Grateful Dead Oregon County Fairgrounds 08/28/82
Simply Stunning Bob Wagner Audience Recording
The connection between Ken Kesey has been a point of endless fascination for me as a confluence of my own personal passions and a fascinating crux point of 1960's counterculture. I've written about it in previous posts here and here. Here's another Kesey Dead connection with the 10 year anniversary of the famous Venetta 1972 show. I think its not that useful a pursuit to try and nail down the Grateful Dead's best show ever, but Venetta 72 is a clear contender. Turns out the anniversary show is very hot as well. There's something about Oregon, something about Kesey and the Pranksters, that brings out the best in the Dead.
Lately I've been listening to a lot of audience recordings where you can barely hear Phil in the mix. This tape is beyond refreshing. The bass is so present, as is Brent's keys. Just a wonderful mix all around. They're definitely feeling it with a hot Bertha to start. Minglewood is super locked in and driving. Hearing Phil clearly makes this tune stand out much more than usual. Great run from Brent in the Minglewood, followed by an equally hot Jerry solo. Jed has a little more bounce than usual. Me and my Uncle is unusually hot. Big River too. It just seems like everything is a little to a lot hotter than usual. They finally slow it down a bit with Althea but its no less on point and groovy. It's only a quick moment to catch your breathe before a rockin' It's All Over Now gets the kids up and dancing again. The bounce of this show is so infectious. China Cat gets a huge reaction from the crowd (perhaps since the Ventta 72 version is so legendary) and rages straight through to I Know You Rider.
Keep Your Day Job starts the second set with a band continuing to sound super locked in. There is some great interplay between Brent and Jerry around 2:50 in. Brent is super funky on the Women Are Smarter intro. It's a brief version without segue. So far a very interesting song selection for set 2. West LA Fadeaway continues the trend of unique set 2 song selection and also the trend of every tune from this show absolutely strutting. I'm a sucker for any Brent tune and this Far From Me sparkles. There's a brief pause before the band hops into a bubbly Playing in the Band. They waste no time in stretching and pulling the fabric of space-time with the jam. They collectively find a really creative space to occupy at 9 minutes in.
With how incredible this recording is, every moment of drums>space is special. To hear every aspect of what the bands was cooking up is such a gift. The jam out of space is absolute pure and unadulterated bliss. Once the opening notes of the Wheel start, so too do the chills. Just lovely. Just before they journey outside The Wheel, the whole band strikes upon a beautiful theme. After such a beautiful and delicate melody, The Other One (specifically Phil's bass) hits like an absolute brick. It stays powerful and commanding for its entirety and proceeds to hop comfortably into Truckin'. All of the segues in set 2 are really smooth. The Truckin' cooks much in the style of the rest of this show's hotness then takes a lovely downshift into Black Peter. A much needed release of energy. Jerry gives a command performance here drawing out the vocals and guitar lines to a powerful, mournful effect. A fun and unconventional show is wrapped up in fun and unconventional way: a Dupree's encore! Wow this is a great show. So glad to discover such a gem.
The Disco Biscuits 05/07/04 The Palace Theater, Albany, NY
Plan C approved and gorgeous Chase Banna recording
As I've mentioned in previous posts (The Vanderbilt and Haymaker shows from 2002), I'm listening through all the Disco Biscuits shows I attended in order. Many of them have seriously imprinted memories or listening to the tape brings back a flood of them. When I hit play on this one, I had no memory whatsoever. Which is just bizarre. It was within days of my graduation from college. It was the first Disco Biscuits show I got to see in my home, the city of Albany. Nothing. Nada. Oh well, maybe that's part of why I'm taking this listening journey. Trying to pin down a few more memories before they're lost to time.
Set 1
To start the night, longtime promoter and staple of the Albany music scene Greg Bell introduces the band and talks about their journey from the local bar gigs in town to the big stage of the Palace. The biscuits start with a bit of an atmospheric jam that seems to be heading towards Floes. Instead, they do a smart about face and drop into Little Lai. It's a sold but not really stretched out opener. To continue with the airy vibe set by the opening jam, Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is up next. I love the places that 2002-04 era Humu jams go (12/29/02 is the gold standard in my opinion). On this night they don't appear to be in a rush to get the ball rolling. It's a pretty confident move considering this is a much bigger room than they had played previously in the Albany area (Saratoga Winners and Northern Lights in the 2000's, Bogies and Valentine's throughout the late 90's).
