Jerry Garcia Band The Catalyst Santa Cruz, CA 1982-02-02
Set 1
01 How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) 02 Catfish John 03 Let It Rock 04 Simple Twist Of Fate 05 I Second That Emotion
Total time: 54:51
Set 2
01 I’ll Take A Melody 02 (I’m A) Road Runner 03 Russian Lullaby 04 Valerie 05 Tangled Up In Blue
Jerry Garcia – electric guitar, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Jimmy Warren – keyboards John Kahn – electric bass Julie Stafford – vocals Liz Stires – vocals Melvin Seals – keyboards
Originally posted on my Substack, where you’ll get even more info, posters, and music.
The Midnight Cafe Review.
After our last show in San Francisco on January 13, Jerry Garcia took a couple of weeks off from playing in front of a live audience, but did spend at least five days in the Grateful Dead’s studio working on what would ultimately be his last studio album as a solo artist, Run for the Roses. He’d spend the rest of February and March playing gigs with the Jerry Garcia band all over California (and one gig in Reno) before heading out on the Spring Tour with the Grateful Dead.
At this point, the band consisted of two keyboard players: Melvin Seals and Jimmy Warren. They were a duo with the band from early 1981 until Warren left in the summer of 1982. Melvin Seals, of course, was around until the end, and he continues to play in the JGB band as a tribute to Garcia.
This show is the first time I’ve really paid attention to the duelling keyboards. I’m guessing I’ve listened to some shows with them from 1981, and I certainly listened to the two shows from earlier in 1982. With those shows, I definitely noticed there were a couple of different keyboards being played, but I don’t think I could ever hear them played at the same time and just assumed it was Seals playing two different keyboards. Which is dumb, I know, especially since I listed the band members. No one ever said I was a very smart listener.
But here you can really distinguish the playing, and they are both awesome. You’ll hear that a lot in this review.
They get things rocking with a nice “How Sweet It Is.” There is some nice interplay between Jerry and the keyboards. For part of “Catfish John,” Jerry guitar tone sounds different, almost like a steel drum. There is lots of great jamming.
“Let It Rock” rumbles on for nine minutes, and it feels like just one long groove. Garcia gets in some great solos with the band interplaying underneath him. “Simple Twist of Fate” is fine, nothing spectacular, and it ends on a long, pointless bass solo.
“I Second That Emotion” is killer. I love that song, and it’s got some terrific energy here with the whole band on point. Great way to end the set.
“I’ll Take a Melody” begins pretty lifeless, but between the verses, Jerry revs things up, and the band kicks right in. It is a short burst, and things settle back down for the next verse, but once it is over, Jerry jumps right back in, and the band follows. It is interesting to see how very much Jerry is the leader of this band and the rest of them follow his example.
I’m not much of a fan of “Russian Lullaby”; it is too slow for me, and the lyrics don’t prick my ears. This version is quite good. Probably not good enough that I won’t skip it the next time I listen to this show, but it is better than a lot of the versions I’ve heard. Jerry’s throws in some nice licks, and John Kahn does a hot solo that gets the audience screaming and clapping.
“Valerie” is another song I don’t love, but this version is energetic. “Tangled Up In Blue” is a fantastic closing song with some really great playing by everyone.
Overall, this is a very good show. Completely enjoyed it.
Jerrybase lists six sources for this show. I listened to SHNID 110350, which is an excellent audience recording. There is a soundboard recording of the second set, but I found that one of the keyboards was way too high in the mix – drowning out Garcia’s guitar and making it unlistenable to my ears.
Jerry Garcia Band 01-11-1982 Old Waldorf San Francisco, CA
Set 1
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door That’s What Love Will Make You Do Simple Twist Of Fate I Second That Emotion > Deal
Set 2 The Way You Do The Things You Do I’ll Take A Melody Valerie Harder They Come The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down > Dear Prudence > Tangled Up In Blue
Jerry Garcia – electric guitar, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Jimmy Warren – keyboards John Kahn – electric bass Julie Stafford – vocals Liz Stires – vocals Melvin Seals – keyboards
The Midnight Cafe’s Review
A few weeks back, a friend of mine asked me if I had a copy of a Jerry Garcia Band show from 1982. I can’t remember the exact date, but I didn’t have it. I looked it up on bt.etree and found a copy. As that site often does for Jerry and Grateful Dead shows, they had bundled this particular show with several others. Being of the opinion that you can never have too much Jerry, I went ahead and downloaded all of them. Then I figured, in for a penny in for a pound, and I downloaded all of the sets of shows from 1982. I randomly listened to a few shows (or more like snippets from a few shows) and found that I really liked them. So, I thought it would be fun to listen to and review them all.
