tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post7591156185847899161..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: March 7, 1970: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CALight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-55039819420670021252019-08-23T07:13:54.160-07:002019-08-23T07:13:54.160-07:00Right. I know from my listening notes exercises th...Right. I know from my listening notes exercises that my thinking about a show is highly idiosyncratic to whatever moment I am in. I can't trace it to feeling grumpy --> negative perception per se, I just know it's so noisy that I'd have to run a large number of trials to discover some central tendency in my sense of a show (which would be contaminated by familiarity/boredom, of course).Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-34522145751949108392019-08-22T21:39:48.140-07:002019-08-22T21:39:48.140-07:00It seems to me that negative reviews are usually b...It seems to me that negative reviews are usually based more on the reviewer's mood than the band's performance (assuming the reviewer even likes the band's music in the first place). With the Dead, a reviewer's boredom tends to have little to do with what's coming off the stage. I haven't done any comparative study, but there seems to be little or no correlation between bad Dead performances and bad reviews. <br />In this case, I can't be sure what was bugging Moore; but assuming he had seen them some time previously, maybe he came expecting lots of long "acid rock" jams and was disappointed to find instead long country ballads and rock-oldie covers.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-70889005382254238032019-08-22T05:40:14.695-07:002019-08-22T05:40:14.695-07:00It's always fraught to try to infer the band&#...It's always fraught to try to infer the band's mindset from what we know was going on around them, not least because they could have great nights in bad times and find danger at the performing door when things seemed to be going well. But this had to be just after they found out about Lenny. It had to be a blow. From Garcia's perspective, the Zabriskie check that Lenny took and that brought his perfidy to light was something MG wanted to use toward a house.<br /><br />Again, it's almost certainly irrelevant. Hell, the show might have been awesome (I don't recall it, though I have heard it). But I always wonder.<br />Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-47577310826345032562019-08-21T23:24:29.707-07:002019-08-21T23:24:29.707-07:00A dyspeptic review from Santa Monica! It's unu...A dyspeptic review from Santa Monica! It's unusual to find a reviewer in 1970 so down on the Dead; there are hints that he'd seen them before (and liked them better then), but it's only implied. <br />He admits that the scene in the auditorium was "pleasant and relaxed," with "dancers and families and children...and stoned usherettes telling people to sit anywhere." But he felt the Dead were having an off night, sometimes good, sometimes terrible, with only "occasional flashes" of superb moments. <br />He liked the "close harmony" singing (maybe in Rider), and seems to approve the drum interlude before Good Lovin'. (He suggests the drummers messed up the intro to Not Fade Away, though.)<br />He doesn't like Garcia's overlong songs with "floundering backups that almost fell apart" (probably Black Peter & High Time, long ballads with sparse arrangements although they're not "Dylanesque"), and he thought Garcia was "a bit bored" and subdued. <br />The long closing medley didn't move him much (he calls it a pastiche of the original songs), and he was especially irritated by the "over-long manic vocals" and "particularly flatulent vocal milking" of Lovelight. (Not sure if it's Weir or Pigpen he mistakenly calls "Tom Constantin.") <br />He mentions the "a cappella closing number," so it seems the Dead ended with We Bid You Goodnight.<br /><br />Half the review discusses the opening band Cold Blood; he's also negative about them. While he likes the band and horn players, he's irritated by Lydia Pense, calling her Joplinesque singing style "a waste" and making fun of her stage presentation. <br />He says little about the "fawning adolescents" in the audience except to chide them for their "ecstatic reaction" to cheap stunts onstage. The audience tape, at any rate, is full of ecstasy that he didn't share.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com