Crepuscular Digest #3

This poster got Wes Wilson a stern talking to from Bill Graham. More on Wes later

01/05/79: The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
A surprisingly nice audience recording from the Spectrum. A tough room to tape in


When I got into the Disco Biscuits, they were billed to me as a Philly band. Phish was a Vermont band and the Grateful Dead were a San Fransisco band. Each band had their ancestral homeland. Philly then became sort of a Mecca or mythical place of power as I became a fanatical Biscuits fan. It seemed funkier and more fun than the Manhattan I had grown up knowing as a suburban Long Island kid. There always seemed to be music, art or history around the next corner. It was certainly cheaper than NYC, which was nice. My first time visiting Philadelphia to see the Disco Biscuits was their 2002 New Years run at the Electric Factory. A carload of close friends from SUNY Albany  crammed into a hotel within walking distance  of the E-factory and had the adventure of a lifetime seeing the band give a command performance over three nights.There's a lot more to the story I'll get to eventually.

At the Original E-Factory in 1969

Once the Dead obsession crept into my life, it came as no surprise to me  that the Grateful Dead played consistently well in Philadelphia. It's the holy land of Bisco (not to mention a cultural and musical epicenter in its own right). It was cool to learn that the Dead played the original Electric Factory in 1968 and 1969. The Electric Factory promoters (this book by one of the E Factory founders looks to be pretty cool) also booked the Spectrum, the big hockey arena in town.  Once the Dead were big enough, they moved over there in 1972. According to this well researched and compelling overview of the Grateful Dead's performances in Philly, they played the Spectrum a whooping 53 times. Bruce Springsteen only played there 42 times and Philly was a second home for him.

First show at the Spectrum in 1972

I love the beefy Sugaree to start but the recording takes a couple tunes to get right so its a rough listen. The sound gets much better by mid-first set. By mid-second set it sounds wonderful. Especially for an 18,000 person room in 1979. The Estimated Prophet second set is where things really take off. Its segues ferociously into Eyes of the World. I'm typically pretty skeptical of any Eyes after 1974. Its so hit or miss for me. This is one of the better post hiatus Eyes I've listened to. They lock into a wonderful groove and tempo that makes me wish it would never end. Drums>Space is great. Space>Truckin'>Nobody's Fault but mine jam>Black Peter is really the heart of this show though. A masterful suite of music with great warmth, sadness, moments of quiet, and moments of great fury. Around and around is even really hot. The room ambiance of the recording makes it a really immersive listening experience and while listening my mind wandered to some incredible nights of music in Philadelphia through the years.

A Nice New York Times eulogy for The Spectrum

 08/31/83: Silva Hall, Hult Center, Eugene, OR
 Gorgeous Sennheiser 421 mic audience recording from Da Weez

The connection between Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead is a really engrossing sub-story in both of their arcs. Kesey of course spent some time in California, but very early on in his adult life, settled in his ancestral Oregon. When the Grateful Dead were in town, Kesey was around more often then not. Or the primary reason they were in Oregon at all. The Hult Center itself is a fascinating venue. The room the dead played in this performing arts center was the 2,448 seat Silva Hall. The interior is designed to look like a woven basket. It's heavily shot through with the University of Oregon's colors, green and yellow. It looks like a really trippy place to see a really trippy band. 

This show at the Hult center starts with Ken Kesey tells a few jokes while the band gets it together. It's noted that he was jamming behind the drums on harmonica during space but its not really audible on the recording. I'm sure if he was participating, he was influencing. Aside from the already neato Kesey stuff, this is an excellent show. 83-84 is my favorite era for Dupree's Diamond Blues honestly. I'm sure that's sacrilege to hardcore primal Dead fans but there's something about the sound they get with Brent and the quality of storytelling from Garcia. He had a real feel for the story. The closing sequence of set one is great. A driving West L.A. Fade Away is followed by a really nice Althea that gets pretty deep. It's a lovely pairing to have Althea followed by Cassidy. They segue into a hot Don't Ease me In to wrap up a hot first set.

Having not read ahead in the setlist, I was surprised and delighted to have the second set start with Cold, Rain and Snow as a wet and heavy late winter snow fell over Albany. Love those moments where the music and the universe sync up. After this, the entire rest of the second set is one fluid piece. Playing in the Band gets very deep into its jam and segues unexpectedly into a shimmering China Doll. More unorthodox than this pairing is the post Doll jam that at times touches on the Playing in the Band feel without fully returning to it. It's an extended piece of improv that shape-shifts into drums. The space is very uptempo and unusual (the drummers stay on) so I could see Kesey influencing it. The segue into Truckin' is phenomenal and well worth the price of admission. Stella Blue is as poignant as ever while the Good Lovin' has terrific energy to end the set.

