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."