To call the period between August 1 and August 9 “The Days Between” seems a more than a little depressing. “Jerry Week” sounds like the celebration it truly is. With Dead and Company’s triumphant summer tour ending on Saturday, Warren Haynes’ orchestral Garcia tribute tour starting up, and a glut of official archival releases, it’s a pretty good time to be a Deadhead. Of course, Monday would have been Jerry’s 74th birthday, if he hadn’t passed in 1995. But the shocking arrival of unreleased Dead and Garcia solo shows on Monday, however, should just serve as a reminder that the music itself still lives on.
Dark Star Orchestra has been doing more than its part to prove that point for a long time now. Sunday night they kicked off Jerry Week by playing the brand new Ford Amphitheater on the Coney Island boardwalk. There were heavy rains forecasted all week, but the prognosticators kept pushing the predicted storm farther and farther back. Things were all falling into place for this to be a special show and it sure as hell was.
With drummer Rob Koritz at home with a newborn, Dark Star has been playing with only Dino English behind the kit. Subsequently, every Dead show they have been covering of late has been from the ’71-’74 period where Mickey was absent. On this tour alone, Dark Star has played two of the Lyceum shows that ended the famed Europe ’72 tour. While this reviewer slightly prefers the ’73-hiatus shows, there is no question that May 1972 is one of the Golden Ages of the Grateful Dead. To play these shows and still make it sound spontaneous is no small feat and the band did it to perfection on Sunday night when they revisited 5/26/72 at London’s Strand Lyceum.
The biggest indicator that they would be playing this marathon of a show was that there was that there was almost no time between songs. Even though these segues weren’t historically accurate, they were opening with a 19-song set! The recent practice of covering this period really paid off as Jeff Mattson and Rob Eaton were fantastic. It’s not easy to know when to moan and when to wail with the guitars on this era, but you would never have known it Sunday night. “Black Throated Wind,” “Playin’ In The Band,” “Cumberland Blues,” and “China Cat Sunflower->I Know You Rider” were all particularly strong. Rob Barraco handled Pigpen’s vocals on the four songs he sang (the final time he would do so onstage) that night. For the set-ending “Not Fade Away,” he threw in letter perfect “never gonna fade aways” as well.
The band gave us a full set break, even with all the music left to play. Before “Truckin’,” Jeff dedicated the second set to Jerry and away they went. Dino kept everything moving with the swing style playing that caused Phil Lesh to suggest years later that Bill Kreutzmann played at the time like a “young god.” Even though everyone knew “The Other One” was next, Dino built it up perfectly as Rob Eaton sat as the bass rumble that opens the song approached. Jeff Mattson wove into some nice spaces before “Morning Dew” and thankfully, the band didn’t reprise Jerry’s vocal crack on the non-overdubbed version of the song. The second “Other One” dropped beautifully in the late-Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home.”
They got it all in before 11PM and finished what very well might be the best Dark Star show I’ve ever seen. By the time rain did come, we were all safely off the boardwalk and en route to our respective Jerry Weeks. After a day of roller coasters, hot dogs and even a cameo from Sam Cutler (who was actually at the Lyceum in ’72), it was a perfect way to kick off the celebration.
Setlist -5/26/72 Strand Lyceum, London, England
Set One: The Promised Land ; Sugaree ; Mr. Charlie ; Black Throated Wind ; Loser ; Next Time You See Me ; El Paso ; Dire Wolf ; The Stranger (Two Souls In Communion) ; Playing In The Band ; He’s Gone ; Cumberland Blues ; Jack Straw ; Chinatown Shuffle ; China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider ; Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away
Set Two: Truckin’ > jam > drums> The Other One > Morning Dew > The Other One > Sing Me Back Home ; Me And My Uncle ; Ramble On Rose ; Sugar Magnolia ; Casey Jones
Encore: One More Saturday Night
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