The first hint of momentum comes at 6:30 into the Humu jam as an insistent four on the floor beat from drummer Dr Samuel Altman starts urging the rest of the band in a darker direction. They peak the jam and segue cleanly into 42. It's still a fairly new tune (just over a year old at this point) and I found it to not always seem comfortable for the band in this era. A lot of the earlier versions I've heard sound like they all had to try really hard. to get through the composition This version has them sounding very comfortable with Brownie offering some sweeping sound effects a la Keller Williams mouth flugel. The jam out of 42 returns to that nice airy and dark mode the Humu jam brought us to. I love the simple descending major scale right at the end that drops just perfectly into Spectacle. I was driving home on a lovely early fall day through the countryside southeast of Albany and the music exactly fit the mood.Wet and Jigsaw are standard offerings though the Jigsaw gets pretty deep.
Set 2
After a quick four count from guitarist Jon "The Barber" Gutwilig, we're launched into a high energy I-Man. Interesting moments of tension and release starting at the 5 minute mark before dropping back into the composition. I love the melodic and dreamy quality at 8:20 just before dropping into a more brooding minor key jam. The build up is fairly mellow but the peak at 16 minutes is pretty gigantic. Next up we have some fun crowd participation and a nice lil peek into Barber's head with the "No Bull$hit!" chant before an absolutely savage drop into Save the Robots. There's extra mustard on all of the Robots composition. Vocals as well. At the 16 minute mark is where this show starts to get really interesting. Barber does this police scanner future robot chase vocal improv thing that I'd actually love to see more of from him. Shades of Akira. At 23 minutes intensity kicks up a big notch on the way towards the peak.
After robots a lost spunion wanders out onto the stage to Barber which leads to some of my favorite Barber stage banter of all time: "Ladies and gentleman, we're adding a new member to the band! Our new member of the band is....our new super cool member of the band is: Shark! Ladies and gentleman, shark! We;re gonna take shark backstage for some reprogramming! Please stay focused on the band thank you."
Eulogy is a nice cool-down from the fierce robots. It's well played with Magner in particular sparkling on piano. M.E.M.P.H.I.S. is up next (Brownie: "this one's for the dog!") and gets right into a dark and dirty jam with some restrained and perfect leads from Barber. Some of the most subtle and nuanced playing from this show come out of the first Memphis jam. The second jam has a similar groove but a completely different flavor. Killer bounce from Sammy on the drums. Some really lovely guitar and keyboard moments around 19 minutes in from Barber and Magner. The pre-segue last few minutes is exceptionally lovely. Wrapping up 42 was a nice way to finish out a very solid 2004 show. Brownie's banter at the end leads me to believe they had a really fun time playing. Who doesn't like a Nughuffer encore? Short story then right to business so they make curfew. They don't rush it though and there's some fine playing starting just under 10 minutes in.
That Random B
The Grateful Dead, once they started getting deeper into improvisational music in the late 60's, started creating suites of songs or songs that were often connected. They'd start a song, start stretching out and jamming, then slide into the beginning of another song. This is a really critical, foundational element of jam music as we know it today. Something the Grateful brought to popular music. China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider were early tunes in the repertoire who found each other and became a nearly inseparable pair. Scarlet Begonias was around for 3 years before finding it's mate, Fire on the Mountain. Around that time Weir and Barlow wrote two more of these pairings. These were a little different though, as they were designed as a pair right from the start. It wasn't an organic, 'find your soulmate' kind of process.
This section is called the random B. Why? Well these songs pairings have an A>B format. Every now and then, the Grateful Dead would sneak a random B tune in where it didn't belong. The set list for 1976 Grateful Dead shows are possibly the most volatile in their career. There is an overall pattern to 1976 set list but there are many wild curveballs. Tunes you'd never expect in the first set or second set, odd pairings or sequences, etc. So it's not surprising we have a random B in 1976.
09-24-76 William and Mary College.
Playing in the Band>Supplication>Playing in the Band
Playing in the Band is a song that became one of the prime jam vehicles for the Grateful Dead, stretch at first into 20 plus minute jams in 1972 then going into the 30-40 minute range by the end of its reign of awesomeness. It typically ended a set one once it settled into place. After the 1975 it's set placement became tenuous and ended up in set 2 at times. Between 1976-1978 the structure of Grateful Dead set lists began to solidify. Shorter tunes in a variety of American styles in the first set (maybe a bit of a longer or more jammy tune towards the end of the first set) with the second set comprised of the larger jam vehicles. By 1978 drums>space became a defined part of set 2, usually at it's mid-point. at this point, Playing in the Band was firmly a set 2 song. Often starting a second set or in the pre-drums>space section.
