Hardpan

Looks like a great time, nice review TB, hope to see more of them from you. Rocks are brutal on the feet, glad you all persevered and hopefully find some clearer ground tonight, have fun!!

Great write up, John, love the details 😃

Thanks guys, a lot to read, but if I make a review, I like to write down as much as I can so I can remember as much as possible 😀 I couldn’t find it, I’m sure it was good though 😀

This show completely floored me, and at the time, I felt like I had never seen them play better. I think this one will stand out in my memory as one of my best shows. We took up residence once again behind the soundboard, and the space held a great family vibe, surrounded by friends and strangers with smiling faces, playing children, and lovely cooler weather in the low 70s, with the 90 degree heat and oppressive humidity broken, a golden midsummer evening was setting the stage for a perfect night of music. The band began with Corrina, and it has grown on me, seeing it often as one of the band’s go to elective songs. It acted as a prelude for what really got the show going, Morning Dew, and it was great to see the unfolding scene bathed in the beautiful golden light of sunset. Jack Straw picked up where the Dew left off, killer. I called Tom Thumb’s a song early, pretty easy call as they seem to like that one for electives, too. Minglewood ripped, with dancers responding eagerly. Dupree’s was fun, and I came to the realization that it reminds me of ducks. I spent most of the song quacking and even doing some duck wing moves to amuse myself. Let It Grow was another high energy romp, and I figured it would be the set closer, but the band launched into Deal. It felt pretty standard, until maybe the third instrumental go round at the end. Skip began to dig in with some killer lines that cut right thru the mix at the end of that go round, with Jeff immediately responding and taking the band into orbit. They went thru it several more times, with Jeff ripping it and Skip fanning the flames, leaving us spent and gasping for air. Second set began with Scarlet >Fire, a welcome treat, and one we’ve been missing for quite a while, with our last one coming at Red Rocks 2019, a gap of 25 shows, so it was a lot of fun. Keep on Growing has really grown on me, love it now. Drums was a welcome breather, and Iko came in with a nice medium tempo, with Jeff adding a verse I’ve never heard: “see that girl all dressed in green (iko iko…), she’s got a pistol where you can’t see…” “see that girl all dressed in red (iko iko…) bet your life she’ll kill you dead…” or something similar. Jake called the Sing Me Back Home during drums, a great call and highlight of the night. I moved to the side of the soundboard to watch the band deliver the song, and while I’ve choked up at shows, I’ve never been as overcome with emotion as I was during this song. It felt like one of those times when the band was playing just for me, a memory I will treasure. After this tender rendition, the band closed out the set by shaking the earth with One More Saturday Night. I once again resumed twirling, running around in circles, pounding the ground with my feet, and just generally setting my body up for feeling completely hobbled the next morning. It was a lot of fun 😃

This show was fun. Excitement running high seeing the early style stage setup, figured we were in for a treat, and we were right. The band came out swinging with Casey Jones and half of China Cat, stopping abruptly and telling us to all seek shelter. Uh oh 😳😳. The rain delay was enjoyably spent in a little pondside gazebo, and really didn’t really get too weird, considering. It rained hard and we had a nice lightning show. Upon returning to the sounds of the band getting tuned back up, we took up residence behind the soundboard. We had plenty of space, although people were all walking thru trying to find their spot and despite the general weirdness of the rain delay, we had fun. Back to the campsite (it was close) to fortify ourselves, and to our pleasure and surprise, it looked like many people decided to stay at their camp for set two, at least in our area. Second set came on like “normal”, the screwy rain delay headspace I think we all occupied was gone, and we proceeded to get it done, band and dancers. The entire second set was killer. Such a luxury to camp and not have to leave, we went back to camp, some snacks and drinks, milled around, 3am cold shower (evidently they shut off the hot water at night 🥶), got to sleep around 5, overall it was a splendid time 😃

Corrina > Morning Dew Jack Straw Dire Wolf Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Minglewood Dupree's Diamond Blues Let It Grow > drums > Let It Grow > Deal Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain Keep On Growing > drums > space > Iko Iko > Sing Me Back Home > One More Saturday Night Encore: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

I did a little detective work this morning after seeing that partial list posted, and the only show they ever played all those songs at was 2/4/79, so possibly that one. I saw a couple pics of the show last night, Jeff center stage with The Bean, Skip to the right with his Alembic, looks right for what DSO does for this era. Wake up Greg, enough rest!!

