11-12-71: san antonio civic auditorium w/nrps
in the fall of 1971 the dead and long time touring partners the new riders of the purple sage hit the road again for a few months. gone were the 6 hour shows the two bands collaborated on the year before. jerry no longer played pedal steel with the opening act, replaced by session man and former great speckled bird member, buddy cage. the dead also had a lineup change of their own in keith godchaux. an accomplished keyboardist who recorded with the likes of dave mason and james & the good brothers, keith brought his honed skills to the band playing both piano and hammond organ. on a somber note, the dead were performing without pigpen who was home sick with doctor's orders to stop touring indefinitely because of a rare case of biliary cirrhosis.
the basic set structure of 1970 (less nrps) would become the general concert structure for the grateful dead forevermore, with first sets built around shorter, more basic tunes, and second sets being more exploratory in nature. beginning in the spring '71 tour, the other one became a regular second frame piece for extended jamming and mining the otherwordly. in an interview with charles reich from the book signpost to a new space (da capo press, 1972), garcia shared that nineteen seventy-one found the band more excited about exploring the other one than they were about dark star. jerry was really jazzed about the directions the song could go in as it opened up and became spacier. keith's addition to the ensemble is palpable during these extended voyages; he brings new elements to the mix and it's obvious that his style of playing is an inspiration to the others, resulting in a richer, fuller sound and expanding the ideas they could collectively pursue.
a prime example of an other one from the fall tour was played during a late november concert in san antonio. the boys always seemed to bring a little extra to their texas gigs, and this set II fragment--culled from dick latvala's dat of the master reel vault source--is no exception. the recording captures the band during a period of great energy, change, and maturation; the mix on the tape has a wide dynamic range and shows the beginnings of the monumental europe '72 sound in developement.
the cryptical suite from this evening is quite remarkable and contains an array of complex, thematic jams. after the customary vocal intro and a 2 1/2 minute drum interlude from kreutzmann, the quintet launches headlong into the other one. garcia's playing is at once fierce with a tangible immediacy. lesh's bass oscillates across the wavelengths of jerry's guitar and the percussive cadence of keith's staccato piano runs coupled with bill's wily timekeeping create a rhythmic balance teetering on the edge of instability. weir keeps things ever interesting inverting chords and subtly filling the soundscape with rich, melodic shades, moving with seamless transition between the current jam and other spatial motifs. garcia soon heads in a different direction and the band veers into a spacey exploration that drifts into emptiness. out of this minimalist space comes a new, beautifully layered jam that builds to an absolutely feral pitch before cowboy bob belts out the first verse. from here, things evolve into another jam that ebbs and flows with psychedelic abandon, before winding down and drifting into a delicate and soulful cryptical reprise. and, as the dead often do, they keep things surprising by promptly diving full-speed ahead into a blistering big railroad blues. it's as unexpected a combo as i've ever heard the group roll out.
transfered by the esteemed c. miller and edited/mastered by sirmick, this soundboard source fragment is about as good as it gets for '71 dead.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-11-12.142439.partial.sbd.easton.miller.sirmick.flac1644/gd1971-11-12t01.flac
