Blissfully Clarenceless on Market Street: JGB at the Warfield, December 1, 1989

LN jg1989-12-01.jgb.all.aud-bk4011.141459.flac1648

God, '89 was such a great year for the Jerry Band. I really need to find some more of the out-of-town shows to spin, though everytime I do I tend not to note much, because it's all just really consistently good.

This show, 12/1/89, is absolutely outstanding. I am glad that, contrary to what I thought I had seen, Clarence Clemons is not present. I am not a big fan of the Big Man. 

Instead, it's "just" JGB #21b, in the zone. So many tunes give rise to nuance, complex, creative, interesting variations on the usual, this really is worth your ear time. "Cats Under The Stars" offers varied tones, progressions and attacks out of the chute. It also doesn't go round and round too much at the end. Ol' Jer bends some pitch in "Stop That Train", which I don't recall really hearing (or at least noting) before. "That's What Love Will Make You Do" combines notes and sustains in uncommon ways. One of my all-time faves, "Reuben And Cherise", appears for the first time in two and a half years (5/30/87), and I am happy to hear it even if Jerry does lose track of who's who and what's what a little bit. Look, even Reuben gets a little twisted up here - Pirouette in white, Pirouette in red, what's the difference? Layering and stacking in "Forever Young". And "Let's Spend The Night Together" busts some hard core grunge, before most of us had heard of Nirvana, to announce the first big guitar turn, and then ol' Jer mixes up the timing of let's and spend later on to just bring some originality to the proceedings. He sounds clear and focused and into it.

All of that was just set I. Every tune expect RAC is a great version, and RAC was fresh off a three year hiatus, so it can be forgiven.

Set II, I will just say that "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" may be the quintessential Melvin-era Jerry Band tune. It's Dylan, it's churchy, the organ works perfectly, it has a reggae bounce and it lilts along lighter than air between heavy lyrics. The Grateful Dead's versions never held a candle to it, not one time, and don't @ me, bro.

The tape embodies what was happening at the Warfield in this period. According to my info, Tom Hughes held the mics (Brüel & Kjær [B&K] 4011s @ 110°), while Rick Katzeff and Marcus Buick worked the deck and ran interference around The Spot, a.k.a. the drink rail (2nd tier, 2nd row). Bu's taping journal has him on the mics and supplies classic color:

Deck's on, I'm bracing the mics under my nose. I scrupulously monitor my entire peripheral vision. All of a sudden, a bust is going down behind us, Tom is tapping me furiously, and Rick blocks himself on my right shoulder. Five minutes later Bill Graham brushed against our mic veil. The show continues. We met Oren [Oren David Green, Warfield security, nemesis to tapers] at the end of the night. I hope he had fun listening to the dummy blank! Score: us=2, O=2.

Indeed, we can hear a little encounter near the start of set II, someone asking "Hey, what you doin' there?" Glad this tape made it out into the San Francisco night!

Anyway, highly highly highly recommend this show, this tape.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
December 1, 1989 (Friday)
Hughes-Buick-Katzeff B&K4011 flac1648 shnid-141459

--set I (7 tracks, 66:50)--
s1t01. [0:05] Cats Under The Stars [9:21] [1:27]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:52] [1:41]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:34] [2:05]
s1t04. Reuben And Cérise [6:54] [0:34]
s1t05. Forever Young [10:41] [0:33]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:39] ->
s1t07. Let's Spend The Night Together [11:18] (2) [0:08]

--set II (7 tracks, 67:59)--
s2t01. ... Harder They Come [#8:59] [1:20]
s2t02. Mission In The Rain [9:44] [0:45]
s2t03. Waiting For A Miracle [5:58] [0:29]
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [9:23] [1:33]
s2t05. Think [7:43] [1:12]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun [10:07] [0:04]
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [10:42] (3) [0:02]

! ACT1: JGB #21b
! 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; [mm:ss] = 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/19891201-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6348 (I believe the same master, but have not verified, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/94353 (Miller AKG C1000 MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/141459 (this fileset).

! 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

! personnel: JGC and old info files put Clarence Clemons on sax for this show, but I did not hear him. I do have a very active lame-sax-canceling filter, so have never actually heard a note CC played. That might explain things.

! R: field recordists: Tom Hughes (mics), Marcus Buick and Rick Katzeff (deck and protection)

! R: field recording gear: 2x Brüel & Kjær (B&K) 4011 @ 110° > Aerco > Panasonic SV-250

! R: field recording location: The Spot (2nd tier, 2nd row)

! R: lineage: master DAT > DAT clone > PC > WAV > FLAC (16/48).

! R: seeder notes: "Thanks to Bill Shaw for the DAT"

! P: s1t01 CUTS I love the tones and varied attacks Garcia offers late 4 over 5, nice progression to peak 5:35ff. And he ends it without going on too long, too many times, generally a good indicator for his level of focus.

! P: s1t02 STT pitch-bending, interesting. Great expression in the east/west verse. Right on, Jer.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD I am just loving the combinations he puts together this night. @5:35 Garcia gives the frets a good scrubbing.

! setlist: This represents the first Reuben and Cérise since 11/10/86.

! P: s1t04 RAC love this song so much, but he lost the thread of the narrative somewhere in there. Not my favorite version.

! P: s1t05 FY some nice layering and stacking in the 7-min range.

! P: s1t07 LSTNT I love how he announces the first big guitar turn at 2:20 or so by working up a little grunge. On an earlier listen I had written "There is some very grungy tone working here, but the execution feels a little loose in the cage to me as of 4. Overall, not bad." On this listen (4/4/2020), I didn't notice any problematic looseness. Late 5, interesting vocal syncopation, pausing a beat after "let's", putting some more emphasis on "spend". Nice action all through 7-min range, creative, expressive, engaged. On this listen, a very strong LSTNT.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "See y'all in a little while [inaudible]."

! R: s2t01 HTC enters in progress. Then, levels go down at 4, and one can hear someone asking "Hey, what you doin' there?"  Sounds like Warfield security has arrived at the drink rail.

! P: s2t03 KOHD if you don't love this, you need to re-assess your priorities. GLORIOUS. So much better than the GD versions.

! R: there is some wonkiness in the tagging and/or the order of the tunes in set II. It really goes HTC, MITR, WFAM, KOHD, Think, TLOS, TUIB.

! P: s2t07 TUIB don't love the sluggish tempo out of the gate.

! s2t07 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."