That sounds like the perfect venue, thanks for the info, see you there 😃

They just posted the schedule. DSO on Friday and Saturday ⚡️⚡️⚡️

I saw Eaton mention in a Facebook comment a while ago that they’re playing Friday and Saturday, but I would imagine that it’s not official until the lineup is announced. I recently saw that they plan to release the schedule soon, hopefully, see you there!

Looking forward to these shows. Pat Garrett Amphitheatre looks like a great venue, outdoor bandshell and stage with a big grassy field, general admission only 35 bucks plus fees. Apple Valley is being sold as pods with a GA section. Camping very nearby at a place called Wonderland Forest, looks nice with waterfalls and swimming holes, link on the Apple Valley website, gonna be fun 😎

Desolation is on my hope to catch list, too. Great looking first set ⚡️⚡️

Who’s going? Hope to see/meet some of you there. Melvin Seals is doing a four night run from July 1-4 at So Many Roads Brewery in Denver, a pretty nice run up to the DSO show if anyone is looking for something additional to do. We’re getting in on July 4, headed to the brewery that night and dearly looking forward to DSO’s triumphant return to Red Rocks. Our last full capacity show was Melvin at the Cap on 3/7/20, cool coincidence that our next one is also Melvin in Denver (assuming full capacity). Getting excited 😎

It is all subjective. We don’t have the wealth of recordings available to pore over that the Grateful Dead has available, so really any “greatest” show will be from your own subjective experience. It’s completely the opposite as far as Grateful Dead greatest shows are complied, how many people does anyone know in real life who attended 8/27/72, for example? DSO plays at such a consistently high level that it is tough for me to musically pick out a greatest show. What stands out for me are the times with people: 1. New Haven fall 2016, my first show back to seeing these guys after an 11 year hiatus, Barraco on bass and Chimenti on keys. It made me want to come back. 2. Capitol Theater spring 2018, the first show that me and Jake attended together. They played 9/18/87. We started becoming friends again after that night and are tight now as brothers should be. Also decided I was going to start taping the band that night. 3. Hampton Beach summer 2018, first time taping, Cotter and the tapers I met welcomed me as one of their own, which was nice, as I hadn’t made any friends yet really. Met sml that summer through a dear taper friend (you met Jeannie briefly at the bus the other night MC) 4. Anthem Fall 2018, met Bill K, Greg From C-Town, LikeEveryone, Rude, Tea and Gratefulpair, my first time meeting some people from the forum, felt good make real life friends with people I interact with online. 5. Jubilee 2019, met MC, Mango, and the rest of the kind and gentle hearted crew we were blessed to camp and become friends with that weekend. Night three was the first time I truly felt free to dance, among new friends, flying on the wings of love. I learned that night that I’m really not a taper, and that I come to concerts to fly freely. To MC, my apologies for my ego’s especially long winded response to your ego’s skepticism of anyone who isn’t in the 300 club’s opinion of greatest show. You’re among peers here, MC. Take my opinion with a grain of salt, having seen only around 85 shows since starting up again. Everyone here in the forum is dedicated enough to be here and contributing to the discussion, and to hear the 300 thing from a long timer as yourself could be discouraging the participation to some. Your level of dedication is inspiring, I know I’ll never hit the 500 club. No hard feelings to you, I just wanted to offer the perspective of someone who hasn’t seen 300 shows yet still considers DSO an oasis in the storm. I like you and I know if I see you at a show, there will be at least one more person there leaving everything out there on the dance floor. See you soon, I hope!

