Dark Star
I, never in life, would have thought I would voice some of what is going to follow…
Don presented us with a very cool Christmas gift, but the catch was that we had to wait over 9 months to use it. Tickets to go see one of my favourite bands ever. Hot Tuna. But they were just the opener for Dark Star Orchestra. I had seen the DSO once previously, and although I am not usually a fan of cover bands, sometimes you just have to make exceptions.
For those of you who do not know (and I can’t believe that would be many), the DSO are a Grateful Dead cover band. As you will come to read, I think that they are maybe a bit more than that.
What these guys do for the most part is faithfully recreate Grateful Dead concerts from history. Song by song. Note by note. On occasion they will just wing it Dead style, but predominately they play historical shows. As the Dead played so very many concerts, there certainly is no shortage of material.
This particular show that we were going to see was from September 8 1983, and was performed at the very same venue: Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Classic! Arguably the best location the Dead ever played at, and one that they played 20 times in their history, starting in 1978. Seems like a lot but it pales in comparison to the 59 shows played at each of the Carousel / Filmore West and Winterland; Or the 66 shows at the Oakland Coliseum.
Finally the day of the concert arrives and we head out, but not without checking the weather forecast first. Rain! Well that clearly sucks, because Red Rocks is obviously outdoors. We grabbed some rain gear and some beverages and whatnot to keep us occupied in the line. If this had of been 1983, there is a good chance the forecast would have been wrong. Being that its 2019… not so much…
Sure enough Don, Doug, and I pull into the parking lot, and it’s raining. But only a light drizzle and we have our rain gear, so off we go to stand in line. Turns out the forecast is also for a line of thunderstorms to be passing through the area so there is a ‘hold’ on entry. So there we were standing on the steep East Stairs entrance line; now in a bit more than a drizzle. The rain was actually coming down pretty hard now. At least we were prepared. Many in line were only in shorts and t-shirts, and although everybody was getting a soaking, nobody was leaving. Doug, in the spirit of the day gives a beer to a guy, we end up seeing later.
There were some pretty loud and close thunderboomers, and still the huddled masses persevered. After a long while the storm front moved past us and the rain began to ease up considerably, and eventually the line started moving, and we were in. The lads were really chuffed that we were able to get seats so close to the stage. We were 8 or 9 rows back. We were by now close to 2 hours delayed, but there was an efficient stage crew cleaning the water off of the stage and removing tarps off of equipment. One of the concerns is that Red Rocks has a last song curfew because of some noise ordinances, and we wondered how that might play out because of the late start. We bought some obligatory $10.00 beers and of course there was a wee bit of smoke going around. Nothing really left to do but smile, smile, smile.
I’ve seen Hot Tuna many times. They play both acoustic shows and electric shows. This night was electric. And it was electric. Jorma, and Jack came on stage pretty quickly, all bundled up against the cool damp air. Remember that these cats are 79 and 75 respectively. You wouldn’t realize it though. They played great. It was Doug and Don’s first time seeing them, and they were digging it. They rocked through a bunch of classic numbers like Hesitation Blues, and Bowlegged Woman and Knock-Kneed Man. Jack was having a really good night, and so were we. By this time the clouds had moved off revealing a beautiful moonlit night.
Electric Hot Tuna
The crowd was digging it as well, but you could tell that they were really here for DSO. They looked just like a crowd from back in the day. Pretty much straight up freak street Kathmandu. We had been talking to a fair number of folks including one dude we called Jersey Mike. By this point in the proceedings whatever he had dropped was starting to take full effect, and he was flyin’. Jersey Mike, like some of the others we talked to were basically following the band around and had seen them recently as the prior night. So, get this… not only is DSO playing a tour, they have followers. Remind you of any band?
Dark Star Orchestra
The Dead didn’t waste anytime that night 36 years ago, and DSO didn’t waste anytime either as they launched right into one of the most classic show-openers: Shakedown Street, and from there on it was one iconic song after another following the original set-list. These guys are actually starting to morph into the Dead. Granted nobody will ever sound like Jerry, but they sound pretty good and even are starting to look like them. Jeff Mattson has even got to playing a Tiger guitar, and has been fortunate enough to play Wolf. These guys are the real deal and 6 Dead alumni have played with them. At one point in time I thought that I would never really hear this music again, but not as it turns out I was wrong. If you look closely at their logo it really says it all.
The boys were pretty mellowed out by now. This girl behind us was generous with her smoke and it was some potent stuff to be sure, and it really took the second set off to another plane. Maybe it was mescalito’s cousin, but I swear this concert was better than some of real Dead shows I’ve been to. .
A cloudless sky for the show
Tim Leary said you have to come down from every high, and all good shows must come to an end; as did this one with another classic: Its All Over Now Baby Blue; but to our surprise they played an additional encore song that I’m sure wasn’t on the set-list. I’m sure it was a tip of the hat to Jorma and Jack: White Rabbit
In true to psychedelic form, the clouds started moving back in and the first drops of rain began to fall on the last note…
9/8/83 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison CO
Shakedown Street
Mama Tried
Big River
Ramble on Rose
Hell in a Bucket
Brown-Eyed Women
Looks Like Rain
Deal
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Estimated Prophet
Terrapin Station
Drums
Space
Throwing Stones
Black Peter
Around and Around
Good Lovin’
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
