The Grateful Dead are my favorite band. A lot of people scoff when I tell them that. It’s not like I’m not well aware that it would sound much cooler and impressive if I said it was Can or Brian Eno, or Yoko Ono, or possibly their top-secret love child, Yoko Eno Jr. (she’s in an obscure Japanese noise rock band that only communicates by clicks and triangle chimes. They kick ass).

But the truth, I really don’t care. The Grateful Dead were/are awesome and I say that with the zeal of the converted. Truth is, I used to loath the Dead, finding them long-winded and boring, with the exception of the video for “Touch of Grey.” Which was obviously awesome. In fact, it was only four years ago when I got past by the hippie-burnout baggage and finally learned to appreciate them.

However, it has only been in the last year and a half, after delving into the band’s endless array of bootlegs and Dick’s Picks compilations, when I started to seriously entertain the thought that maybe they might be my favorite band ever. And even then, it still seemed like awfully high praise for a band with only two objectively great studio albums. But last weekend was a stark reminder why I eventually decided to take this long and strange trip in the first place, a journey that indirectly took me to Tennessee (where I did not play a game of horseshoes) and more recently the El Rey on Saturday night, to see the world’s greatest Grateful Dead cover band, the Dark Star Orchestra. But as strong as the band’s ability to channel the Dead was, the minor epiphany actually occurred during a conversation that I had between sets.

Admit It: Skulls And Lightning Look Cool

While waiting in line lamenting the fact that none of us had remembered to sneak a J in, my friends and I ended up talking with an amiable hippie seeing DSO for his second night in a row. The night previous, he’d gone with his father for what he described as “therapy” and the show had been so good he decided to drive the hour-plus from Orange County just to see the band again. And despite how how peace, love & harmony he made his love of the Dead sound, I have to admit that I completely understood where he was coming from. Watching the Dark Star Orchestra, one felt a a sort of catharsis as the band re-animated the Dead’s October 12th, 1984 show in Augusta, Ga., warts, synths and all, complete with a devastating show-stopping rendition of “Morning Dew.”

Bonded by our shared ardor for the Dead, my friends and our new hippie pal, starting arguing about our favorite era of the Dead (this is apparently, what Deadheads do in the interim stretches between doing drugs). I’m partial to the electric blues and orange sunshine-laced shows from the late 60s. While my friend dismissed the period as “not having enough good songs in the set list yet,” instead opting for the shiny disco-funk of the late 70s. New hippy friend (who thankfully came more suitably prepared to the show than us), had high praise for the Europe ‘72 era. We all nodded our heads with mutual respect at the difference of opinion, when my friend pointed out the obvious fact that what makes the Dead so special is their ability to get three seemingly normal people to turn out to see a Dead cover band, despite appreciating vastly different era.

The exchange served as yet another reminder of the sheer breadth of the body of work that the Dead left behind, with each show unique in its own right, preserved and cataloged thanks to the good people at the Internet Archive. As for the DSO, it’s been said before, but the orchestra portion of their name is certainly apt. More than just a cover band, they’re curators of the Dead’s musical legacy, allowing those of us who never had the chance to see the Dead to view the closest approximation possible. I’ve written about these guys before and I’ll probably write about them again, so I’ll spare the specifics. But if you like the Dead, you should most certainly check out the DSO the next time they come through your city. It’s a lot cheaper than therapy.

Download:

From Ithaca: 30 Years Later
MP3: Dark Star Orchestra-”Loser”
MP3: Dark Star Orchestra-”Brown-Eyed Woman”

Stream:

The Grateful Dead: Live at Augusta Civic Center-10/12-84

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 12:27 am and is filed under Beards, Blazers, & Glasses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.