July 4, 1990

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One response to “07-04-1990”

Scott Shlomo Krane

October 6, 2021

In my humble opinion, this show beats 7/4/89, the higher rated show if you took a census. Furthermore, it’s a major relief that this is a soundboard recording, and there is nothing wrong with the sound (even picks up the crowd, ever-so-slightly, in between songs, through, I would guess, the ‘on’-position microphones on-stage).After the ‘Cold Rain and Snow’ opener, the band launches into their rendition of Robert Johnson’s ‘Walkin’ Blues’, for Bobby’s ‘traditional blues’ selection of the first set setlist; performed in a steady-marching, medium tempo (slower than usual, but still hard not to groove on). Out of ‘Walkin’ Blues’ comes a surprise in the form of ‘Mississippi 1/2 Step’, placed after the set opener slot, perhaps for the sake of changing things up a bit and upsetting expectations and tearing asunder the Dead concert setlist status quo. The vocal chorus and jamming (guitar solo over the ‘B section’) elongates and stretches the song all the way out into a graceful 10 minutes of duration. I googled this: something like 1,000 citizens of Kansas in the mid-19th century joined the confederate military. In addition to this sin, prior to 1862, the state was a slave state. And so we sing, “Farewell to you old Southern skies, I’m on my way…”Next comes the evening’s only Bob Dylan cover, a relatively brief 7.5 minute ‘Queen Jane Approximately’ from Dylan’s 1965 rock-influenced studio album, “Highway 61 Revisited”. ‘Queen Jane’ is always good and a welcome selection to this Dancing Bear, even if it runs a little short in duration, meaning there is minimal guitar-soloing. The guitar tuning between ‘Queen Jane’ and its successor, ‘Loose Lucy’ (from 1974’s “From the Mars Hotel”), features some choice seconds of feedback out of Jerry’s amplifier monitors. ‘Loose Lucy’ is playful and fun as always, (with less of a country/rock-a-billy feel than the version from Dane County Colosseum 2/15/73, say, and not as hyperactive as the version from Madison Square Garden 9/18/93 [which I attended], before the song was even recorded in the studio and released independently), but equally, if not even more danceable.The first set continues with all the songs performed in a moderate and steady tempo with a cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘It’s All Over Now’ (which the boys played all-the-time). After the British pop-rock flashback, Jerry steps to the mic, and the band launches into a dark and powerful ‘Loser’ which runs directly into a feel-good ‘Promised Land’ the Chuck Berry cover, which, unlike most of the Dead’s 0ld-timey rock and roll covers to close out the first set, never gets old to these ears, (I’ve always preferred ‘Promised Land’ and first set ‘Johnny B. Goode’ [rare, though it may be] to ‘Might as Well’, ‘Don’t Ease Me In’, and even ‘Deal’. After ‘Promised Land’, Bobby doesn’t let the audience know it’s intermission as he normally does, with a curt ‘We’ll be back in a little bit’, but this time he adds: ‘…as soon as the sun goes down’.The second set opens with a pre-‘Victim or the Crime’ tuning. ‘Victim’ is solid, but the outro jam is where it’s at, splashing dark hues all around the amphitheater, casting shadows on the wall, until the onslaught of light (!), apparently a theme of this Fourth 0f July performance. ‘Victim’ changes value from minor to the major key and bouncing riff and group interplay of ‘Foolish Heart’. To complete a “Built to Last” (Arista, 1989) second set-opening trifecta of ‘Victim’ and ‘Foolish Heart’ comes forth a strangely placed (in the middle of the second set rather than the first) powerhouse of a Brent Mydland/Robert Hunter composition. ‘Just a Little Light’, while usually pushed aside by the band’s more common repertoire, (and retired with the sudden overdose death of Brent around the dawn of the 1990s), is about as Grateful Dead as the Grateful Dead gets. In the late ’90s, Phil Lesh and Friends revived the song to a beautiful and poignant effect. The second set opening trifecta of new original songs from ’89’s “Built to Last” is fun to listen to because of the complexity and highly-listenable nature of the compositions, however, the jamming in the songs, and the interludes seems to fall a little flat. The solo at the end of ‘Just a Little Light’, however, with Jerry’s Mu-Tron III envelope-filter clicked to the ‘on’ position, is oh so sweet, and the song selection: oh so choice.In a cool effect, the fourth song of the second set is ‘Scarlet Begonias’, rather than being the set opener as it usually was beginning in the late ’70s. This way, the boys are already warmed up by the time they reach their most common jam (tied, or runner-up, only, to ‘China Cat Sunflower’>’I Know you Rider’ and ‘Help on the way’>’Slipknot’>’Franklin’s Tower’). The jam in ‘Scarlet Begonias’ is delicious. Everyone is on fire, moving in all different directions. Brent’s synthesizer and Jerry’s guitar is a force to be reckoned with. As the jam turns into the ‘B’ ‘A’ or I VII of ‘Fire on the Mountain’, Jerry calls up a patch or two from his MIDI-rig (the original one, same as he had since Fall ’89), evoking horns, flute and new-age synth. Jerry’s MIDI on the jam out of ‘Scarlet’ takes an abrupt halt, as the even-paced and oddly-syncopated two chords of ‘Fire on the Mountain’ create the next room, which the secret palace’s visitors, Jerry’s children, pass through. ‘Fire’ lasts a whopping 17:00 and causes the listener to regret that the basic mixolydian harmonic pattern and ethnic rhythmic syncopation outlasts the burning hot jam out of ‘Scarlet Begonias’ (where the hottest improvising and playing is to be found) by so many more minutes and notes. However, ‘Fire on the Mountain’ builds and builds in intensity, gaining color and texture, as it rolls along, its lyrics tempting the Earth.If you have time, fellow Grateful Dead of the Day enthusiast, check out the exciting, high sound-quality ‘Drums’>’Space’>’The Wheel’. The following tune, ‘Gimme Some Lovin” ruins the setlist, and the remaining two songs of the second set: ‘Stella Blue’ and ‘Sugar Magnolia’ are a chore to listen to, as is the ‘U.S. Blues’ encore. However, all in all a pretty decent show, especially for the Fourth of July.

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07-04-1990

Sandstone Amphitheatre

Bonner Springs, Kansas

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