I spent the last two evenings with Dark Star Orchestra at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Friday night they played 6/7/77, very much in the band’s wheelhouse for all incarnations. But last night they covered some new ground: an April 1969 show that had originally happened in the ballroom right next door to where we were!
This new edition of the Dark Star Orchestra is a bit less reverent and a good deal more aggressive than the last, while clearly remaining respectful of the tradition they are inhabiting. Jeff Mattson is a more muscular guitarist than his predecessor, John Kadlecik. John is now doing great work with Furthur, and Jeff is driving DSO to new places. Everybody wins! Bassist Kevin Rosen has stepped up, too, playing with the same fierceness that Jeff brings. The whole band is delivering: Rob Barraco is covering the Pigpen vocals, and he is also covering Phil’s vocals in this configuration (good for the music, however offensive to the few who get all dogmatic about this stuff). Drummers Rob Koritz and Dino English dug into their dual trap-kit excursions with the same sense of entrainment that you hear crackling off the tapes we’ve been hooked on for all these years. Rhythm guitarist Rob Eaton, who has done a magnificent job of tracking the changes in Bob Weir’s playing style and hardware through the ears, is right on top of his mission here as well.
Most of the people who call themselves Deadheads came on board during the era of the avuncular, laid-back, gray-haired and overweight Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead of 1969 and 1970, led by a thin and black-haired Garcia, delivered a much more in-your-face musical attack. DSO portrayed that astonishingly well last night. I want to hear more Pigpen-era stuff from these guys.
Amazing that this music is powerful enough to incarnate itself in multiple places, and in multiple phases, today. Bob Weir and Phil Lesh are indeed taking it “furthur” with a new band, continuing their mutual evolution in a most satisfying way. And Dark Star Orchestra is continuing an earlier conversation that has come nowhere close to exhausting its possibilities. And of course there are tons of musicians out there playing Grateful Dead music, and Grateful Dead-inspired music. The David Nelson Band works a similar conversational style with a sightly different vocabulary.
This is music that gets people high. It gets you high to play it, and it gets you high to dance to it, and it gets you high to close your eyes and listen to it with all your might. It got me high to watch my friends engaging in this inspired and accomplished musical discourse at such a deep and serious level: I had no problem at all believing that this was what the Grateful Dead sounded like 40 years ago.
Jeff brings a whole new attitude to playing lead in DSO. It’s the attitude Jerry used to have only with more testosterone. As a motorcycle racer I love the new power. The new DSO is primal and energizing. The young nubiles in my vicinity were a bit slow to warm to it, but after a while they melted into the music. It was primal and TODAY. Forget about the fact the song list is from a previous gig som eother guys played, DSO makes TODAY wonderful. Let’s start talking about how great DSO is on their own merits.
David, I have to thank you for this because I feel that DSO is an untapped resource that play some of the best music around! I myself stayed away for years after being told, you have to see this band that plays Grateful Dead show in their entirety. I just couldn’t believe it so we finally went and we were blown away! We’ve seen them every time they come to the area and we’ve even gone on road trips to see them!
We are probably going to see them on New Years Eve in Connecticut.
They have so much energy and they are spot on with there renditions of Dead shows. All I can say is, catch them if you can!
Just saw DSO play 6-5-69….. I said the same thing, the power was undeniable!! It sounded so authentic! It was Electric,,Dew opener, couldn’t get higher !!!!
LOVE DSO!
dino english rocks… long live dino!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ‘ve loved these guys for years. And it’s hard to talk heads in to checking them out . But once and they’re hooked. I do street work for them here in K.C.Finially got Rick the DJ for the dead hour to go and now he plays their cuts all the time .
Go and your legs will be sore for daze Peace
Thanks for this writeup, David…I did get on the bus in the early 70’s, and I do close my eyes to see that slim, dark-haired Garcia onstage with the lean, driving version of the Grateful Dead. We missed DSO here in minneapolis this tour, but I’ll be there next time. Sounds like the SF run was one not to be missed. Thanks.
Thank you David for the fantastic write up of the current edition of DSO. They visited Omaha in early November and it had been since 2003 that they were here. I wasn’t able to see Furthur in Ames, IA. a few days later so DSO’s visit was a very welcome dose of Grateful Dead music that was just what I needed to hear at the time. They played 9/23/72 that night and it was my first time hearing Jeff play and needless to say, I was completely blown away at their continued uncanny ability to transform not only themselves but any audience member willing to take the journey with them. As Jerry said one time: “It was crackling with energy” that night like I hadn’t heard in the club they played at. If there was any disappointment at all it was that because it was a ’72 show, I didn’t get to hear Rob Barraco sing and I say that because I’ve heard him in the other editions of post Garcia bands that he has participated in and completely love his vision of how he interprets singing and playing Grateful Dead music. I sincerely hope that 7 years doesn’t go by before they pay their next visit to Omaha. We need as many visits by GD inspired bands as we can get around here because we are starved for that kind of inspiration that the music of the Grateful Dead provides, and that includes you David. Please come to Omaha when you can arrange it in your schedule!!!
Thanks for the nice writeup, David.
Dark Star orchestra continues to kick some serious GD butt!
I love the early stuff; I loved Jeff Mattson (and Rob B’s)
work with Zen Tricksters and they both bring
the mofo mojo to DSO!
(I originally typo’d “mofjo”.)
I think it’s a keeper!
Onward, dancin’!…
Great write-up about a great band.
Can’t wait to see them this Friday night in LA.
David:
Thanks for your perspective on this band, and the always changing music of the GD. I was so very fortunate to be there Sat. for the supurb 1969 show. I’ve only heard DSO a few times, so was not making comparrisons to the new vs. old DSO, but I was curious: has DSO played many 60s shows? I doubt there is a DEADBASE for DSO for me to check.
Makes me wish I’d been there. (Though on the whole, I’d generally rather be in SF anyway.) Re “mofjo” — cool coinage, I wouldn’t refudiate it.
David: I don’t think DSO did much Pigpen-era stuff before, because they didn’t have a player to inhabit that role. At least, I think that was the reasoning. Rob Barraco and Jeff Mattson, who played together for years in the Zen Tricksters, have brought a new approach to DSO. This is my understanding from a distance, mind you – I wasn’t there for the conversations that led to this change. But I approve of it wholeheartedly: this music does not require a “Pigpen imitator” – Barraco can sing it just fine, and he can play the organ in Pig’s style just as brilliantly as he cops Keith Godchaux’s and Brent Mydland’s licks.
I believe that DSO is only this year tackling older shows. I’ve never had a bad DSO show, how many bands can you say that about? Thanks David.
Fantastic review David! Thank you! These guys are going strong, just as you said. I had a similar experience below:
http://www.archive.org/details/dso2010-07-31.dpa.4023.flac16
Great Show. Mattson brings it. I have video of some of the show up on youtube.
Starting with Duprees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKbWjALZ3IU
#1….all this cover band stuff’s absolutely trush…what’s a point?DSO guys should not waste their own talent(if they got any) on re-playin’ such ‘n’ such set and so on ..but play somethin’ original or at least more challengin’…..as for all of you Dheads or what ever you call yourself get the LIFE while is still available!
#2 GD was a one of the greatest bands to roam this earth…till 1972….after that they were just another rich group of guys in a band.PERIOD!…As they say..life goes on…WITH OR WITHOUT::!!!
Thanks for the review David. Flying to Tempe Wednesday then back to Denver for Saturday’s Fillmore show.
Hope to see you again real soon,
Looky