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Fans grateful DSO does the Dead |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 05 April 2007 |
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 “It’s definitely 1985,” the guys next to me said suddenly.
“Yeah, man,” his buddy, offered. “I think East Coast, maybe Pittsburgh.”
“No, Pittsburgh opened with ‘Shakedown Street,’ ” the first guy countered.
“Syracuse then,” the buddy opined again.
Such is the spectacle (and fun) of a Dark Star Orchestra concert. Most people come to hear the band replay a vintage Grateful Dead concert in its entirety, song by song. Others come to pick each show apart, song-by-song, and test their Deadheadness and irrefutable knowledge that they know the Dead better than the Dead ever did.
The two guys went on, all show, song by song, attempting to breakdown the set list to a specific place and date. They bobbed and weaved, but their brains were too busy accessing their internal “Dead Base” to notice the women in peasant dresses and men in baggy tie-dyes swirling around them.
“It’s not all about the music, the music is a piece of it,” explained Rob Eaton, DSO’s “Bob Weir” element. “It is a cultural thing. The music is what brings all the people together, but it’s much deeper than that, the cognitive feelings about politics, the environment and how we live our lives. It is what happens when everyone got together that made it really special. The GD community is a very specific group of people.”
On stage, DSO was deep in the groove with Eaton lunging forward with pinpoint down strokes while John Kadlecik tore through a quintessential Jerry Garcia lead.
“Merriweather Post,” the buddy called out. “This definitely has that energy now.”
“No, I was there,” the first guy reminded him. “This definitely is not Merriweather Post Pavilion.”
Part of the guessing game comes from the fact that DSO, while playing any one of the Grateful Dead’s 2,500 concerts, play in their way and they do not mimic the Dead note for note, motion for motion, as many believe. Occasionally the stage set up, instruments or players, shift with the original time period, but DSO is more about a near-historical accuracy than being an exact copycat cover band.
“We don’t think about tying to sound or be like any of them … it’s pretty loose,” Eaton said. “The formula behind it is that there is not really a formula. … Basically, what we do is 90 percent improvisation and it is inherent to our music on a nightly basis. We follow an outline of what the Grateful Dead did as far as song structure and the order of a show they did, but also music in between those lines is all improvisation. There is no rhyme or reason to it. ”
“Chicago, Soldier Field. It’s got to be.”
“Dude, give it up!”
DSO began in 1997 as a “fun little side project” that allowed the members to share in their joy for the Grateful Dead away from their other groups. Since then, Dead “luminaries” such as Betty Cantor Jackson, Wavy Gravy and Mountain Girl have witnessed shows and, with high praise, original Dead band members have joined DSO on stage.
To date, DSO has performed more than 1,000 Grateful Dead concerts, plus a few “original Dead shows” of their own making.
“This was not a planned event at all. It just kind of snowballed into what it is,” Eaton emphasized. “There is no master plan involved. We’ll stop playing when people stop coming.”
Oh, and the show? I didn’t stick around long enough to find out, but I am definitely certain it was West Coast 1987.
Guys, keep your day jobs.
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FEELING WEIRY
Ask Dark Star Orchestra rhythm guitarist Rob Eaton about his “interpretation” of Bob Weir and he gets a little testy. Physically, Eaton is much taller with a bushy shock of hair, yet he moves and jesters in the manner of Weir, striding up to the mic or stepping into a chord in true Weir-style. Eaton dismisses any similarities as pure coincidence.
“Well, I don’t see it. I don’t know where these ideas come from,” he explained with some exasperation. “There is nothing that is done consciously. There’s never been something practiced, never something I’ve tried to do. I started playing guitar when I was 12-years-old … because I was inspired by Bob. In the sense that I play like him, he was my teacher and that’s just how I learned. As far playing, all I can think of is that playing rhythm guitar in that style looks that way. I can’t explain it any other way.”
COVER UP
As with any cover band, there is the nagging question that if a group of musicians is competent enough, why perform someone else’s material? Eaton offered another perspective, and explained that jazz musicians regularly cover classic pieces, just as symphonies feature Beethoven or Bach. Much of what the Dead performed was actually cover tunes. In essence, DSO performs songs that the Dead played, but weren’t theirs either.
“Over half their material was cover songs,” he said. “In essence, we’re just following in their footsteps. People think all the songs are Dead songs but they’re really not. We just know the Dead’s interpretation of them.”
GLENN BURNSILVER
———— TO GO TO THE SHOWDark Star Orchestra 8 p.m. doors Wednesday and Thursday, April 11 and 12 Aggie Theatre 204 S. College Ave. Fort Collins 482.8300 $22.50 per night, $35 both nights. www.darkstarorchestra.netwith White Water Ramble on April 11 and The Waybacks on April 12 ———— | Only registered users can write comments.
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