10/12/68 The Avalon Ballroom, San Fransisco, CA 
Charlie Miller transfer of this intimate soundboard recording

First off, The poster for this run of shows at the Avalon Ballroom is by psychedelic poster pioneer Wes Wilson. For a time, San Francisco was the hippest music scene in the world. It's still really hip. The artists creating posters for the events spawned an art movement themselves which endures to this day. Here's a great article which goes into the "big five" posters artists as well as many of the other folks who helped create and define this vibrant 20th century art scene. I'll share some of Wes' stuff throughout this section of the post. More on the San Fran ballroom poster scene here and here.

The poster for this run at the Avalon

This show may or may not start with an absolute blazing Morning Dew. This copy at least omits it. The first one I heard has it. After the Dew (or whatever actually precedes this), Jerry encourages the audience: "Please let go of your bodies everybody" after saying it would be unhip of him to tell them to "dance or else". Dark Star is an excellent choice for letting go of your body. Every member of the band can be heard clearly in this gift of a recording. This is a time period where Bobby and Pigpen get kicked out (more on the "firing" here) for not being on the same page as far as where the music was going and how hard it should be worked on. The kick out doesn't stick and Bobby plays on this tape, while Pigpen does not. Though I love keys in improvisational music, here's a great example of what having a simplified melodic profile can do for directed improvisation. Tow guitars and a bass is lithe and aggressive. Explosive at times.

Wes Wilson created his poster for an anti-war demonstration.

 Jerry's tone is lovely. He starts stretching the Dark Star out with Phil working the intensity bellows. The first jam is nearly five minutes of directed bliss before a strong run through the first verse. Jerry is phenomenal form vocally on this night. Powerful and emotive.The second jam drifts like snow on a windy mountainside, going much further out than the first jam. Jerry weaves a gorgeous melody starting just before seven minutes. It brings in a fuller expression of the percussion section before peaking the dark star theme with a controlled squeal. Intensity continues building until a collective band deep breath just before the ten minute mark. Garcia is unrelenting and lets the jam stay in the base of the valley only a moment before guiding the band up the next peak. Here we dip up and down for a couple short jaunts of intensity flow before the final reestablishment of the dark star theme, then the final verse.

"Ohm" is on of Wes Wilson's most famous posters. Van Morrison1967

The segue into Saint Stephen is playfully sparse and absolutely delicately brilliant. The band all jump in to the structure with tangible glee. The vocals are recorded beautifully with every voice ringing clearly. Bobby's vocals against Jerry's sound wonderful. After delivering the "One man gathers what another man spills" line, Bobby mumbles "funniest thing I ever heard" nonchalantly to the roaring approval of the audience. They segue out of Stephen like a river suddenly un-dammed. Like a flame suddenly greeted by a great rush of oxygen. They slip into the Eleven theme effortlessly, instrumentalists at the top of their game. They play through the pre-vocal section with many small, lovely embellishments and great intensity. They hit the vocals on the Eleven with the typical vigor and precision found in this performance.

2/24/67 at the Fillmore is a trademark Wilson piece

They hit peak after peak post vocals, maintaining a completely improbable pace of soundscape creation and destruction. The tempo taffy pulls down to a slow blues shuffle. Death Don't Have No Mercy. The emotion in Jerry's vocal and instrumental performance on this track is captivating. Becoming a Grateful Dead enthusiast after Garcia had passed offers me an opportunity to avoid some of the hang ups of being a Dead Head. I was able to separate myself a bit from the deification of Jerry Garcia. It was clear studying the history as an outsider how toxic it became to him. Listening to this performance however, its clear there was no chance a person who emitted music like this could ever be treated as a mortal. The first big Jerry solo at 3:30 is so much about the notes not played. The control and tastefulness of what he did choose to lay down.Verse two and the control, the delicacy is even more tightly dialed in. At 7:00 we hear maybe the most powerful vocal delivery of Jerry Garcia's career (in my humble and currently held opinion. Subject to change). Nuanced and dynamic, the whole weight of the human experience is pondered then shed as unnecessary to bear any more. The show goes on for an as equally big and beautiful segment of music I'll leave you to explore on your own. Many treasures await.

