Thursday, November 8, 1990
The Grateful Dead
come back to life
Robb Frederick
The Collegian
There's nothing quite like a
Grateful Dead concert.
For 25 years, the band has
mesmerized audiences with raw
harmonies, flowing solos and an
unparalleled stage spontaneity.
It's been ten years since the
Grateful Dead last tried to capture
the magical sound of their live
performances. Without a Net, a
polished sampling of 16 songs
that weighs in at a whopping
140-plus minutes, comes close to
achieving that goal.
Recorded live between October
1989 and April 1990, the tracks
on Without a Net demonstrate the
musical improvisation that has
become the centerpiece of the
band's sound. Several songs flow
beyond the 15-minute mark as
group members exchange solos
and explore the possibilities of
The true value of Without a Net is its
technical superiority to the band's
other live recordings.
each groove.
The material on Without a
Net spans the band's career and
settles on some usually
overshadowed gems. Sure, the
Dead could have released new
versions of "Truckin'," "Touch of
Grey" and "Sugar Magnolia," but
most fans already have several
bootlegged versions of each.
Instead, Without a Net serves
up respectable renditions of
"Looks Like Rain," "Cassidy," a
great "China Cat Sunflower / I
Know You Rider" jam, and more.
The flowing mix of "Help on
the Way / Slipknot! / Franklin's
Tower" is incredible, and a guest
appearance by Branford Marsalis
perfectly accentuates a 16-minute
version of "Eyes of the World."
Marsalis' airy saxophone
compliments the alternating
guitars of Jerry Garcia and Bob
Weir and provides an unusual
twist to the Dead classic.
The often covered "Dear Mr.
Fantasy" closes the two-disc
package, appropriately ending the
Dead's latest with a performance
by late keyboardist Brent
Mydland, who died of an overdose
in July.
Although well chosen, the
performances on Without a Net
are typically uninspired. Since
the band allows taping of their
shows, many heads may already
have better reditions of these
tracks.
But those bootlegged tapes
pale in comparison to the
fantastic recording quality and
engineering that goes into
professional recadings.
The true value of Without a
Net is its .technical superiority to
the band's other live recordings.
Tripping fans don't bump into
the microphones, and the tape
doesn't run out and prematurely
end a fantastic jam. And it's even
better on CD.
The release's packaging,
unfortunately, fails to maintain
the high quality of Without a
Net. The liner notes include some
great color photos and the typical
record sleeve "thank-yous," but
never mentions where the songs
were recorded.
The exclusion may be a minor
oversight, but for fans who want
to find bootlegs and hear the
continuation of a particular set,
the oversight is extremely
frustrating.
For the most part, Without a
Net is a good investment for
Dead purists. The overall sound
quality offers a welcome break
from third-generation bootlegs
that are plagued with microphone
trouble and annoying feedback,
and the performances are solid
enough to remind fans of the live
magic of the Grateful Dead.
The Collegian
Entertainment
Eastman Opera Theatre performs
condensed "La Boheme" in Reed
Tradgedy in Reed:
perform a scene from
Mark Owens
The Collegian
Opera not Oprah, the larger
than-life talk show host has a
lot of stereotypical baggage:
long-winded praformances,largb;
helmet-wearing women named
Brunhilda singing in unknown
languages and snooty old women
with broken binoculars.
So leave it to The Eastman
Opera Theatre to pack all of that
baggage and ship it off on the
nearest Federal Express Valkarie -
- which they did with this past
Monday's riveting, English
version of "La Boheme" in the
Winter Garden.
The troupe, hailing from the
world-renowned Eastman School
of Music in Rochester, NY,
perfoimed the opera as part of the
new Logan Wintergarden Series,
designed to introduce college
students to classical forms of art.
According to David Stuntz,
Director Of Music at Behrend,
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Mark Owaufrhe Collegian
Two members of the Eastman Opera Theatre
"La Boheme" in the Wintergarden Monday.
Monday's performance strayed
from the classical stage.
"The performance we saw was
an opera, and wasn't. Normally,
operas last anywhere from two to
three hours and are non-stopped
singing. In this version, the
director (Richard Pearlman) took
the most crucial scenes and put
them together to give us a
condensed version of "La
Boheme," he said.
The opera, according to
Stuntz, was completely re-written
by Pearlman with this type of
performance in mind. "What we
got was vastly superior to the
"selections from" approach,
which looses all of the drama.
Pearlman's version leaves both
the drama and the storyline
intact."
Stuntz added a performance
like this is important because
opera in America faces several
problems.
"Opera not only has all of the
Bugs Bunnyish stereotypes, but
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is also viewed as a European
import -- something different and
foreign. If opera is going to
survive and grow in America, it
needs to establish an identity of
it's own," he said.
English translations of classic
opera productions won't be
enough though. American topics
and ideas will also have to be
explored.
"There's an opera coming out
soon called 'Nixon in China'
which deals with an important
time in American history," said
Stuntz. "I'm not sure what it's
about, but that's the kind of thing
opera needs to do to survive in
this country -- broaden its base."
Increasing the number of
people who listen and watch
clatsical performances is the
purpose of the Logan
Wintergarden Series. "What we've
done is take classical
performances off of the stage and
bring them out onto the
sidewalk," said Stuntz.