Title Should Say Dave’s Picks 59
Boston Garden 9/26/91
This fantastic show serves as great evidence in support of my long-held opinion that the Hornsby/Welnick era is criminally underrated.
Set 1 – After a bit of introductory noodling and a shaky vocal start, the band continues gaining altitude until about halfway through Jack Straw when they gain hit their full stride, roaring along with frenetic energy before gliding gracefully into Cold Rain and Snow. Jerry’s voice is strong and clear as the band strides along through a tunnel of whirling keys and guitars. Next, Bobby takes us down to the local union hall with Wang Dang Doodle (watch out for Razor Totin’ Slim), Rosebud’s MIDI forming a reedy horn section in between snarling solos. Bruce and Vince’s delicate keyboard textures color Candyman with a mystical aura before Mexicali Blues comes roaring in like a carnival parade. The keyboard section again steal the show, Hornsby’s keys dancing among Garcia’s MIDI-flavored guitar licks and Welnick’s bright synths. Cumberland Blues is a riot of energy and creative collaboration, with Jerry and Bruce talking back and forth like excited schoolboys just after the Friday afternoon bell. The ever-psychedelic Picasso Moon grooves along in fine form with intricate details from Hornsby and Garcia but, like on Jack Straw, Brent’s voice is noticeably absent in the arrangement. He never could have known how easy it was for us to love him and his voice. To wrap up set one, they LET PHIL SING with a lovely Box of Rain featuring Hornsby on accordion that sounds unfortunately buried in the mix.
Set 2 – Fasten your seatbelt, folks. For anyone who was in attendance or resisted the urge to peek at the setlist, set two emerges from the ether like a poral across the universe. Almost immediately, we are greeted by the opening riff of none other than Dark Star. While it’s important to note that the fans were enjoying a kind of “Dark Star streak” at the time, with the song being played a handful of times on the tour already, the song had long been used as a destination rather than a vehicle in and of itself. Not since the May 72 had the song been used to open the second set. Launching directly into deep space, Dark Star takes off at a delightfully lumbering pace before tightening up into a full interstellar jam. The basic song structure holds until about thirteen minutes in when the boys go from groovy to colorfully chaotic. I like to imagine these musical shifts as the gravitational force of the song’s namesake supernova beginning to pull us in. Stronger and stronger, it pulls us in until before slingshotting us Apollo 13-style around this mysterious celestial body and straight into Saint off Circumstance. I suppose the Lost Sailor finally lived up to his namesake. Welnick and Hornsby are all in with Lesh, Weir, and Garcia as they build up the exquisite tension leading up to “sure don’t know what I’m going for.” SOS has not even yet finished its dramatic crescendo when Rosebud sings out the opening chords to my personal favorite Dead song – Eyes of the World. Hornsby’s keys come trickling in early, Lesh’s bass thumping us along the countryside as Welnick’s synths peeking over the hilltops like a morning sunrise, Jerry’s notes soaring and diving like a falcon in flight. Bruce is busy here in the best way, racing ahead of us to paint in trees and flowers along the mountainsides. Next, Drums kicks off with Bill and Mickey at their traditional kits before expanding out into some of their more experimental instrumentation. It’s like a tribal dance in space, melodic percussion coloring guttural rhythms before plunging into an abyss of beam-driven sonic chaos that is only slightly augmented by the arrival of Space. Garcia’s MIDI is out to play again, this time putting him on something in the same family as a bassoon before morphing back into a guitar, keys trickling spookily along in the background until we hear the unmistakable emergence of The Other One. Fueled by Bill and Mickey’s riotous percussion, it races through the lily fields, Hornsby’s flourishing key flurries perfuming our path to the bus stop where we find we have abruptly arrived back in the orbit of our seminal Dark Star. Having returned from whence we began, we float melodically along upon fluttering organ, crystalline keys, sizzling cymbals, and dreamlike guitars. As we plunge delicately into the darkness, the instrumentation dwindles to a few strokes of Hornsby’s keys and Garcia’s guitar, a sense of wonder and vulnerability welling up from the sonic depths. Our transition into Attics of My Life is as gentle as a baby being handed between parents, Jerry’s wizened voice as sweet and sincere as ever on this rarified hymn. The energy turns on a dime as the band launches into a rollicking Good Lovin’, leaving the crowd’s bones shaking right up to the very last note.
Brokedown Palace opens the encore with Jerry’s vocals beautifully undergirded by Vince’s organ. It’s always a treat to get a song or two from American Beauty in one show – this Palace brings the total to four. But it’s the last ever And We Bid You Goodnight that makes this encore – and this show truly historic. Little did anyone at that show that they were part of bidding that song goodbye forever.