These Listening Notes May Be A Touch Unreliable: JGB at Orpheum, December 2, 1988

LN jg1988-12-02.jgb.all.aud-webber-small.xxxxxx.flac1644

In my neck of the scientific woods, reliability refers to the reproducibility of empirical measurement. My  measurement is reliable to the extent that another scholar can follow my procedure (which must be made transparent, of course) and arrive at the same value. For measurement that involves subjective judgment (how prevalent is corruption in country X, or whatever), we have multiple people make independent valuations and correlate their judgments. This, we call intercoder reliability.

Why do I mention this here? Well, I hate to break it to you, reader, but the quality judgments I offer in my listening notes maaaayyyy not satisfy conventional reliability standards. Heck, intercoder reliability between myself at two different points in time would probably fail to satisfy reviewer #2 at any given journal. I have mentioned this many times before - my own subjective feeling surely colors my evaluation of what I am listening to. And it just came up again. I recently posted how disappointed I was with JGB 12/3/88 at the SF Orpheum, wondering whether it was the weakest show of that year in which not many were played but many, such as 2/5, 7/10 and 10/31 were very good. I then decided to check out 12/2, and in listening notes completed 12/1/2020 I was thinking it might be just as bad. But now, two weeks later, I picked up where I left off, and I found it to be better. In particular, I have some stuff going on in life that makes "Like A Road Leading Home" feel really helpful, even essential, and sure enough I dug it. I liked the rest of set II, too. Nothing tremendous, but solid. So now I just can't tell if Garcia finished the show relatively well, or if it's just my head space. I dunno.

"The Way You Do The Things You Do" comes back after almost three years away (2/21/86), Jerrybase tells me, which is one of the little reasons I love Jerrybase so much.

Jerry sounds very fatigued throughout most of the show, and just about every song flubs some lyrics. Nothing stretches out. I remember not being blown away by the Caesar's Palace shows last time I listened to them (maybe 11/4?), I used to love the Wilterns but now am wondering how they hold up, and 12/2 and 12/3 find Jerry sounding worn out and sluggish. I don't quite know what to make of all of that, because, as noted, I have always loved the first half (or so) of the year. Maybe it really is a tale of two semesters. Or maybe I listened to the early part of the year in a mood to find good stuff, and here am checking out the last shows of the year a bit grumpier. Dunno.

Sean Webber-Small was a legendary relatively early digital taper, and I believe this pull is his. Crowd around him was rather chatty. There's some taper talk at notes 1 and 2, the second of which has someone near or even with the taper talking about how Stewart charged him 50 bucks for the tickets. When I hear "Stewart", I now think of the SNL skit "The Californians", and want to ask "w-w-what are you d-doing here, Stew-wart?" Face was $18.50, so maybe he was counting his ill-gotten lucre.

The Orpheum was Wolfgang's (and thus Jerry's) base of operations while the Warfield was being renovated, I believe. Ol Jer (outside the GD) played it once in '76, three times here in '88, and four times in '89.

Listening notes below the fold.

Jerry Garcia Band
Orpheum Theatre
1192 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
December 2, 1988 (Friday)
Webber-Small MAP noshnid

--set I (6 tracks, 50:11)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#3:49] [0:54]
s1t02. Waiting For A Miracle [6:44] [2:24]
s1t03. I Shall Be Released [8:48] [0:31]
s1t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [7:45] (2) [1:02]
s1t05. Stop That Train [7:30] [1:52]
s1t06. Tangled Up in Blue [8:38] (3) [0:12]

--set II (7 tracks, 52:47)--
s2t01. ambience [0:17]
s2t02. Harder They Come [10:16] [0:39]
s2t03. Mission In The Rain [9:08] [0:21]
s2t04. Like A Road Leading Home [8:30] [0:27]
s2t05. Think [6:07] [0:21]
s2t06. Evangeline [3:35] [0:08]
s2t07. Don't Let Go [12:06] (4) [0:49]

! 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; [x:xx] = 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/19881202-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/19969 (this source tape, shnf);  https://etreedb.org/shn/20833 (Reutelhuber MAC).

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

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/mr3oJuLND6u

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/orpheum-theatre-1192-market-street.html

! historical: Bob Weir opened.

! seealso: "Weakest Show of '88? JGB, December 3, 1988, Orpheum SF," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2020/11/weakest-show-of-88-jgb-december-3-1988.html

! R: field recordist: Sean Webber-Small

! R: field recording gear: 2x Schoeps CMC44 > Sony PCM F1 > Sony SL2500

! R: lineage: Sony SL2500 playback > Sony SL360 Beta/1 > Sony SL-HF450 playback > Sony PCM-601 > Digital Domain VSP-P > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > Cool Edit 2000 > Shntool > FLAC. Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches.

! R: Relatively low levels, but quite a nice tape. Some up-close clapping at start. May have been taped "under the overhang"

! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in, muffled to start. There is up-close clapping. It would seem that someone asks the lady to stop clapping around 2:30, but she declines the request. She does seem to stop after this tune, mostly.

! P: s1t02 WFAM JG sounds tired. Lots of lyrical misses. JG guitar run 3:30ff totally flaccid. No bite at all.

! song: That's What Love Will Make You Do (s1t04): returning from almost three years away (2/21/86).

! P: s1t04 TWLWMYD languidly paced.

! s1t04 (1) Taper talk: "If you could, just make sure my jacket's underneath the seat."

! s1t05 (2) Taper talk: "People are really fucking noisy." Stewart charged someone nearby $50 for the seats.

! s1t06 (3) JG: "We'll be back in a little while."

! P: s2t02 HTC lyrical flubs all over the first verse. Rough voice - he sounds exhausted this night.