Starting in late 1981 and running through the Spring of 1982, Jerry was in and out of the studio recording what would become his last studio record as a solo artist, Run for the Roses. Some of those sessions exist on tape, but I’ll be skipping them for now, as well as all the shows he played with the Grateful Dead during this time.
He’d play quite a few of the songs that make it onto the record throughout the year. The album contains about half original songs and half covers.
Jerry gigged a lot in 1982. By my count, he played some 86 gigs as a solo artist, mostly with the Jerry Garcia Band, but some 23 times with only John Kahn on bass (and once with Bob Weir for the David Letterman show). In contrast, the Grateful Dead only played 63 times this year.
It is interesting to look at the Grateful Dead dates right next to Jerry’s solo gigs. He began the year in the studio, then played this gig at the Old Waldorf and again at the same venue two days later. Then he’s back in the studio for a bit and then spends the first half of February gigging around California. Then the Dead play some California shows then the Jerry Band does. There is a lot of that throughout the year where the Dead will do some gigs, and Jerry will fill in the holes.
The Dead do a proper tour in April and then a big one in July-August. And then they close out the year, as they usually did, with a New Year’s run in Oakland. The Jerry Garcia Band does a short East Coast tour in June, and then just him and John Kahn do several gigs in the Northwest to finish the month out. The Jerry Band is back at it for a big tour in October and November.
This is the kind of thing I normally don’t pay attention to. I didn’t follow Jerry while he was alive and have just listened to shows throughout my adulthood without much thought to where he was playing. This year might not be abnormal; I don’t know. But I do find it fascinating.
This show is a good one, but nothing spectacular. Etree lists two sources for this show – 84012 and 20687, both presumably coming from the same soundboard tape. 20687 was cleaned up a little bit by the misSHN in the rain people.
The opener, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” has the front half cut off; only 1:32 of it survives. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door is very mellow. Jerry plays and sings with sincerity, but softly. The keys lightly tinkle.
“That’s What Love Will Make You Do” from this period has become one of my favorite songs. The rhythm section creates this wonderful, danceable beat; Jerry usually sings with passion, and his guitar typically soars. This version is good, but not quite amazing. The keys do this thing where they switch from a typical piano sound to something more synth-like, then to a more organ sound.
“Simple Twist of Fate” at first puts us back into mellow ballad territory. Then Kahn takes a long, noodling bass solo then Jerry goes at it with his guitar, wailing with a very high-pitched, screeching tone. Then it settles back down, and there are some really nice keyboard moments.
I can’t remember when I first heard Smokey Robinson’s “I Second That Emotion.” Since my mother was a big Motown fan, I assume I heard the original long before I even knew who Jerry Garcia was. What I do remember is that in the mid-1990s I discovered the newsgroup rec.music.gdead; with it I found my people. At the time, it was common for deadheads within that newsgroup to respond to a post that they agreed with by saying, “I Second That Emotion.” I loved that, and the saying entered my vocabulary for many years.
Somewhere around this time, I heard a live version of the song by the Jerry Band, and it quickly became a favorite. They do a great job with it here. Jerry’s voice sounds a little weak, maybe even a little hoarse, but he absolutely nails the first solo. The band follows right behind. At some point, Jerry seems to just say “screw it” to the vocals, and they just jam on the thing for a while. Eventually, he’ll return to the song and sing it with gusto.
When I first started listening to the Jerry Garcia Band, I loved it when they would play Grateful Dead songs. I think that was because I didn’t really know his solo stuff or the cover songs he tended to play. There was always some Motown song that I knew or a Dylan cover, but a lot of those songs were unfamiliar to me. I was also still new to the Dead, and these were the days when you couldn’t stream every show they ever played, so I liked hearing their songs in any version I could get.
But these days I find it a little annoying when the Jerry Band plays a Dead tune. If I wanted to hear those songs, I can listen to a Dead show. When Jerry is with his other band, I want to hear different songs. Which is to say, they play “Deal” in this set, and it is perfectly fine.
“I’ll Take a Melody” is not one of my favorite covers, but this is a very fine version. Garcia and keyboardist Melvin Seals do some wonderful interplay on it. Seals had just joined the band about a year before (and would wind up staying right up until Jerry died), but he was already perfectly integrated into the band.
