Published on Sep 13, 2004
There’s a fundamental truth to Grateful Dead live concerts. When
the band was on, they were unstoppable. When they had an off-night,
they were terrible.
I kind of thought about this as I listened to
Nightfall Of Diamonds, a two-disc set taken from a 1989
concert in New Jersey. (Turns out this was recorded on Bob Weir’s
42nd birthday, and is a set revered by Deadheads. I didn’t know
this until after the bulk of this review was written.) This is a
set which has been kicking around in the Pierce Memorial Archives
for a few years now – and after listening to it, I think it’ll go
back on the shelves for a long while. Jerry Garcia and crew put out
some great CDs in their time. Pity this isn’t one of them.
The band just never sounds like they get things out of first
gear from the outset, kicking things off with a lackluster “Picasso
Moon” – admittedly not one of my favorite songs in the Dead’s
discography. In fact, “lackluster” is the key word for the entire
first disc, one which absolutely drags, even through more
established songs like “Feel Like A Stranger,” “Let It Grow” and
“Deal”. Brent Mydland again is featured on “Never Trust A Woman” –
a track included not terribly long ago on
Dozin’ At The Knick – but this version is much weaker in
comparison.
The band continues to snooze their way through the second set,
even managing to turn “Dark Star” into something not really
noteworthy. (I can hear the Deadheads now – “Blasphemy!”) Only when
they hit the opening notes of “Playing In The Band” do the boys
wake up and realize they need to exert some energy in order to get
it back from the crowd – and from then on, it’s fairly decent.
I do admit being disappointed in this version of “I Will Take
You Home,” a song which, when played right and catches me in the
right mood, can reduce me to tears. Undoubtedly Mydland’s best song
he wrote with the band, this version has almost all the emotion
sucked out of it. (For an absolutely killer version, check out the
one Mydland sang in Atlanta, Georgia a few months later. The show
is out there in the tape trader network, or on Furthur.)
So what happened this time around? Truth is, I dunno. Maybe it
was related to the Built To Last album, one which I remember as a
disappointment. Maybe the band just had an off night. Whatever the
case, this snapshot of the Dead at work illustrates that even after
over two decades slugging it out on the road, the most established
band can phone in their performance and create a show which is
nothing short of mediocre. The memories of both Garcia and Mydland
deserve better than this.