COUNTRY JOE AND FISH SINK IN SHRINE HALL SHOW
Country Joe and the Fish's set at the Shrine Auditorium Friday night was less fish than flotsam, and the resulting taste of ennui was nearly sour enough to sink the Berkeley group there on the spot.
In fact, the most remarkable thing about the highly-touted evening were the uninspired, dull performances of the Fish and their Bay Area comrades, the Grateful Dead.
Only Spirit came up with a completely satisfying effort.
That was sad, as the Fish have shown greatness before - on their first LP and in other live performances, especially at dances in San Francisco's Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms.
Last weekend, however, they seemed bored and either unwilling or unable to turn the audience on to their highly original brand of psychedelia, politics, and paranoia.
Leader Country Joe McDonald was a poor voice, yet kept the large crowd spellbound with his rendition of "Crystal Blues." The tune featured a shattering, ferocious guitar interlude with a stand-off between Barry Melton and David Cohen.
Both instrumentally and vocally, the Fish can - when they're right - stand in the front rank of pop music, with the piercing, staccato guitar of Melton and the driving, heavy guitar and organ of Cohen contributing to the tough cohesiveness of the group.
Although this is so, the Fish have never quite reached the pinnacle of commercial success that has greeted other Bay Area rock groups like the Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
One reason for this may be the inflexible militancy of the group. They tell it like they see it - through hilarious satire ("Not So Sweet, Martha Lorraine"), outrageous black comedy ("Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die" - about the Vietnam War), and even an occasional four letter word.
The purpose of this all is to shake their audience, to make them think. Mostly, it's a propaganda music - the group's name comes from a statement by Chairman Mao that peasants are the fish of the world - but beneath it all is an often healthy outrage at what this country has become, in the eyes of Fish leader, Joe McDonald.
Though most of their performance Friday was fairly pedestrian and sluggish, every now and then the Fish had moments incredibly lyrical and funny enough to infect the most gelid listener.
The best and most exciting performance at the rock-concert was given by Spirit, a local quintet. The group plays electronic music which slithers off occasionally to show signs of Indian, jazz, and freeform contemporary music.
The guitar work of Randy California and the drum solos of Ed Cassidy were both innovative, subtle, and interesting, a difficult triad for other rock musicians to aspire for.
And, happily, there was nothing cold or artsy about their performance.
The same unfortunately cannot be said for the Grateful Dead, which led off the evening and gave the most disappointing performance of all.
This means the group wasn't the best performing rock group extant that it can be - only nearly so.
The Dead is a heavy, jazz-blues oriented band (consisting these days of three guitars, organ, two drums, and lead singer). The group's songs are, more often than not, merely convenient hooks on which the Dead hang their usually brilliant improvisations.
Two of Friday's numbers, however, were long on time (about 20 minutes each) and short on versatility.
The usually tight, surging, full-bodied Dead sound was sadly missing, although the group's last number, "Turn On Your Lovelight" was generally exciting, except for an embarrassing, misled attempt at soul-singing.
The funky white blues voice and organ playing of Ron (Pigpen) McKernan, who recently left the group, was sorely missed.
Despite the paucity of excitement, it should be noted the fault doesn't lie with lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia.
Always exciting, Garcia is perhaps the best "Live" guitarist around. He is a complete original, and still manages to hint Django Reinhardt, Eric Clapton, and Charlie Christian, while remaining himself.
With the Airplane and Big Brother, the Fish and the Dead were among the founders of so-called "San Francisco acid-rock." It's unfortunate that neither's music last weekend could do very much to "stone" the Shrine, although the fine light show by Jerry Abrams' Head Lights certainly helped.
Once again, the sound system at the elephantine auditorium made the bands sound like they were playing from the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
(by Michael Ross, from the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, December 24, 1968)
Thanks to jgmf.blogspot.com
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Another review of the 12/20/68 Shrine show. I've posted some comments on the other review, so I'll just add a few notes here.
ReplyDeleteThe Times reviewer found the Dead "plagued by sound system deficiencies," but thought Schoolgirl and Lovelight were exciting. This reviewer has seen them before but is disappointed this time - usually the Dead are the best rock group around, but now they're "short on versatility" and their usual sound "is sadly missing" (and he has mixed feelings about Lovelight). Garcia is still singled out for praise though, as "a complete original" and "the best live guitarist around." The implication is that Garcia's carrying the rest of the band.
Only the last reel of the show circulates, and it shows the Dead hampered by tuning troubles. Garcia bails out on the Eleven to try out an acoustic Mountains of the Moon. (It's likely that Dark Star>St Stephen preceded the Eleven. The next night, 12/21, they switched up the setlist and did mostly different songs.)
Oddly, Ross thinks Pigpen has left the group despite Pigpen singing right in front of him. You never know what's up with these reviewers sometimes... But it shows how the news of Pigpen's departure from the band got around.
As for the other bands, the Times reviewer also liked Spirit and thought Country Joe was "in exceptional good form." (Another reviewer the next night found the Fish lifeless and dull and boring the crowd, so perhaps Los Angeles wasn't the right audience, or the Shrine was just too chilly.)