The 5/08/77 of Dark Star Orchestra.

[Greg from Chestertown]

I was just inspired to start this thread. Feel free to jump in an give your thoughts as to the best show ever of Dark Star Orchestra. My personal thoughts are, well, a show that I was at. My first show? That night in Philly when they played until ten after two? That night of the NYE run in Baltimore, the Jerry Band show  in Baltimore? Can’t be that show, gotta be a set list that most represents everything Grateful Dead, with killer, clean playing. Jump in, give your best ‘that’s just the way I feel.’ 

[gr8fulpair]

12-1-17, not even a close 2nd out there for me. A night I’ll never forget. 

[Tea]

5-23-15 Jubilee is right there

[Weather Command]

Mine was the only time dso played at delfest...08?  That was my one!!! 

[gr8fulpair]

4 hours ago, Tea said:

5-23-15 Jubilee is right there

Oh, it’s second for sure buddy, it’s just not that close. 😅

 

ps: 4-8-18 is third fo sho!!

[DesertDead]

10-11-14, Napa, was sorta fun.

 

Set One: Deep Elem Blues ; Dark Hollow ; Operator ; Box Of Rain ; California Earthquake ; On The Road Again ; Rosa Lee McFall ; *Rain ; It Makes No Difference ; Friend Of The Devil ; Wake Up Little Susie ; I've Been All Around This World ; Big Iron ; Ripple 

Set Two: Till The Morning Comes ; Sittin' On Top Of The World ; Dancing In The Street ; It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World ; Cryptical Envelopment > drums > The Other One > Dark Star > Saint Stephen > The Eleven > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment > Viola Lee Blues 

Encore: Alligator > And We Bid You Goodnight

[gr8fulpair]

Thx for showing professionalism DD. 
 

12-1-17 Norfolk, was set 1 elective and set 2 a 12-21-68 recreation.

 

Set One: Good Morning Little School Girl ; Down' That Rag ; Big Boy Pete ; Dupree's Diamond Blues ; Mountains Of The Moon > Saint Stephen > The Eleven > Viola Lee Blues 

Set Two: Turn On Your Lovelight ; Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment > It Hurts Me Too ; Alligator > Drums ; Alligator > Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) > Feedback > And We Bid You Good Night

Encore: Hard To Handle

 

5-23-15 Jubilee was 4-22-69 from the Ark!

 

4-8-18 Birmingham, recreating 3-6-76 JGB with Donna Jean!!

[DesertDead]

Damn, that 12-1-17 is relentless.

 

And I know that HTH has special attention from you, Gr8ful.  😎

[Dead duck]

Man that’s a tough one. I’m real bad about keeping shows separate in my mind. I remember highlights more than specific show details. 
Standouts for me include:

The acoustic show at Buskirk Chumley in Bloomington. My first Reuben and cherish, first Chimes of freedom

There was a truckin jam one year at a jubilee that almost ended me. Was the best I’d ever heard. 
 

A caution from express Live one year in Columbus was insane 

 

Indianapolis at the Vogue we got an “in the style of” ‘72 my first Two Souls in Communion

 

One year in Black Mountain there was a lovelight where the crowd was echoing Rob B that was super awesome 

 These are just the first moments that pop out to me. 

[August West]

5/19/2007 is the goods.

[Billy DeLyon]

Show: 2018
12/29/2011
Electric Factory

Philadelphia, PA

 

Set One:

Dire Wolf
The Race Is On
Jack-A-Roe
Monkey And The Engineer
It Must Have Been The Roses
Dark Hollow
Bird Song
To Lay Me Down
On The Road Again
Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie-> Ripple

 

Set Two:

Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo-> Franklin's Tower
Mama Tried-> Mexicali Blues
Row Jimmy
Little Red Rooster
Althea
Let It Grow
Deal

 

Set Three:

Cold Rain And Snow
C C Rider
Ramble On Rose
He's Gone-> The Other One-> Space-> Drums->Space-> Stella Blue
I Need A Miracle-> Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad-> Johnny B. Goode

Encore One More Saturday Night

Filler:
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)

 

GD Show Date

1980-09-27

Venue (GD)

Warfield Theatre

[Greg from Chestertown]

Was I there? Lisa on Kazoo? 

[2muchfun]

One of my fav shows was 1/31/2005 in Nashville.

Donna Jean taking turns and sharing with Lisa and a performance by Zion and Boombox at half time within the crowd.

Catfish John filler sticks with me.

[Tom Banjo]

I’m gonna have to disagree with those that caught that magic 68. It couldn’t be of 5/8/77. 5/8/77 is not the greatest show ever. Which you can contend your 68 in Norfolk was. I can’t argue that. I wasn’t there. The show at the jubilee was shared and felt by more people. It moved the DSO needle in a way closest to 5/8/77. The collective experience of greatness far outweighs your individual feelings of greatness. Night 2 in Jamaica 3 years ago was the greatest DSO experience I’ve ever had. I assure you rivals your experience and it didn’t matter what they played. I truly levitated in sand. I was able to dance seamlessly at full speed on sand. But that experience was mine alone and I don’t think any of you guys could achieve it. 
 

Remember what 5/8/77. It is not the best show the Grateful Dead ever played and to be honest, I’m gonna go with the old timers. 5/19/07 is DSO 5/8/77. We talked about show for 15 years. We still talking about it. It’s playing in my car. 

[John A]

3 hours ago, Mason's Child said:

But that experience was mine alone and I don’t think any of you guys could achieve it.

