Grateful Dead - Community War Memorial Theater, Rochester, NY 11/8/85 set 2 (DVD)
Can’t even remember if I mentioned the first set of this unofficial DVD, definitely something of a collector’s item given the rather poor video quality. Garcia was just in very poor shape at this point and listening to him sing is a constant reminder of how far he had fallen. Last night (that is, last night from when I was writing this), I happened to catch a few minutes of the PBS airing of Dead Ahead, at least some of the acoustic set anyway, and Garcia, if he obviously wasn’t his old self, could still get away with it then, in 1980. Five years later, it’s almost scary. I don’t remember too much about the set except there were a couple classics done fairly well, although this is still a shadow of the first decade or two.
Magma - Discorama 6/29/70 (DVD)
Magma - Pop 2 11/28/70 (DVD)
Magma - La Legende du Siecle 2/26/73 (DVD)
Touted as Magma 1970-1973 on dimeadozen, these are apparently recently surfaced archival footage of very early line-ups and its appearance caused a few jaws to bust. I barely could wait to get it playable, and even if the disc was mastered pretty badly, it didn’t interfere too much as I knocked down clip after clip. The first two segments are both from the original band, one in color, one in black and white and both feature lengthy interview sections in French (which means I get one in ten words if I’m lucky). Musically, we’re definitely at the first album, with the large line up of horns. The first clip has Blasquiz singing without a mic, which made me wonder if the band was lip synching and my guess is they were, given Vander’s movements. It’s close enough to get a cheap thrill though and once we’re on to the second clip, it’s clear the band is live. I think it’s this second clip where we get to see Vander go berserk vocally, it’s hard to believe the guy used to do this stuff, smoke cigarettes and that he can still talk. The shrieking sounds less whipped puppy, more leaking balloon. The final clip jumps forward a couple years to what looks like a rather rare and stripped-down line up of the MDK band, with two male vocals, bass, guitar and drums (I wanted to say keys as well, but I think this happens to be without them - I’d have to check again). This is as earthy a performance I ever remember Magma giving, raw and intense, and was probably the gem of the bunch overall. Wow, not bad at all!
Daevid Allen - Obscura #16: Gong on Acid 73
Another from the Voiceprint Obscura series, this demonstrates Allen in cut and paste, musique concret mode, mixing together music from the Trilogy albums with sounds and conversations. It’s all rather clever actually, and it comes across less like Gong on acid then Gong for acid, that is, the flow of the rearranged piece seems to culminate later, as if it was building to some sort of cosmic peak. Definitely a release for the fan, like many of the Obscura releases I bet, although this one will appeal to Gong fans as much as those interested in Daevid’s solo work.