Sweeping Up the Spotlight: Jefferson Airplane Live at the Fillmore East 1969  (Audio CD) 
by Jefferson Airplane

Sweeping Up the Spotlight: Live at the Fillmore East 1969 features the definitive edition of Jefferson Airplane, icons of 1960s psychedelic rock and political agitation. Jack Casady and Spencer Dryden hold down the free-floating rhythms on bass and drums, Jorma Kaukonen launches feedback-laced guitar solos, and Paul Kantner adds rhythm guitar and backing vocals. Topping it all are the voices of Marty Balin and the '60s acid queen, Grace Slick. In concert, the Airplane were always more rough and ready than on their acid-hued vinyl. Outside the studio, they were ramshackle and punky, which is why they were sometimes referenced when talking about punk bands like X, who also had male and female lead singers. Despite having six albums under their belt, mostly consisting of original material, the Airplane's live set has a lot of mediocre blues and folk filler. Some of their more characteristic repertoire is sacrificed to workman-like renditions of "Uncle Sam Blues" and "Come Back Baby," albeit with some ripping Kaukonen guitar solos. Balin's raucous rant on "You Wear Your Dresses too Short" is embarrassing in its soul-singer aspirations. Assuming this was their set sequence, it takes a while for the Airplane to congeal on stage. They ride roughshod over much of their materiel, but pull it together two-thirds of the way through on one of their most complex tunes, "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil." With its shifting time signatures and overlapping vocal lines and harmonies, it's a challenge to pull off live, but they do, with soaring vocals from Balin and Slick and a long instrumental jam with a fractured guitar solo from Kaukonen and a feature slot for bassist Casady, the most innovative and powerful bassist from that era. That paves the way for a darker version of "White Rabbit," the mock celebration of "Crown of Creation," and their show closer, a hyped rendition of Fred Neil's ballad "The Other Side of This Life." As they always did, the Jefferson Airplane land high. --John Diliberto