“Valerie” is another song from Run for the Roses, and it is also a song I’ve never particularly liked.
“The Harder They Come” is a lot of fun. Somewhere in the middle, Seals starts playing really fast, and then Jerry just follows along. It is like speed rock for a moment. Then it slows down to a more standard tempo. I don’t know what keyboards Seals was playing, but it switches from a standard piano sound to something electric and out of a science fiction movie, to more of an organ sound. I dig it.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is perfectly fine. As is “Dear Prudence” and “Tangled Up In Blue.” Prudence has a lovely gentle jam in the middle.
And that’s the gig. As I said, it is a good show. Not mind-blowing, but good. I know we’ll hear some even better shows in the days to come. I can’t wait.
—
Long ago, I created a playlist called “Great Bootleg Songs.” That’s a pretty boring name for a playlist, but it is also pretty self-explanatory. When I listen to a show and discover an incredible performance on a song, I throw it into this playlist. Whenever I don’t know what to play, I can put that playlist on and dig some great live music. I thought I’d start doing a thing at the end of these things, telling you which songs, if any, from this review deserve to go into that playlist.
Show Highlights:
I Second that Emotion I’ll Take a Melody
Source info:
Source 1: SHNID 84012
MSC > DAT > Panasonic SV-3700 playback > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 to Wavelab 5.0 mastering with iZotope Ozone 3 > CDWAV1.9 > FLAC (level 8).
Comments: Very clean SBD with several pauses between tunes crossfades were applied to cover. Flaws: d1t01 – most of beginning of track is missing d1t04 – beginning clipped. d1t06 – Deal is cut. d2t04 – First two verses are missing. d2t06 – Tangled Up In Blue is painfully cut.
Source 2: SHNID 20867
MSC>DAT >CDR>WAV>SHNv3. Multiple track cuts – see info file for details.
Comments: Very clean SBD with several minor cuts. Flaws: d1t01 – most of beginning of track is missing d1t04 – beginning clipped. d1t05 – pop @ 01:32, 01:34 removed using pencil tool, SF6, d1t06 – Deal is cut. d2t05 – First two verses are missing. d2t07 – Tangled Up In Blue is painfully cut.
Thanks to J.Powell for CDR source. DAE(EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode, QPS QUE 2410)>removal of pop/silent gaps(SF6)>tracking(cdwav)>sector boundaries confirmed(shntool)>SHN(shorten3.4) via C.Ladner.
Another installment of the misSHN in the rain division of TMNSP, 11/03.
Since I’m attempting to review all of the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks series, I thought it would be fun to review some of the Jerry Garcia solo releases as well. Ultimately, I’d like to do reviews of officially released live albums from all my favorite artists (plus some unofficially released ones). I’m still trying to figure out how best to do that. I originally thought I needed to give each performance a good listen three different times to properly review them, but that is taking too long. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t listen to music like I used to. It is mostly done in the car, and I don’t spend that much time in the car to be able to listen to a show three times before I review it. Not if I’m going to do more than one review a month anyhow.
These reviews won’t necessarily be proper ones then. More like impressions. I’ll just tell you what songs I enjoyed, and maybe a few that I didn’t.
I more or less randomly picked up After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80, a few weeks back, intending it to be the first Garcia review. I listened to it a couple of times – it is a great record – but then my sister came in from South Korea for a visit. I made her a playlist of songs I figured she’d enjoy because I knew I’d be driving her around a bit. To make things easier to play, I removed the Garcia album (and all other music) from my phone and added all her songs. When she left, I couldn’t remember which Garcia album I had been listening to. I wanted to give it one more listen before I wrote a review. I knew it was from a performance in 1980, saw that this GarciaLive disc was from that year, and I added it to my phone. Pretty quickly, I realized I had the wrong disc, but I just went for it.
Which is just another example of why I won’t be listening to these albums multiple times before I write my own thoughts.
I don’t know why the Garcia releases changed their name from Pure Jerry to GarciaLive (or why they are sometimes called something completely different). The first volume of the GarciaLive came after a four-year gap between official releases, one of the longest gaps since they started releasing them regularly.
Jerry Garcia’s main band, of course, was the Grateful Dead, but nearly from the beginning, he was doing side projects with lots of different people, under a variety of names. This more or less coalesced into the Jerry Garcia Band by the mid-1970s, though the band members regularly changed. 1980 is a really interesting period as it has Johnny d’Fonseca, who only lasted a few months on drums, and Ozzie Ahlers, who didn’t last much longer on keyboards.
