108984 Indiana 7:13 (6:30)
Main theme at :52 and 2:18.
First verse at 2:26.
Goes into The Wheel.
This is a show mostly known for a titanic Terrapin Station that goes into a wild jam. Between that and a 15-minute Space, there has already been a wealth of improvised music in the this second set by the time we get to Dark Star, and much of it is very good, to boot. As Space reaches its conclusion, Garcia has some kind of bowed sound going, which is almost certainly the result of an electronic gate rather than a Jimmy Page maneuver. Lesh moves it into Dark Star, which starts with the theme rather than the intro lick.
The band sounds focused from the outset here, and the intro jam is tighter and more punchy than the previous ones have been. Garcia dips into the theme a few times and they roll to the verse—one almost gets the impression in these latter-day versions that Jerry is thinking “Oh, we’re playing Dark Star now? That means we’re not jamming anymore!” At least this one doesn’t go into Drums, so it seems likely he’ll be on board for the duration.
Vince hangs on the theme longer than usual after the verse—tight and punchy seems to be the approach here as well. Garcia gets into some downward arpeggios that are almost reminiscent of Fire on the Mountain, which I thought of before the verse as well. Listen from about 4:45, as Jerry uncorks some lightning-fast runs—they may not be stretching this out anymore, but his playing here sounds fresh and engaged, as well as being more nimble than usual.
By about 6:30 Jerry starts playing The Wheel, and although it’s still tracked as Dark Star it doesn’t take long for the band to fall in line. It’s kind of surprising this pairing didn’t happen more times, as the transition is smooth and effortless.
It’s hard to fault the band for being perfunctory in such a jam-filled set, but it’s clear that Dark Star isn’t where the main action is anymore. This is quite good, though; there’s some excellent playing, although Garcia is clearly the main attraction this time.
What was said:
adamos:
This Dark Star comes out of Space, preceded by the big Terrapin jam and Drums. Towards the end of Space Jerry has a MIDI bow sound going as noted by bzfgt and everyone is still quite active. In the last minute things start moving towards Dark Star territory particularly Phil. The intensity picks up and they transition into it without the opening notes.
Phil works the theme and Vince starts in on the riff around :33. By :50 a more pronounced theme is being collectively stated and they carry on fairly energetically. Jerry and Phil wind and weave nicely complimented by Bob's fuzzy textures. They focus back in on the theme and Jerry goes high (with a relatively thin tone) before restating it and then going into the first verse. His vocal is raspy and somewhat understated in the mix compared to the instruments.
After the verse they reset and carry on with Vince working the riff and then spreading out. The energetic feel continues with Phil coming through prominently and Jerry winding and weaving. Jerry heads lower and after slowing up a bit launches into some quicker runs. In a few spots it seems like he might be getting a little tangled up (there are a lot of notes being articulated) but it proceeds well overall. And there's a nice, melodic quality to the proceedings.
They continue on and there's a bit of an ascent around 5:45 or so. It quickly levels off however and they keep rolling on. After 6:20 things start to pivot. Jerry introduces The Wheel at 6:30 and they keep a foot in both songs for a little bit before starting it up. I agree that it's a nice pairing and a smooth transition.
It's a brief version and there's not a lot here. But it's fairly energetic and there are some good things blended in.
JSegel:
The summer version for 1993, this is a giant rolling second set segment with 25 minutes of Terrapin Station going into a half hour of Drums and Space before 7 minutes of Dark Star, heading off to The Wheel and Good Lovin’ to end the set (before a Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds encore.)
Space contains big soaring leads from Jerry up front, with a distorted tone, moving into the midi-orchestra tones afterwards. It’s pretty wild but mostly semi-tonal melodically. By the end of Space/beginning of the Dark Star track, everybody is swirling around and somehow Phil suggests the Dark Star riff, accompanying Jerry on a riff he’s on and they slowly move toward it with the band. Bob has his distorto tone, and the drums are sparsely entering the groove, keys seem to arpeggiate a bit before settling to the riff. Jerry noodles a bit between iterations of the riff, bringing it together more each time. After a couple minutes he starts the verse, very low raspy, sounds right with the distortion from Bob, Phil is still very staccato on the riff, through all three lines, nobody moves to a second chord for the third line, even Phil stays pulsing his A, but they agree to sort of hold it for the refrain. Vince does a new higher pitch bend after both refrain lines, then back to the riff groove with a very staccato bass.
