June 1990 at the Warfield

The post-coma Garcia Band was getting hotter and hotter from 1987-1989, in my view, and somewhere along the line two kinds of business/money decisions were made. First, it'd start regularly playing the Warfield, which I think had been recently renovated, for Wolfgang.  JGB played fifteen gigs at 982 Market in 1990 --February 2-4, March 1-2, April 13-15, June 12-13, August 7-9, and November 20-21. Second, for the first time since Old And In The Way, Garcia On The Side would tape itself and release a live record.

These came together, of course: all of the material from the 2 LP Jerry Garcia Band Arista release (hitting shelves on 8/25/91) and the posthumous (1997) How Sweet It Is came from 1990 Warfield shows. If you look closely, you'll notice that only the April and August shows supplied released material, something I have wondered about over the years.

As I listed to some newly-circulating transfers of June 1990 DAT audience masters --as far as I can tell on a cursory glance, other transcriptions of these same masters have been in lossless circulation for a long time-- I was guessing that the reason no material from this Tuesday-Wednesday tandem had been released is that these shows just aren't very good. I stand by the quality assessment. Garcia sounds exhausted, coming right off three nights with the Dead at Cal Expo and heading into another weekend --not very good either, by my recollection-- at Shoreline. The first night is especially ragged, but the 13th isn't great either (IMO, YMMV).

Whatever your view, or mine, or Jerry's/Kahn's/Cutler's on that question, not releasing these shows seems to have been overdetermined. Why? Because, as it happens, only the April and August shows were recorded for release. I had never realized that until prompted to dig through my massive stash of squirreled-away, generally forgotten and largely useless GOTS trivia. But, while the February, March, June and November shows were recorded to two-track DAT, only the A's got the full treatment, with 5000 feet of 2 inch Ampex 456 Grand Master spinning at 15 ips and magnetizing 24 tracks of Jerry, John, David, Melvin, Jacklyn and Gloria for posterity. I don't know why, but it seems to be a fact.

Anyway, with respect to these June shows, they didn't miss much, so it's fine. There are a few good moments, but not that much to show the band at its best to the record-buying public. Clarence Clemons comes in the second night, and contributes nothing of note, to my ears, though I am sure he was fun to party with.

Some listening notes follow, for what they're worth.

~~6/12/90 set II "Rick" MAD shnid-141471--

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
June 12, 1990 (Tuesday)
s2 Rick MAD flac1648 shnid-141471

-- set II (7 tracks, 73:25)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do [12:38] [0:26]
s2t02. [0:12] Mission In The Rain [9:06] [0:26]
s2t03. Dear Prudence [12:52] [1:21]
s2t04. [0:11] Russian Lullaby [11:09] [0:15]
s2t05. Think [8:04] [0:58]
s2t06. Gomorrah [6:32] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [8:03] (1) [0:12]

! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19900612-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1990-06-12

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/11365 (shnf); http://db.etree.org/shn/108908 (Reutelhuber s2 flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141471 (this fileset). I haven't compared to see if the Bill R. and the Rick tapes are the same, which one might suspect since both are only set II.

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! R: source: DAT Audience Recording attributed to "Rick"

! R: lineage: DAT Archived and Transferred By Stuccoholmes 2018; Edited and Mastered by Jamie Waddell in Wavelab 7.2, 16bit 48kHz FLAC Level8 in TLH

! R: seeder comment: "clear, balanced sound, minimal crowd intrusion, gets an A from me"

! P: s2t01 TWYDTTYD sounds low energy to me.

! P: s2t02 MITR JG sounds a little unsure of himself.

! P: s2t03 DP very good, excellent guitar work throughout. 8 min exemplary playing. At the end, Melvin holds onto it too long, and JG needs to walk it down for an emergency landing.

! P: s2t04 RL JG sounds tired. JK's feature get completely off any known beat at some point. Again, Garcia sounds exhausted.

! s2t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

~~6/13/90 "Rick" shnid-141472--

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
June 13, 1990 (Wednesday)
Rick MAD flac1648 shnid-141472

--set I (7 tracks, 65:02)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars [8:34] [0:07] % [0:29]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:55] [0:39] %
s1t03. [0:13] Knockin' On Heaven's Door [11:08] [0:03] % [0:53]
s1t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:39] [0:58]
s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [8:55] [0:14]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:24] [0:17]
s1t07. Let's Spend The Night Together [11:31] (1) [0:02]

--set II (10 tracks, 8 tunes, 77:07)--
s2t08. Second That Emotion
s2t09. [0:30] And It Stoned Me :31-7:36 - 7:54
s2t10. Tears Of Rage [10:10] [0:07]
s2t11. crowd and tuning [1:28]
s2t12. Reuben And Cérise [7:56] [0:10]
s2t13. crowd and tuning [1:05]
s2t14. Waiting For A Miracle
s2t15. Tore Up Over You [7:24] [0:12]
s2t16. That Lucky Old Sun [11:17] ->
s2t17. Tangled Up In Blue [12:10] (3) [0:17]

! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals;
! guest: Clarence Clemons - saxophone.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19900612-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1990-06-12

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/11366 (unknown MAD, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/85819 (mixed sources [Bu & Rick set I, Schoeps CMC 521s set II] flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141472 (this fileset). I am pretty sure we will find that 85819 and this tape match, but I haven't verified.

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! P: Overall, this is stronger than the prior night (IMO), when Jer sounded really fatigued, but he still sounds a little down and it doesn't knock me out.

! R: DAT Audience attributed to "Rick". DAT Archived and Transferred By Stuccoholmes 2018
Edited and Mastered by Jamie Waddell in Wavelab 7.2, 16bit 48kHz FLAC Level8 in TLH.

! R: seeder notes: clear, balanced sound, minimal crowd intrusion, gets an A from me"

! personnel: Clarence enters about 2 minutes into TLEO.

! historical: Per seeder, "John Kahn's Birthday, crowd sings to him set2". A group wishes him HBD again at the very start of Luck Ol' Sun.

! s1t01 @ about 27 seconds in, someone close to mic says "OK if you move it".

! P: s1t01 CUTS Garcia sounds tired.

! P: s1t03 KOHD was very sweet.

! P: s1t04 TWLWMYD gets nice and  grungy late 6 into 7.

! s1t07 (1) JG: "We'll be back in a little while. Thanks a lot."

! song: R&C (s2t12): this was last played 12/1/89. Not forever, but it just wasn't always played in this period.

! s2t13 (2) female taper's friend: "This is a test of the emergency Jerry system. This is only a test."

! P: s2t17 TUIB JG sounds vocally tired. The playing is fine, but it never really achieves escape velocity.

! s2t17 (3) JG: "See y'all later. Thanks a lot."