jackson@curium.DEC (Seth Jackson) (05/31/85)
Some of you have asked what it is about the Grateful Dead's
*music* that keeps Deadheads so Deadicated. The following is a
concert review found in the Boise, Idaho paper following last
year's Boise show. What is unique about this review is that it
focuses on the *music* rather than on the audience or the band's
history. Well, here goes:
Grateful Dead Surpass Themselves in Concert
by
Norman Weinstein
There are moments in the life of a local music reviewer that make
this generally thankless occupation a blessing and a grace. The
Grateful Dead concert Friday night at the BSU Pavilion was such
an event.
Imagine the scene. A Pavilion filled with dancers on every level.
Even the corridors were teeming with bopping bodies. Let this
image suggest the sheer danceability of this music.
The rhythms provided by dual drummers Mickey Hart and Bill
Kreutzman were constantly driving. While the typical top-40 rock
drummer plod and thunders in simple 4/4 time, the Hart-Kreutzman
team created wave after wave of times like 12/8. You could hear
mutations of African polyrhythms and India tabla measures.
In prefect sympathy with these Siamese-twins of rhythm was
bassist Phil Lesh. Lesh's playing was dramatically crisp and
alert to the subtle interplay of the drummers.
Now imagine the two singers and guitarists - Jerry Garcia and Bob
Weir - who spin sound tapestries that embrace elements of basic
rock, country, jazz (much in modal chording) fusion. The
Garcia-Weir duet on Wake Up to See That You Are the Eyes of the
World had more turnings and bendings than the Great Wall of
China. Yet in spite of moments of cubist fragmentation of melodic
theme, their duet was a model of coherent and thoughtful
development.
Now add tasty electric keyboard fills by newcomer Brent Mydland
for a little musical icing on the cake.
The three-hour concert began gathering steam toward the end of
the first 90-minute set when the band performed It Looks Like
Rain from Weir's solo album. On record, the song is a weakly
sentimental love ditty. In concert, Weir sang with sharper
articulation than on record. And he and Garcia used the ordinary
song form as a launching pad for sublime and rare improvisation.
The concert moved from brief performances of conventional
country-rock-blues songs like Mama Tried and Railroad Blues to
compositions that transcended song form and approached open-ended
jams. The band's second set was an ecstatic celebration of
musical process, of music as spiritual key.
This was an introspective band in concert. Not one band member
said a word to the audience throughout the concert. Not a word
was needed. The Grateful Dead's music told every story that
needed to be told.
This concert established a benchmark for musical excellence in
this community. Nothing heard during this concert sounded even
remotely like what you would hear on a Grateful Dead record.
For example, the dual drummers on the band's album never engaged
me. In concert they developed a locomotion that was both
intellectually satisfying and emotionally releasing.
Garcia on record always sounded technically proficient. In
concert he sounded both proficient and soulful. His debt to the
blues was richly evident throughout the night.
The basic, perhaps the only, major liability of the band has to
be vocals. Neither Weir nor Garcia is blessed with great pipes.
What I did enjoy about their singing was their obvious sincerity.
Sincerity counts for a great deal in a musical field where
singers often possess the integrity of a Richard Nixon.
There aren't many more superlative words to say about the
Grateful Dead's performance. So I would like to close with a
phrase from my pocket music dictionary: "Ad libitum." This
esoteric sounding phrase means the freedom a musician has to
alter the structure of a composition.
Music bursting with "ad libitum" is music that constantly
challenges body and mind. Music with this charge is like life
during peak moments of joy and illumination.
The Grateful Dead and their Boise audience brought such qualities
here in spades. Maybe they should change their name to the
"Grateful Living." They make this reviewer glad to be alive.
(Norman Weinstein is a Boise free-lance writer who writes for
several national music publications.)
__
"We used to play for silver, now we play for life..."
Seth Jackson
dec-curium!jackson