What a great shirt, story, smiles, and pics, so cool😃

Thanks to Toaste for recording this!! He had his stuff set up for the duration and said his stand endured a fall during Spoonful. Great sounding recordings 🥰 https://archive.org/details/dso2021-05-28.AKGmix.flac16

Thanks to Toaste for recording this!! He had his stuff set up for the duration 😃 https://archive.org/details/dso2021-05-29.AKGmix.flac16

What a great show. A damp, windy, bone chilling day, but the band played superbly in the face of it. Awesome spots front and center shared among many good friends thanks to the kindness of Pat and MC. Seeing the Beast and GS-1 on stage had me excited for an 80s ripper, just what I was hoping for, and a ripper it was. Cotter had the sound dialed in so perfectly, really great to hear him work his magic on a big sound system after so long. I remember lot of this show as an exuberant blur. El Paso stands out in the first set as high energy. Hearing Supplication emerge out of Crazy Fingers was awesome. Ellie was given a heartfelt farewell from the stage by Eaton, a touching moment, followed by Hell in a Bucket, which I really wanted to hear more than anything, and it was just what the Dr. ordered, raunchy and hot. The band took the stage for set 2, tuning up with Stranger in the air. Great, lush keyboard tones from Barraco, he sounded amazing. Stranger got the dance floor worked up into a happy frenzy, which continued with Eyes. A light rain began to fall along with a cross breeze, and the lighting caught it perfectly, creating the effect of millions of swirling speckles. It was beautiful. The fun continued with GDTRFB and Women are Smarter, and into drums. Drums was a highlight, with Koritz doing what sounded like a looping overlay thing with xylophone kind of sounds and Dino playing all of these woody sounding tones. They worked this all up for a while and then, seamlessly, Koritz started pounding on the big drums. I stood transfixed, fascinated with how 3D and huge the sound seemed to be as it came out of the musicians and into the air. As I was standing there thinking about this, a stranger came up and whacked me on the shoulder and said “you can really feel this in your heart”. It was one of many synchronicities me and that guy shared over the evening, when several times, as my mind began wandering and started thinking crazy things, we would catch each other’s eye and start laughing. It was pretty funny, and we made friends after the show. Truckin was high energy, had a great section of enthusiastic dancers with Bill K leading the charge! Walked back a bit and found more friends during Black Peter and Lovelight to close out the show. Went back up front for the encores, Baby Blue was like a warm embrace. Walked back to camp to get some dry clothes on and enjoyed the rest of the night. A long review, I guess I remembered more than I thought! As you can tell, it was a really fun night, thanks to everyone ❤️

Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY (6/27/85) Midnight Hour Bertha Little Red Rooster Stagger Lee El Paso Crazy Fingers Supplication High Time Hell in a Bucket Don't Ease Me In Feel Like a Stranger Eyes of the World Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad Man Smart/Woman Smarter drums Truckin' Spoonful Black Peter Turn on Your Love Light Johnny B. Goode Baby Blue

Trying to figure this one out, gonna give it a shot. Lots of logistics for a single show, but it’s a big one, and their first full capacity show. Hoping to work it out!

Wonder if there’s going to be a fall tour. A bunch of their venues are booking dates with other bands, hopefully there’s something in the works.

Got our tickets for this today. Sounds like a nice venue. DSO plus camping out among the stars, gonna be a nice time.

Strange Man, what a gem. Started out on Fred Astaire...😂. Looks like a great selection of stuff to finish up the weekend.

Saw a video on Facebook of Skip dancing during Truckin’ while his bass was down. Fun times to all attending tonight 😎

Skip sings all kinds of stuff for the “started out on” line, love that tune and hearing what he started out on always cracks me up. I’ve heard him say Diet Coke, Prilosec, microdot, etc.