One of the things I love about the Jerry Band shows is that they regularly played smaller venues than the Grateful Dead. While Jerry’s solo audiences did grow over time, they were routinely still smaller than what the Dead were playing to. In 1980, the Grateful Dead were playing coliseums and civic centers with capacities in the tens of thousands, while the Jerry Garcia Band was still gigging in small concert halls. On tour, he often played places with capacities of a couple of thousand, but in the San Francisco Bay area, he still often performed in places like The Stone or the Keystone in Berkeley that could only fit a few hundred. How amazing would it have been to see Jerry Garcia in a place like that?
I also love that the Jerry Band allowed Garcia to play lots of songs he wouldn’t necessarily be able to perform with the Dead. While they usually would play one or two Dead tunes in a set, and sometimes something from one of Garcia’s solo albums, they mostly did cover songs. They’d play old Motown tunes, reggae, jazz, early rock and roll, and so much more. Bassist John Kahn’s wife once noted that it was Kahn who often brought Garcia songs to play.
Which finally brings us to this show. This was the closing performance of a multi-week tour for the Jerry Garcia Band on the East Coast. It opens with an excellent version of the Grateful Dead classic “Sugaree.” Garcia takes a nice solo early on, then Ahlers gets his turn with some synth-heavy keys, and it closes out with another boisterous solo by Garcia.
That’s another thing I love about the Jerry Band – it is very much Garcia’s band. While Jerry was the biggest star of the Grateful Dead, the band was truly a cohesive whole. They played together. They listened to each other and had an uncanny ability to intertwine their individual notes into something singular. Garcia often soloed, but the band wasn’t just backing him up or playing behind him; they were making music together. From everything I’ve read, Garcia treated everyone in the JGB kindly – he paid them well and listened to their ideas – but there is no doubt this was his band. His name was on the marquee, and the audience was there to listen to him play. For the most part, the band is there to back him up. But Garcia also gives them time to shine. The keyboards often get a solo part, and sometimes even John Kahn will get a solo.
For the first few songs on the early show, Garcia’s guitar has a strange tone. I’m not a musician, I don’t have the technical knowledge to explain it, but it sounds a little high at times to me and screechy. By the time they are playing Bob Dylan’s “A Simple Twist of Fate,” it has gotten better, warmer somehow. The performance of that song is very emotional. You feel the sadness of the song in Garcia’s playing. He absolutely nails the final solo.
Ozzie Ahlers has a beautiful solo at the beginning of Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting Here In Limbo,” and then the band really pulls together with a wonderful bit of cohesive jamming in the middle. When I was listening to After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80, I fell in love with that performance of “That’s What Love Will Make You Do.” It is a brilliant version. This one isn’t nearly as good, but it’s still pretty damn great. Kahn’s basslines really stand out. The keyboards get a little crazy with it. The cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” is super fun with some good funky riffs.
Robert Hunter was the opening act for this show. He opened most shows on this tour. Apparently, Rachel Sweet was scheduled to be the opening act for this tour. She did perform a couple of shows, but then disappeared, and Hunter replaced her. I wasn’t able to find any information on why she left. The Hunter set is not included in this release, but he did come out and play with Jerry on two songs, “Tiger Rose” and “Promontory Rider.” I love Robert Hunter. He wrote some of my favorite lyrics. But he is not a great singer or guitar player. I have some unofficially released recordings of his solo shows, and they aren’t great. I mean, they aren’t bad, and it is cool to hear him perform the songs that he wrote. Those shows are mostly him by himself on a guitar, and they do not blow my mind. But these two songs with the Jerry Band backing him are terrific.
It all concludes with a scorching cover of Peter Rowan’s “Midnight Moonlight’ and a soulful rendition of The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence.”
If I’m being honest, I think After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80 has the edge over this release. It has more fire in it. Maybe the band was just tired after a long tour. I don’t know. But this is a very good show. I’ve not spent a lot of time with the Jerry Garcia Band in the early 1980s, but these two releases are definitely going to change that.
