Dark Star
April 8, 1972
Wembley Empire Pool
Hey Altand07, what I love most about this Dark Star are how unique the jam segments are. The band had never played anything remotely like this kind of Dark Star before or since. The jam near the beginning where Jerry is striking the same note over and over building up to this incredible improvised piece of spiritual art, that channels jazz, Indian Classical, and psychedelic exploration to the forefront. The whole band just seems completely willing to go on this journey, and while it doesn’t fully melt down, it instead goes microscopically deep into the music and focuses on one single point until, bliss, Nirvana, heaven, whatever you want to call it. The proto MLB jam, a nameless piece of music that epitomizes the Grateful Dead. It’s a genuinely cosmic piece of music that moves the same way 4/26/72 The Other One does, in the way it explores themes they’re very similar. This is one of those benchmark performances that shows how much music the banned amassed within them, and how Keith’s contributions lead to how the Dead combined masterful Psychedelic Jazz avant garde experimentation, with country, folk, bluegrass and blues and this is the end result of their imagination. Just my opinion though. Also the trifecta of DS>Sugar Mag>Caution is arguably the best of the tour. The Dead became what they were meant to be during Europe 72, and this was the start of the sound that defines them from here until 1974.