wow, it really is dead around here (no pun intended)...so I'll say something.
I went to DSO New Years in Port Chester, NY.
The Cap is a highly acclaimed venue. In my experience, as someone who identifies as being a Deadhead and Dancer, is that the Venue is waaaaaay overrated. I don't even like it. Slanted GA floor? Really? And this is a venue run by Deadheads for Deadheads? Tear that floor out and put 2-3 flat tiers in.
The first night I spent a fair amount of the show dancing in Garcia's. They have the soundboard feed playing at high volume and a nice, flat, wooden dance floor. Some gawkers come with the territory but we let em gawk. On NYE I stopped by Garcia's and the volume was way down. Other parts of night 1 i spent in the back, under the balcony. The 1st set closing of 1/2 Step>Franklins>TMNS was deeply excellent, definitely one of my highlights of the weekend. 2nd set was good, I especially enjoyed the rockers at the end and of course Skip killing it on the encore ( can't think of the name, a song by The Band).
NYE was a different story. I was very excited to see Jeff play but was super bummed when I realized that DSO was only doing 2 sets. Been to almost every new years since 2005 and I can only think of a couple times that it wasn't 3 sets (2005 Higher ground comes to mind). The 1st set I was in my head and couldn't settle into a dance zone anywhere until Scarlet>Fire took hold. That was really good.
My friends convinced me to go way down front left for 2nd set. It was actually really fun, a bit tight but it was loud and we were IN IT. somebody said to me that this night was the loudest the sound has ever been at the CAP. I believe it as my head was ringing afterwards (also a common side effect after a 69 rager.....no resolution, ya know?). Everything was going great until the ballon drop. PLEASE DO NOT DO THE BALLOONS AGAIN. FUCK THE BALLOONS. What a mess. I was swimming in balloons. I must have popped upwards of 100 and it did seemingly nothing. I had to retreat out of the pit and into the back but it felt weird there so I went back in. The Viola Lee that came out of the NYE countdown was, IMO, pretty weak by DSO standards. which is to say that I've come to expect them to climax into tearing a small hole in the space time continuum and then depositing us back on our feet. This one barely seemed to climax at all...I blame the chaos from the Balloons. FUCK THE BALLOONS. The remainder of the set was good, not great. Dupree's>the Eleven was utterly fantastic. Overall the night was good but I've had so many NYE's be 'best night ever' material and this one just didn't make it there. Maybe it was just me....who knows?
Okay one more complaint. Oh Darlin>Love the One you're with has been done 3x as in Encore in the last 2 months. I saw it at Penn's Peak. It was so freakin cool that time. Then I saw that they did it in Long Island and I thought, 'hmmm, that's weird.'. now it feels totally played out. just my opinion, take it or leave it~
Thank you Dark Star Orchestra band and crew. You deliver the best product on the market and I will be back.