Here’s the track listing
Jerry Garcia Band Capitol Theatre Passaic, NJ 03/01/90
Disc 1 Early show:
“Sugaree” (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 14:33
“Catfish John” (Bob McDill, Allen Reynolds) – 9:56
“How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” (Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland) – 9:05
“Simple Twist of Fate” (Bob Dylan) – 16:16
Disc 2 Early show continued:
“Sitting in Limbo” (Jimmy Cliff, Guillermo Bright-Plummer) – 12:40
“That’s All Right” (Arthur Crudup) – 8:09
“Deal” (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:22
Late show:
“Mission in the Rain” (Garcia, Hunter) – 12:50
“That’s What Love Will Make You Do” (Henderson Thigpen, James Banks, Eddy Marion) – 8:56
Garcia & Saunders Bottom Line New York, NY 11/6/74 Early Show
This is flac encoded & tagged version of shnid: 16807
MAC (Taped by Jerry Moore, AKG D1000Es > Sony TC-152) > Tascam 122 MK III playback > Tascam DA-40 master DAT > Tascam DA-30 playback > Egosys Waveterminal 2496 > Cool Edit 2000 > Plexwriter 12/10/32A master CD > HP 9350i extraction (EAC v0.9 beta 4) > sector boundary verification (shntool v1.01) > .shn encoding (mkwACT v0.97 beta 1). A > D by Mark Cohen, D > CD by David Minches, EAC > SHN by Joe Jupille (jjoops AT attbi DOT com).
Various Artists Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vol. 18: Tombstone Bluegrass
I was going to call this one “Tangled Up in Bluegrass,” but it turns out there’s an official release by that name, so “Tombstone Bluegrass” it is. From bluegrass legends like Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson to newgrass combos like String Cheese Incident and Yonder Mountain String Band, Dylan’s music is beloved among purveyors of mountain music. Only one new song to the NSD canon this time (“Father of Night” by Tim O’Brien), but but 14 new artists to the series. A few of these tracks might not technically fall into the bluegrass genre, but they all fit together quite nicely.
As usual, thanks to the tapers, the original uploaders, the folks who’ve sent me recordings, the fine artists who’ve created cover artwork, and especially the performers and composer. Due to the many different sources, I am not including lineages. I have done nothing to the original files but normalize the levels and fade in and out on each track (using Cool Edit). Please keep the suggestions and files coming–if you’ve got something good, please PM me.
Enjoy!
01 You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – Earl Scruggs (Jul 3, 2002, The Meadows, Steamboat Springs, CO) 02 She Belongs to Me – Jerry Garcia and Dave Grisman (May 10, 1992, Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA) 03 Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You – Larry Keel and Natural Bridge (May 29, 2005, Smilefest, Mills River, NC) 04 Tangled Up in Blue – String Cheese Incident (Apr 7, 2005, Big Easy Concert House, Spokane, WA) 05 The Times They Are a-Changin’ – Blueground Undergrass (Aug 6, 1998, Smith’s Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA) 06 Tombstone Blues – Hit and Run Bluegrass (Aug 5, 2005, Millennium Harvest House, Boulder, CO) 07 It Takes a Lot to Laugh – Yonder Mountain String Band (Oct 22, 2005, State Theatre, East Falls Church, VA) 08 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Doc and Merle Watson (Jul 4, 1980, Freedom Park, Charlotte, NC) 09 Father of Night – Tim O’Brien (Jun 15, 1996, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA) 10 Wallflower – David Bromberg Band (Dec 14, 1985, Chestnut Cabaret, Philadelphia,PA) 11 Girl From the North Country – Tony Rice Unit (Feb 23, 1991, Town Crier, Pawling, NY) 12 Walk Out in the Rain – Del McCoury Band (Oct 2, 2004, Smiley Hollow, Ridgetop, TN) 13 Tomorrow is a Long Time – Wayward Sons (Dec 28, 2005, Quioxte’s True Blue, Denver, CO) 14 You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go – The Waifs (Jul 23, 2005, Finger Lakes Grassroots Music Festival, Trumansburg, NY) 15 Abandoned Love – Watkins Family Hour (Nov 2, 2006, Largo, Los Angeles, CA) 16 Oh Sister – Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (Apr 28, 2004, Orange Peel, Asheville, NC) 17 Every Grain of Sand – Railroad Earth (Nov 26, 2005, Whitney Chapel, Hackettstown, NJ) 18 Buckets of Rain – Charles Welch with Doc Watson (Mar 7, 1998, Walker Center, North Wilksboro, NC)
Analog Audience Source: FOB Master Cassettes (MAC) Medium Stock Brands: MAC = 2 x Maxell UD C-90 Analog Lineage: 1 x Sony ECM 270 >> Sony TC 110†>> MAC Analog Sound Preservation: MAC >> Nakamichi CR7a => Korg MR-1000 >> DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo] >> Korg MR-1000 => Korg AudioGate >> WAV [24/96] Taped By: Robert Castelli Transfer By: Bob Menke Mastering By: Derek McCabe
Set 1: Disc One d1t01: Neighbor, Neighbor d1t02: Valdez In The Country d1t03: Freedom Jazz Dance d1t04: Tough Mama d1t05: You Can Leave Your Hat On d1t06: That’s The Touch I Like
Set 2: Disc Two d2t01: Wondering Why d2t02: People Make The World Go ‘Round d2t03: Mystery Train d2t04: It’s Too Late d2t05: Favela d2t06: Boogie On Reggae Woman
Notes: There are many areas were the mics get overloaded and the sound gets distorted.
