme a couple times, Bob’s got his compressed distortion sound, to some puzzling lead guitar action up and down. At a couple minutes in, Jerry arpeggiates his way upwards and then comes back to the riff and they go for verse 1 at 2:30. Oddly he ends the first line flatting the C# to a minor C, oops, but they hold it together and all change to the e minor for line 3 with repetitive accompaniment. More pausing on the refrain than usual, they hold the last pause and to the outro, they move right into the groove again with Jerry picking up the lead lines, outside/inside mode stuff, alternating between fast runs and slow melodic bits.

At 4:30 he switches to midi-flute biz. Piano becomes a bit more prominent, though they all continue the groove.

They go for an upward climbing chromatic thing that every joins in on. Then at 5:40, back to guitar sound, we’re pretty chromatic by this point, piano is on all sorts of chords and trills. Phil is back to pushing the beat, but it sort of dissipates to pseudo-walking bass and tinkly piano, it sounds like it’s falling apart at 7 minutes. Drums start dropping out a bit. Little waves of things against Phil’s continuing. Phil seems to be leading it forward, he’s low and strong. By 8 minutes he’s starting a new section, Mickey has go to congas. Piano is jazzing around, Bob is strumming distorted dissonant chords. Jerry has dropped out. They hold onto it til the 10 minute mark and it segues to the drummers.

Drums follows the normal pattern of drummers rolling around for four minutes and then giving way to sound play of electronic stuff, here for only another 4 minutes, with hand drums in for a bit before the big flying flange comes along. With a melodic koto or guzheng-sounding phrase caught in it. Eventually Jerry starts jamming along with this and it becomes the Space track, with a sort of major-key folky feel, even with the pitch-follower sounds. In fact this folkiness of Space leads to a “Handsome Cabin Boy” jam. OK, Dark Star is far away now, so I’ll just sum up the Dark Star portion by saying that it sounded a little forced to go into it and didn’t really seem to hold together as a version very well, but there you go. It contained interesting odd lead bits up top and degenerated into Phil pushing it all over the place.

Mr. Rain:


Playing in the Band is short, but good & drippy -- indeed, as they travel through the outer reaches, the few minutes here could serve as a model for what they have NOT been doing much in Dark Star lately. (When's the last Dark Star that had Jerry getting hot & spacey for even five minutes?)

But all too soon, by 7m Jerry seems to be looking for a way out. The other players don't really clear a path, so when Jerry abruptly starts the Dark Star lick, Phil & the drummers are still thumping away. Still, the band switches gears right away in a smooth u-turn (good recovery from Phil). In a neat touch, after :15 Jerry briefly plays a little variation on Pigpen's old riff. Really nice opening jam on the theme -- a definite contrast in style from Playing, but very pretty, almost "classic" Dead-style with Phil wrapping around Jerry's clear, spare lines -- there's still a hint of '68 in the air. Bob stays relatively on-point; and Vince switches to a piano sound pretty quickly, which fits better than his swirly organ sound. It could go longer, but Jerry doesn't waste much time before singing the verse at 2:26.

The main jam starts in the same vein, but Jerry sounds tentative, playing sparse lines with long pauses; and at 4:30 he switches to MIDI flute for a minute. He seems more comfortable like this, and it spurs Vince to the higher end of the keyboard. Jerry returns to his guitar tone and things should be heating up, but instead he seems to be running low on inspiration (noticeable when he strums some random chords after 6m). The music's getting a little odder, more spaced-out, gaps opening up...but I get the sense of the band fitting themselves around a disengaging Jerry, not really an attempt to get spacey. What came effortlessly in the Playing jam seems to be a struggle now. He finally recedes to a quiet finger-picking style, his usual "I'm out" signal, before dropping out at 7:45. Yet again, walking out on a Dark Star jam! The rest of the band carries on in their best jazz-club style (yep, bongos, sort-of-walking bass & Vince kickin' it up on piano). Nothing really comes of this, it's pleasant but a static couple of minutes before they surrender to the inevitable Drums after 10m.

I share bzfgt's frustration here. After a promising Playing jam and a good start, Dark Star just deflates after the verse as Jerry can't wait to hurry offstage. Dark Star's become a way to kill a few minutes before Drums. He makes up for it somewhat after Drums with a Space that's not very spacey but more musical than usual, noodling romantically into a Handsome Cabin Boy jam. This captures Jerry's sustained focus a lot more than Dark Star did.