rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (01/04/85)
Bill Graham sure knows how to throw a hell of a party!
Some miscellaneous comments from the concerts at the San Francisco Civic
Auditorium, 28/29/31 December 1984 - I'll leave it to someone else to post
the complete songlists to net.music:
28 December--------------------------------------------------------
The New Year's shows opened with "A Touch of Gray", appropriately enough.
The band is doing a lot more than surviving, though; they looked good and
the show was a tight one. An "Ain't Superstitious" (I think that's the
name--the old tune from Jeff Beck) was an interesting novelty, though it
felt like it kept trying to turn into Minglewood.
A couple of new songs showed up at this show in the first set, notably
with Brent and Phil singing together. (Sorry, they're new to me so I don't
have the names.) Phil actually had a mike of his own; maybe this is a
sign that Phil will be singing more. (See also notes on 31st.)
Second set opened with an incredibly energetic "China Cat / Rider". Get
tapes of this one; it's well worth it. After cooling out a bit with "Looks
Like Rain" they cranked it up again with "Spoonful".
The biggest treat in this very upbeat show was the encore "Day Tripper",
done true to style and very powerful.
29 December--------------------------------------------------------
This was a spacier, quieter, trippier show. Garcia was very much into
longer, intricate guitar work.
"My Brother Esau" in the first set seems to indicate that this song still
hasn't settled down. It's good, but the band just doesn't quite seem to
know how to present it.
"Cassidy" and "Let it Grow" were in the spirit of the guitars for the
evening. Appropriately, the second set featured "Terrapin Station" done
completely, carefully, and without rushing.
Of course, not everything was quiet and tra-la-la; Mickey managed to find
more than a couple of interesting resonances in the building and
particularly in the sound baffling suspended from the ceiling of the
auditorium. A fellow sitting down three rows from us was going weird and
freaking out on the noises the ceiling was making--either he was having a
bad trip or he's a civil engineer.
No singing from Phil this show.
The second set guitar work featured a lot of Garcia/Weir interplay. It
moved from interaction to discussion and what seemed almost an argument on
where to lead out of Space. It turned out to be "Truckin'", which was
apparently where Garcia was headed but Weir didn't seem to want it to go
that way; he was pretty stiff. Still, whatever dispute was going on wasn't
enough to spoil a long and beautiful second set.
Bobby got to try his sing-along routine with "Not Fade Away" ending the
second set. The audience didn't drop the beat for the short period that
the band left, caught their breath, and came back to finish with "Brokedown
Palace". Personally, I could do without the fade-fade-fade-away ending to
"Not Fade Away", though at least this one didn't drag out as much as some
have (and moreover, it didn't start from the now-trite ending of "Throwing
Stones").
31 December--------------------------------------------------------
New Year's Eve being a long concert, there are opening acts. Consensus
seemed to be that last year was a better setup, with the Band. This year
started with a local (Berzerkeley) group called the Bobs--I'll have to call
it a capella New Wave, say that it's a very strange thing to do to 1e4
freaks (comic relief and all) and leave it at that. Don't miss them if you
can. As a friend said, it gave new meaning to the phrase "Let Phil Sing!"
Following that was a slapstick humor/musical group called the Brass
Band--if you can imagine Teddy Bear's Picnic, Ravel's Bolero (drums from a
tape but otherwise all brass), and Malaguen~a au slapstick back to back,
you've got the idea. (You've also got a strange imagination.) Their music
was quite good (albeit strange), but the humor was the key and everyone was
laughing it up by the end.
The Dead started the first set around 22:15 and played until a little after
23:30, then broke to get ready for Pumpkin hour. The New Year came in with
Bill Graham doing his thing, dressed as Father Time (I guess), riding in
from above on a lightning bolt chariot amid fireworks and black smoke,
strewing tons of flowers into the crowd below. Times Square got nothing on
this dude (well, maybe in scale, but surely not in strangeness). As the
chariot moved to the stage, we got the traditional "Sugar Magnolia" along
with more balloons than you can possibly imagine (unless you've seen this
show in years past). The second set ran until well after 1:30; they took a
modest break and came back for a short third set to round off the evening.
After this the 10,000 freaks with party noisemakers were unleashed on San
Francisco.
Notably, the Dead were in peak form this year. If you heard last year's
show, you'll recall the band sounding somewhat drunk or strung out or
whatever, but not this year. The opening was a nice long (15 minute or
so?) Shakedown and things just rolled along from there right to the end,
in a third set at close to 2:30. There were a couple of interesting pieces
of note to DeadHeads...
Phil and Brent were singing again for "Gimme Some Lovin'" (as in the old
Spencer Davis Group--and others--rocker). This was tight and powerful; I'd
expect/hope that we'll hear it again.
"Throwing Stones" came out with all the anger appropriate to a protest song
looking at a new year. Instead of the dreaded segue into "Not Fade Away"
(see above), Jerry paused for one short beat and charged into "Lovelight".
Yes, they DO play that any more, and the audience greatly appreciated it.
The Dead seem to be moving forward by drawing on the past--not only their
own long past (with Lovelight and, from other recent concerts, Smokestack
Lightnin', St. Stephen, Dark Star, and such)--but a selection of the music
from mainstream rock of the last twenty years (Spoonful, Day Tripper, Ain't
Superstitious, Gimme Some Login', Dancin' in the Streets, Why Don't We Do
It In the Road?, Midnight Hour, I Just Wanna Make Love to You, and on and
on...) Garcia seems to be taking more time to do the spacy jams that are
one of their trademarks. It's an appropriate trend for the band as they
come up on their 20th anniversary. (Yes, they've been together for longer
than that, but it's just about 20 now for the real band, the enigmatic
name, and the legend.)
As much now as ever before, Bill Graham is right:
They're not the best at what they do. They're the only ones
that do what they do.
--
Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086
...Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.