I'm guessing the naked hippie on the scaffolding behind the stage at Veneta '72 shares that same sentiment.  😆

 

As for greatest show ever, there are perhaps a dozen each from '72, '73, and '74 that eclipse 5-8-77, and a few others from '77 as well.  And that's coming from an Ithacan.

[Tom Banjo]

This is all opinion but I can pick 10 shows from 69. 10 shows from 71. 5 shows each from 72, 73, and 74. Maybe a few 76 or 78 and maybe another 5 from 77 I rate higher. 
 

And that naked dude on the scaffolding was having one hell of time. I had my one time only naked dance moment. Further at Wanee. I had stripped to my boxers cause of the heat. A friend pants me the rest of the way. I proceeded to dance naked for 3 or 4 songs. It was liberating. It wasn’t floating on sand level but definitely something to it. 

[BillK522]

Great thread and comments all.

Those GOAT conversations always get

the juices flowing.  Nailing down a single

performance can get tricky, there are a 

number of factors at play.  Personal headspace,

Bands performance, song selection, venue,

dance space, the family you share the experience 

with. Every once and a while every thing is just

exactly perfect. Fortunately I attended 07/05/19,

and thought of other evenings everything clicked.

I believe the show should be an elective, where the 

band had the freedom to roam.  An evening in Atlantic

City came to mind.

 

10/08/06  Atlantic City Hilton,  Atlantic City NJ

 

Here Comes Sunshine>Walk in the Sunshine, New Speedway,

Hard to Handle, Big Iron>Cumberland Blues, Lazy River Road,

Passenger, Harder They Come.

 

Round and Round>Sittin' on Top of the World, Why Don't We

Do It In the Road>Midnight Hour>Crazy Fingers>Caution>

Drums>Space>Other One (v1)>Standing on the Moon>

Other One (v2)>Tangled Up in Blue.

 

E:  Run Mary

     One More Saturday Night.

 

Praise DSO.

[Greg from Chestertown]

I can remember a night in Dewey where I just had a blast, absorbing the music and having come back out of me through my dancing, from opening note until the last note. After the show, I stood leaning against something, trying to catch my breath, just in awe of how much fun I had just had. I remember a few people noticing me, walking up to me and just smiling. It must have been an incredible expression on my face. I have no recollection of what they played that night but I had a blast. I’m going to have to say that was my best show ever because I had just had it done to me by the Dark Star Orchestra. 

[Tom Banjo]

I just missed that AC show. Some unforeseen unfortunate circumstances prevented my attendance. I remember hearing how great that one was 

[TheOther1]

i taped the show but the other one from 4/5/19 is a really dark steady jam that i find myself listening to all the time

https://archive.org/details/dso2019-04-05

 

[August West]

11 hours ago, BillK522 said:

 

 

10/08/06  Atlantic City Hilton,  Atlantic City NJ

 

Here Comes Sunshine>Walk in the Sunshine, New Speedway,

Hard to Handle, Big Iron>Cumberland Blues, Lazy River Road,

Passenger, Harder They Come.

 

Round and Round>Sittin' on Top of the World, Why Don't We

Do It In the Road>Midnight Hour>Crazy Fingers>Caution>

Drums>Space>Other One (v1)>Standing on the Moon>

Other One (v2)>Tangled Up in Blue.

 

E:  Run Mary

     One More Saturday Night.

 

Praise DSO.

They dedicated the Big Iron to Herdy that night. It was his first show back after falling ill at the Ledges. That show is in my Top 5. Off the charts energy, and playing. That Hilton venue was one of the best indoor places to see a show. Level carpeted floors, phenomenal sound.

[Billy DeLyon]

It would be irresponsible of me to not bring up any of the Penn's Peak shows.  They all roll into one for me, but the boys had us in a frenzy this night.  Just look at the energy coming from the sold out crowd.  Video shows about 1/10 of the crowd.  

 

2nd Set:  Why Don't We Do It In The Road? ; Lost Sailor > Saint Of Circumstance > Terrapin Station > Dark Star > dums > space > Hey Jude > Throwing Stones > Shakedown Street

 

Shakedown-->  

 

[Tea]

2/14/2009 @ Hilton Head, SC was a romp for me!  One of my first solo jaunts to see DSO and the planets aligned perfectly that night:

 

Elective

Set One:
Viola Lee Blues
Walk in the Sunshine
They Love Each Other
Black Throated Wind
Box of Rain
You Ain't Woman Enough
Bird Song
Big Iron-> Jack-a-Roe
Sing Your Blues Away
Mexicali Blues
Uncle John's Band

 

Set Two:

Greatest Story Ever Told
Second That Emotion
*I Feel Like Dyanamite
Waiting for a Miracle
Easy Wind
Me & Bobby McGee
Eyes of the World-> Weather Report Suite-> Let It Grow-> Stella Blue-> Not Fade Away-> Going Down the Road Feeling Bad-> Not Fade Away

 

Encore:
And It Stoned Me

Show Notes
* Dedicated to Merl Saunders

[Tom Banjo]

Hilton Head was fun. I was there. Feel like dynamite 

[chuckvegas]

This is an interesting topic. I have stayed out of it up to this point since I neither dance nor see shows and my track record is deplorable. 

 

But thanks to Tea and August West, with some vicarious motivation from MC, I feel like I might have enough experience to venture an opinion and expand on the underlying theme here. 

 

So I will say that my 5/7, 5/8, and 5/9/77 DSO shows are AC 10/8/06, of course 5/19/07, and that wonderful night in Hilton Head on 2/14/09. The world needs more Big Iron>Jack-a-Roe. Set and setting for each of these was just exactly perfect.

 

The music never stopped after the first trifecta...