Notes: These two shows were recorded by Tim Vallee. Tim was a life-long resident of Eureka CA and a GD fanatic from way back when and was the first full-blown taping maniac I ever met – he sadly passed away in 1996 and his massive music collection and mountains of posters and memorabilia were divided up by family members and dispersed to who knows where. Tim made me the 1st gen cassette copies that were used for these SHNs back in 1984. I’d like to dedicate these SHNs to Tim’s memory – these shows were one of the highlights of his life, and my taping world and Humboldt County in general have not been the same since his passing.
I transfered the shows exactly as they were on the cassettes Tim gave me, with the exception of fading in/out of each cassette side which I did in Sound Forge. The recordings might benefit from a bit of EQ work to boost the high end but I’ll leave that to someone with more experience and the proper gear who wants to take it on.
A bried history of Mojos and the Arcata music scene: Mojos was located in the building that previously had housed the Arcata Bowl when it was on 10th Street between H and I Streets. The dance floor was still composed of the original hardwood floors from the bowling alley and even included the little inlayed arrows that are found on bowling lanes. I don’t remember the exact capacity but it was in the neighborhood of 800 people and was the last sizeable dance floor/music venue in Arcata. It was adjoining a Mexican Restaurant called The Red Pepper, both of which went out of business around 1985. Mojos had been a musical institution in Arcata prior to its closing, but the JGB shows have always locally been the infamous shows from the venue. The Mojos building had a few brief stints as other venues (Toppers and ??…I can’t remember the other name) – nothing had really changed other then the name but they never pulled off the music scene that Mojos had. The buildings were sold around 1987 to an ex-Oakland Raider (Mario Celotto) who started the Humboldt Brewery in the building that previously had housed the Red Pepper. They remodeled Mojos and reopened it as The International Beer Garden, under which it was operated until the early 1990’s. The venue was poorly managed by the brewery and hence not seen as a “money maker”, so they sadly gutted the building, including the bowling lane floors, and turned it into a production facility for their low quality micro brew. Sadly this was the death of the last sizeable dance hall in Arcata and the local music scene has suffered ever since. A smaller venue was opened on the plaza around 1993 (Brew and Beats) that changed ownership/management and became Cafe Tomo around 1996. Cafe Tomo was substantially smaller then Mojos but still attracted excellent shows until landlord disputes led to its closure in late 2001. Arcata’s music scene has never been the same since Mojos closed and once the Humboldt Brewery gutted the building, they removed the last hope of a venue of this size and type ever occuring in Arcata again…many old-time Arcatans refuse to patronize this brewery for this reason (not to mention their beer has consistently been poor since they opened). So as a tribute to a sadly lost music scene and a tribute to the almost forgotten venue that housed the last JGB shows in Arcata, please boycott Humboldt Brewery’s beer next time you’re grabbing a six pack at the store (they market their Red Nectar Ale and other swill throughout much of the west coast and possibly further points beyond).
Jerry Garcia Band 05-17-1994 Starlight Bowl San Diego, CA
Disc 1 – Set 1 01 Cats Under The Stars [10:48] 02 Waiting For A Miracle [06:55] 03 I Shall Be Released [10:14] 04 That’s What Love Will Make You Do [07:57] 05 Lay Down Sally [10:53] 06 My Sisters And Brothers [04:26] 07 Everybody Needs Somebody To Love [10:43] Total time: 61:58
Disc 2 – Set 2 01 The Way You Do The Things You Do [14:01] 02 The Maker [10:42] 03 Russian Lullaby [10:19] 04 Think [07:13] 05 Reuben And Cherise [08:29] 06 Gomorrah > [05:19] 07 Midnight Moonlight [06:42] Total time: 62:46
