One of the most widely bootlegged Garcia performances, alongside the '82 Oregon State Penitentiary gig, is another Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet performance from the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on October 16, 1985. As with other beautiful recordings from this venue, an enterprising insider made a 4-channel tape combining stereo sbd feed and stereo ambient mics hung over the stage, and partly insofar as sound quality colors our perceptions of performance quality --and it does to a considerable extent, by what I think of as the Cornell Effect-- lots of people think highly of the performance, too.
The performance feels pretty standard to me, which is to say, since it's Garcia-Kahn in the Rock Bottom era, it's mostly OK, sometimes good, sometimes not so good.
I am more interested in drawing your attention to a review in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Spotlight by Dave Gingold. In this telling, the "fat man" made his fawning followers, who had been sprawling around town all day long keeping the bugs down with their characteristic homebrew of smoke and patchouli, waiting for more than two hours to start the early show. Opener Paul Mehling claimed car problems, but "some cynics attributed the delay to nostril, rather than engine, trouble." Gingold liked the music, but then,
Poof! It was over. The audience was stunned at the barely 40-minute set, and took to 20 minutes of irate shouting and stomping to bring their deity back ... 'A dollar a song!', some muttered ...Then, adding insult to injury, the operators turned the house, which Gingold calls nothing less than a "betrayal".
Maybe ol Jer just didn't want our intrepid recorder to have to flip his tape? Sheesh, take it easy on the guy.
Regular readers will, of course, recognize this dynamic from a Beverly Hills gig four and a half months earlier., when Jerry and John mailed in a sub-40 minute first show, eliciting angry chants of "Bullshit! Bullshit!" from the SoCal Deadheads, savvy enough about the biz to understand they'd been ripped off. Short sets were a key feature of Jerry's Rock Bottom period, of course. Hometown fans might raise legitimate questions --"awww, no last song?"-- or offer some heady wisdom --"Jerry's gotta clean up his act, man"-- , but often they'd just dance their asses off and sing along, knowing Jerry'd be back at the Stone soon enough, likely as not. Even as far away as Santa Cruz, though, visits were rare enough that even dready gon' raise a ruckus when things aren't right. When even the Santa Cruzers are irate and stomping, you know you've crossed the Minelli Line.
Sadly, Jer and John either didn't get the message, didn't care, or were too far gone to care, and the late show attendees got a mere 38 minutes. Deadheads are a very understanding and compassionate lot, but I conjecture that at least a few left shaking their manes, glad for the music but maybe worried about ol' Jer. He may even have lost a few fans this night, despite getting a "Ripple".
A few other random bits.
- I wonder if the idea for "The Fat Man Is Back" poster from Jerry's next Santa Cruz stop (2/24/87) was a "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" reply to Mr. Gingold's earlier characterization? I know the phrase, which became a t-shirt and parking lot meme for the time, also appeared on posters for the Reno gig, but I do have to wonder of the Santa Cruz review didn't provide some inspiration.
- John Kahn picks a little bit of Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" at the start of the late show, which almost redeems his otherwise-forgettable night for me.