! P: s2t03 MITR pretty up tempo, though we get a first mumblyverse right out of the date. Garcia sounds absolutely exhausted. His voice is quite rough.

! R: s2t03 MITR muffled for about 10-15 seconds near end.

! P: s2t04 LARLH note that I am coming back on 12/15 after leaving off here on 12/1. And in the meantime, I have had some life stuff that makes me particularly open to being soothed by LARLH. And, soothed I am. It ain't perfect, but it works for me right now.

! P: s2t05 Think this song killed in 1988, so I have high hopes. Still sounds just a little sluggish, and he trips over a few words. Nice raunchy tone 1:20ff, but not super loud. After Melvin's turn, Jerry decides to play loud 4:20ff, and he does so. Very good grunge for a short turn, and that inspires him to put some oomph into "give up my woman".

! P: s2t06 DLG pretty straightforward start, goes into the jam part 4:22, 4:57 interesting pull, more over 5, sustain. A nice little jump up at 7:59. After a decent little exploration, Jerry signals the return around 10:15, jumps right into the last verse 10:35 or so. Hits a cool low singing note late 11.

! s2t07 (4) JG: [inaudible?] "See y'all later."

Taper Extraordinaire Sean Webber-Small

Spinning Sean Webber-Small's spaced omni recordings of the GD at Cal Expo on this date in 1990. I am not sure if I was there - I don't think so, but I can't really remember and I can't find my stubs to verify one way or the other.

But SWS generously shares some insights into what went into this pull, via a comment at the Archive fileset, and they are so valuable for the historical record that I wanted to reproduce them here. Thank you, Sean Webber-Small and all the tapers, including Marcus Buick and Tom Hughes, good ol' Campolindo buddies and members in good standing of the elite Bay Area taper community of the day, who are namechecked here.

This was the first year since the 1980's that there was no Greek and Frost shows, which was a bummer. Fortunately Uncle Bill booked the band into Cal Expo. It was not the Greek, but it was good. 

For me, these shows were stressful, but that was somewhat normal. I always felt the pressure of making the best recording at the show. It was not as much of an ego thing as much as it was that I believed I was capturing "the record" for the show. This was especially true when I knew that none of my Schoeps / Digital posse was going to be there. And that was the case for Cal Expo in 1990. 

The stress and planning for these shows started the day mail order was announced. I had just had knee surgery and knew I was going to be on crutches in June. Worse, I needed to plan for who was going to help as the show was general admission and I wanted to run spaced omi-directional capsules which would require managing a large territory. I would need a plan and of course help. While I might have owned the gear, positioned the mics and hit play/record, good recordings were a 100% team effort. And I needed a team!

For me, the key to making a good recording always seems to come down down to a few key things:

1. Having the right gear for the application. 
2. Placing the microphones in the right spot to get the best balanced sound in the venue. 
3. Controlling the people around the microphones so that talking and extraneous noise is not heard or only minimally heard on the recording. 

From my knowledge of the venue, basically an open field, Schoeps MK2s spaced omni-directional capsules were my first choice. I would be using them with my Doug Oade built microphone power supply and a relatively new recording device: a DAT. Sometime in 1989 the PCM crew made the jump to using DATs. At these gig's I was using the Panasonic SV250. 

Location, location, location.... From my show experience and listening pleasure, I always wanted to be as close to the Front of House console as possible. If you think about it, the band's audio engineer, Dan Healy, is mixing first and foremost for himself. Is he making it sound good in the entire venue, sure. But the nature of mixing a room has it that the sound is naturally best where the engineer is standing. My goal: get in front of, but as close to Dan as possible without making it too easy for security to come in and get us. As a reminder, although taping in 1990 was allowed, it was only allowed BEHIND the front of house console. Recording in front of the console was a big No No and as such, put us at risk of being thrown out every time we recorded there. Risky business every show for me.

For spaced omni's I would need two areas (blankets), one for each mic between 8' and 12 ' apart - with each mic being equidistant from the stage. Today I would do this with a laser measure, but in 1990, not an option. So I had to triangulate using the front of house console and the side grandstands. More "feel" than exact science. 

To pull this off I would need 4 to 6 people around each microphone and stand and two to three blankets. That's roughly ten people and two mic stands to coordinate and manage.

The bad news was that I was on crutches - which, was also the good news as I was able to enter the venue early with the blankets, the gear and a helper. We laid out our spot and waited untill friends and people sympathetic to our recording arrived. 

As I was always trying to figure out how to make a better recording, I decided to try and move the microphones from closer to 8' on the 8th, 10' on the 9th and 12' on the 10th. I know the notes on this say the mics were spread at 8', but I just checked my notes and this night we were closer to 9.5'. 

While I hate to leave people out that helped at the show, and there were many - I need to special thanks a couple of peeps. First and foremost, my helper extraordinaire Cindy R. Calling her a helper is not quite right. These days I would call her a co-producer or associate producer. She helped in the planning, standing in line, getting friends over to help stand near the mics and telling them all to be quiet. I should probably mentioned she also put up with my crazy "taper" idiosyncrasies - and I had many. Thanks Cindy R! I also remember our friend Marc T. was also there. He was there with B&K 4011's in the middle of our spaced omni's. Also there an of huge help was Marcus B. and Tom - my old roomies! Thanks Dudes.

The recordings for all three nights turned out pretty fine. I would say some of our finest. So fine in fact, a friend of shared them with his pal who was tight with Dan Healy. The next thing I know he had digital soundboards of all three nights! Of course the SB's became the "goto" recordings for the shows for a while. But upon further review from the officials in the booth, these recordings get me closer to what it was like being there on those warm summer nights in 1990.

On the 9th, I can still remember Garcia rocking back and forth during lovelight looking offstage at someone, playing his heart out with an energy that filled us all up.

It was good.