Phil seems to be constructing something out of his staccato riff notes, Jerry starts building a scaffold for something around it, then moves off to faster runs again. He eddies out a couple times on groups of notes, Bob finally gets a bit sparser, and Jerry moves to a melodic eddy moving downward before some choice licks and runs, but it’s heading sideways by 6 minutes in and they start to fall apart, Jerry is leading it with a bizarro world version of the riff for a sec and then moves off to The Wheel.
Sort of a cool jumpy little version, with Phil’s odd staccato bass playing in there. Jerry had some interesting ideas, and nice little runs. Short but sweet.
Mr. Rain:
Another post-Space Dark Star.... could this outshine the pre-Drums Dark Stars we've had of late? Could it even be part 2 of the Dark Star from March? Well, no...actually the Dead aren't going to finish any Dark Stars anymore. I didn't notice at the time, but 12-16-92 was the last second verse we'll hear!
Space is very active & percussive with lots of wild effects, following from the earlier hot Terrapin jam. Midway through, Jerry storms in with the fuzz and they get into some almost heavy-metallish jamming. But as he shifts to other MIDI tones they move into some strange claustrophobic terrain. For a while it's almost like instruments from different musical pieces are overlapping, with guitars, bass & keyboard all playing separate things at once. Around 14:30 in Space Phil plays a neat off-kilter version of the Dark Star riff, which was so cool it made me sit up; and whether Dark Star was part of the plan, you can almost hear the band thinking, "Hey that's an idea..." Of course Jerry then switches to his most flatulent tone, but after a final Space flourish he's returned to a normal guitar sound and they embark on the Dark Star theme (at :25 on Miller's track). This is a very chaotic introduction to Dark Star: they skip the opening riff & slip into the theme out of the frantic meteor-shower of Space, moving from chaos to beauty. Just splendid -- I must say this is one of the few Dark Star moments lately that I've wanted to play repeatedly.
Phil leads with the theme, playing it straight as Jerry decorates with echoed guitar lines. Very triumphant-sounding opening, like a victory march -- at 1:45 they all settle into the theme like Jerry's ready for the verse, then at 2:00 he takes them on a strange little slower-tempo digression which almost throws them, then back to the theme & verse at 2:26. (Bob chooses an odd MIDI tone here, and Phil's playing style is also oddly pokey in this verse, like they're all joking around.)
Back to the theme again, Vince repeating it at length. Then as the jam opens up, Jerry's approach is very unusual; he sounds like he's playing a totally different song than Dark Star, at a different tempo. It's like two tunes overlapping, but they make it hang together somehow. This may be the weirdest thing I've heard in Dark Star for a while! And very dense & tangled -- listening again, I heard Wheel quotes I'd missed the first time (like around 4:40), making it sound like an amalgation of several songs in which anything might happen.
But you know Jerry these days, he can't make a good thing last. By 6m you can tell he's looking around for a way out and the band's just sort of hovering; and at 6:30 out comes the Wheel. It's not as smooth a transition as it could have been, more like an abrupt juxtaposition, and the band's not so swift to catch up. But the Wheel transition/opening riff is long & hypnotic, over a minute before they start singing.
Even though Dark Star itself is little more than 6 minutes, this was the best version in a long time, in part because it's so unusual. Post-Space Dark Stars have been hotter lately, and this one's way more feisty than recent versions. There's a sense that Jerry's actually in a happy mood & engaged, not just reluctantly dragging himself through it; and the playing sounds like it's full of possibilities (even if they're not pursued). Alone among recent Dark Stars, I felt like this one is worth some close listens to hear a band that's, for once, living up to its potential and so confidently swinging through Dark Star they can clash against each other, goof off, and still make it work. Criminally short, though -- as always Jerry's in a hurry to move on.
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