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's rap from 2-11-69, as I witnessed last year in Ventura. The man is incredibly skilled.

The quality of their playing and jamming is second to none, to the point where the listener simply takes it for granted.

I can't help but wonder if Bobby Weir's recent passing will have an effect on the shows. The band is known for recreating historical Dead setlists in many of their shows. Bearing that in mind, I am hoping they will attempt a show from 89-90, the year Weir regards as the band's peak. To his credit, that era had the most Bobby songs, and any show would make an excellent tribute to the "Banyan Tree" singer.

On that note, kinda glad I got the tickets in advance. Since Bobby's passing, they've all sold out, with the "in the door" price for the Wiltern at $300.

I really hope they perform "Estimated Prophet". That would be so sick, and I know my wife would LOVE it.