RECORD STUDIOS MAY DESTROY MUSIC SCENE
If anything destroys the San Francisco music scene, it will probably be the recording studios. While some groups benefit from techniques first used in a recording studio - enhancing their live sets - most groups with less musical direction come out suffering from over-production and a deficiency of style.
A comparison can be made in this regard between the Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead, who performed recently in Fillmore West.
Quicksilver started out their two fine sets by playing some good and tough rock numbers (new to me). Duncan played through some fine guitar leads, very reminiscent of Bloomfield. The group has been criticized for being overly-influenced by the Electric Flag in their last album (in light of the fact that two Flag members co-produced it). But it would be tragic if a band which has been around as long as Quicksilver was influenced by a short-lived band that never developed any musical direction.
Let us say that Duncan's and Cipollina's considerable skill cause them to borrow certain stylistic traits of Bloomfield, as well as Alkaunon and Garcia.
Audiences tend to like things that are familiar, and the audience (dead as par) didn't warm up until they played a cut from their album (Gold and Silver).
Now that the Dead have come to be comfortable in a recording studio, they can use their techniques as good tools in their sets. Their set got the warmest audience reaction. Where Quicksilver tends to be erratic because of problems in accommodating ordered songs to a live set, the Dead seems to have no problems in this regard.
Since "Anthem of the Sun," the Dead have gone into electronic music, using different types of feedback to climax their sets. But they also went through standards like "School Girl" and "Lovelight."
Quicksilver's Gold and Silver is very carefully composed, and loses its effectiveness if it is not allowed to progress in a linear fashion so the intricately constructed climaxes can be developed. It is therefore, not a free enough cut to be effective in a live set. The best they can do for the number is to try to approach the technical perfection that the audience is familiar with from the album. They try to add interest by including a drum solo, but this only serves to stop the progression altogether.
As their performance of "Gold and Silver" showed how bad the effects of such studio compositions can be, so their performance of the "Fool" showed a beautiful balance between the composition and the improvisation. With Frieberg's base as a catalyst, there is a very interesting reaction between the two guitars.
There was a nice progression and use of false climaxes in almost classical style, yet it remained as a free vehicle for Cipollina's guitar leads.
Still, the best song of either set was their old standard "Who do you love?" (rough rock but it has some well-executed composition including some tinkling guitar effects). They rounded out their sets with some album cuts done pretty straight. It was appropriate that they finished off their first set with a Beau Diddley number a la Rolling Stone - "Hey, Mona."
(by Russ Stein, from the Daily Californian, November 25, 1968)
Another show review from the UC Berkeley student paper. The exact date is unknown, but it sounds like as usual for the time at the Fillmore West, the bands rotated sets, playing two sets each.
ReplyDeleteA Quicksilver set from Nov 7 has come out with somewhat different setlist details, so this writer probably went to one of the later nights. They were recording these shows for Happy Trails, so it's quite possible he saw the album versions of Who Do You Love or Mona. (I don't think any versions of Gold & Silver or The Fool have appeared from these shows.)
The writing's a bit careless (note the famed guitarist "Alkaunon") and the headline is very misleading (the article says next to nothing about how studios might destroy the music scene, and QMS are a poor example of this). For Dead fans, the article's also very unbalanced, devoting lavish details to Quicksilver's set and a few brief sentences to the Dead - I sense this writer wasn't as enthusiastic about the Dead.
But we learn that the Dead played Schoolgirl, Lovelight, and Feedback (not too surprising), and that "their set got the warmest audience reaction."
Otherwise, this is a largely forgotten run since there are no tapes or specific audience memories of the Dead's sets. This was a rare occasion when QMS was taped but the Dead weren't.
But spot on with "Who Do You Love". I bought Happy Trails LP at Rasputin's in Berkeley probably 1987 and it's burned into my DNA.
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