At the William and Mary show we find Playing in it's pre-hiatus position at the end of the first set. Here though we have a classic 1976 twist: They segue into supplication then back into the Playing in the Band Reprise! First of all, the Playing jam is quite lovely, similar in the style to the later era set 2 Playing's with a more thematic jam without going fully type 2 (in the parlance of Phish-dom). They hint at the Playing reprise but let the riff dangle and dissipate a bit. all of a sudden a different and familiar riff comes chugging out from Bobby's way. Jerry picks up on it and starts to embellish. It still seems 2 minutes in to Supplication that they may still go back into Playing but by 2:45 they fully bust out the Supplication. Kieth's piano especially shines during the verse. Jerry plays what I'd generally consider his outro solo for Supplication and the band shift gears back into the Playing in the Band reprise with some really inventive playing, especially in the first few minutes of the reprise.
12-04-90 Oakland Coliseum Arena
Eyes of the World>Saint of Circumstance
Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance is another Weir/Barlow penned pairing that follows a somewhat similar trajectory to Lightning>Supplication. It's got a bit of a different style though with Lost Sailor being a bit dark and eerie before the big energy upswing of Saint of Circumstance. The pairing debuted in 1979 and was played the most in 1980, with 29 instances. After that, fewer and fewer performances until it was dropped after 1986. Saint of circumstance survived the cut though! This part B lived on long after it's A was cut, being played at least once every year for the rest of the Grateful Dead's career. Similar to Let it Grow which endured after the rest of the Weather Report Suite was dropped.
First off, I have a love affair with D5Scott and Da Weez. What is this nonsense? They were Grateful Dead tapers starting in the early 80's and sticking around to the end. Some of their tapes, especially from 83-84 are just incredible. Of a similar quality to Oade brother tapes but without as much known about them. I've been working my way through the remaining Post-Brent 1990 tapes (the first five are reviewed here), finding hot performances and stunning audience tapes. This tape though might be my favorite of this era. There's just something about the sound and balance that's so immersive.
Eyes of the World starts the second set and showcases stunning playing from all, with great playing from both Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby on keys. Vince's harmonies sound especially nice on the Eyes chorus. At 8:30 the band hit a gorgeous peak fueled by Garcia and Hornsby. At this point the jam downshifts a bit, while the groove and drive stay at a constant, leading into the last verse. The drummers are both hitting hard and getting tribal at around 11:30. With about a minute left Jerry starts building tension and Phil picks up on it, joining in. Ok, it's not the cleanest segue but once they lock into Saint, the audience goes absolutely crazy and the band is cooking. Ok, so there's also some flubs with the composition but damnit the energy is there! It's hot. Interestingly, the >Saint of Circumstance is only played 4 times in 1990 and it's all Vince era shows. Instances of performance are at a record low in the final years of Brent's tenure and its busted back out more once Vince takes over.
Holly Bowling 09/16/18 Cohoes Music Hall
Mountains on the Moon>Saint of Circumstance
Around the time I was checking out these Dead shows I was lucky enough to catch Holly Bowling at the lovely (and allegedly haunted!) Cohoes Music Hall. Holly plays solo piano interpretations of Grateful Dead and Phish songs. It seems on paper like something you'd only really need to see once but each time I've gotten to see her perform, its been even more stunning, intense and captivating. She's an incredible musician and her ability to improvise has only gotten better with her filling the piano bench for the band Ghost Light. Interestingly she related at the show that Ghost Light's name came from a Tommy Hamilton trios show at the Cohoes Music Hall. Very cool part of Capital District music history.The Cohoes Music Hall is allegedly haunted by the ghost of Vaudeville performer Eva Tanguay. There's a little shrine where offerings are left for her backstage and the venue maintains the tradition of leaving a ghost light on stage.
Mountains on the Moon is an incredible choice for solo piano. The Garcia melody was haunting, ringing through the 19th century theater. Jeffry Bowling's mapped projections perfectly complimented the mood. Her playing goes from plaintive to more intense as she wanders out from the Mountains theme. Slowly the familiar opening progression of Saint of Circumstance emerges triumphantly. I never would've thought putting these tunes together would work but its a tremendous pairing! This is truly a random B! A song retired before 70 and one debuted in 1979!There was a hole in my life I didn't know I had that got filled with Mountains>Saint!!! The entirety of Mrs. Bowling's performance is stunning and well worth a reflective listen.
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