In Anticipation of Dark Star Orchestra's SoCal Swing
In a few weeks, my wife and I will be embarking on a 3-day trip to watch three Dark Star Orchestra concerts. We're seeing them at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Sound in Del Mar, and Ventura Music Hall in Ventura. I truly think DSO is the best Dead tribute band touring right now. To me, this is the most accurate group I've ever heard.l, embodying both the sound and spirit of the Grateful Dead. But in concrete terms, you have three aspects that other dead cover bands don't have as well. 1) Vocal matches from Jeff Mattson, Rob Eaton and Lisa Mackey. Mattson and Eaton in particular sound like Garcia and Weir in the late 80s, and Mackey is spot-on as Donna Jean Godchaux. 2) Skip has the brightest, clearest bass tone since Phil Lesh himself. Actually plays like Phil, taking leads and generally doing his own thing 3) Rob Barraco is Pigpen on vocals and Brent on keys. It's one thing to perform "Turn Your Lovelight", but it's quite another to recreate Pigpen...
