Dark Star Orchestra has “recreated” many Grateful Dead shows throughout its career. However, it is extremely rare for them to announce (and the audience to know) the concert they are covering beforehand. Last Friday, they played a replica of the Dead’s final show at the Fillmore East on 4/29/71 to a sold-out Irving Plaza.
Now that John Kadlecik has moved on to Furthur, former Zen Tricksters guitarist Jeff Mattson has stepped into the “Jerry role.” Joined by his one-time Tricksters band mate Rob Barraco on keyboards, DSO seems to have a new spring in their step. Much like the Dead’s performance itself, the highlight of the first set was a monster “Hard To Handle,” with Baracco doing his best Pigpen. Rare electric versions of “Dark Hollow” and “Ripple” also brought smiles all around to a fired-up Manhattan audience.
After opening with a “Morning Dew” that sounded just like its 1971 original, albeit with a much longer parting jam, DSO moved into a rare “Minglewood Blues.” They did a fine job on what was the Dead’s final version of “Alligator,” with Baracco doing another nice job on vocals. The shining moment of the set (and the show itself), however, was the jam that emerged out of the “post-Alligator” drum solo. While the actual Fillmore version stems from some slow and mournful jamming, this version was immediately fiery and sounded like “Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks). Nonetheless, it was a sheer delight. The second encore of “Midnight Hour” segued (as all legendary Dead shows seemed to) into an a-capella “And We Bid You Goodnight” that capped off a fantastic evening.