Still a much sought after poster artist. Moonalice 2013

Legend puts Jimi Hendrix in town for a run of shows and quite possibly in attendance at this show. Its an even more compelling wrinkle to this already engrossing aural tale. Dig into that bit of Dead mythology here. More on 10/12/68  here and here too. This show deserves all the attention its gotten through the years.

Steve Kimock Band 2/22/02  The Gothic, Bellevue, CO
"The tape that got him the job"

 Steve Kimock's credentials are some of the most impeccable in improvisational rock. He's been playing with members of the Grateful Dead as well as many incredibly talented musicians outside the core Dead thing since the 70's. His tone and style are very unique and yet blend really well with the wide variety of musicians he plays with. My first time seeing him live was at the Capitol Theatre with Bob Weir's campfire band (more on that show including audio and pictures here). His latest album Satellite City is phenomenal. On the anniversary of this show, this recording  by Charlie Miller and Arielle Phares circulated online and piqued my interest. I don't venture out much from the Grateful Dead and Disco Biscuits as far as jam music and was hugely rewarded for this particular jaunt.

Kimock in 2002

After listening to about five minutes of the first tune Ice Cream, I found myself looking up the rest of the line up for this band. Everyone sounded super talented. By the third song, Tangled Hangers,  my jaw was on the floor at the quality of playing. So emotive as well, which I find more rare in bands without vocals. (This Will Destroy You is one of the few that comes to mind)  Wanting to know more about the musicians took me down some surprising paths again outside my usual taste. Drummer Rodney Holmes fell in love with art and music in high school on. He wound up playing in Santana's band in two separate phases of that band among many other things. He's been able to balance a strong rock and strong jazz foundation to great success while displaying his interest in electronic/ dance music. The electronic influence from this performance is clear even though he plays a completely live/ acoustic kit. Bassist Alfonso Johnson played with Santana as well, Weather Report, Genesis, Bobby and the Midnites and Jazz is Dead. His playing caught my ear the most. Incredible bass player. The second guitarist Mitch "Moose" Stein had an early improv background and wound up getting way into the jazz scene. He compliments Kimock's lead parts in a way that can't help but make you think of how Bobby related to Jerry. The nimble interplay of two guitars and a bass (without Keys to round out a standard rock line up) is something that really caught my ear about that Avalon Ballroom '68 show. It also makes this show really compelling.

Alfonso Johnson in Rochester in 1977

Charlie Miller on 2/22/02

For those of us who spend countless hours listening to Grateful Dead recordings, no one is more responsible for our quality of life in 2018 than Charlie Miller. He's been steadily remastering, upgrading and circulating hulking portions of the Grateful Dead's performance history. He does this as a service to the community, seeking no compensation for his intensive efforts.  He started taping the Grateful Dead in 1983 and has been capturing beautiful recordings ever since, most recently,  these lovely recordings of  the entire 13 show Baker's Dozen MSG run by that Vermont band.

He mentioned on social media that this Kimock recording recording was the tape that landed him the job. That little bit of information is what got me so interested in this recording. It was a tremendously rewarding listening experience and super fun getting to learn about some great musicians.  I was so grateful for the experience Charlie's tape provided me, I decided to bother him about it. Here's the conversation we had:

Crepuscular Rays: I saw you said that making the recording got you the job. Would you mind elaborating on that?
Charlie Miller: The band released my recordings as Live in Colorado which got me the job with the band. I've been working for Kimock for 17 years, but not so much lately.

CR: Thanks! I can see why it was released. Incredible music! Did you run boards/ mix for them or focus on recording the performances?
CM: I was Kimock's recording engineer, sound man, driver, road manager, stage crew and most importantly, his friend.

CR: That's one hell of a position. Had you been working in that capacity before?
CM: I've been recording since 1983. I had experience with all those things just not at the same level. When you're with a band for so long you end up doing everything at some point.

Rodney Holmes 2016

CR: At the show did you know it was a special performance? Like did it stand apart from others of that era? Seems like it from the audience.
CM: Yeah we all knew... and the next night was the cigarette after sex 😃

CR: Nice! Any other Kimock recordings I should check out? I'll definitely check out 2/23/02 now.
CM: I put 98% of the year up on the archive. It's all killer. Really.

CR: Awesome! I really appreciate you taking some time to chat with me about this legendary show. Anything else you'd like to add?
CM: Play it loud.

To learn more about Charlie Miller's legacy, take a ride in the wayback machine to check this interview from the now defunct Dar Star palace blog. It's a really thorough piece with great pictures.