I know a good twenty/thirty of their songs and wish I could have seen them play when Jerry
was still alive, as my mother was lucky enough to do but DSO is definitely the next best thing.
I missed the opening band, Terrapin, because somehow the show actually started at 8 which
almost never happens at House of Blues or any venue. I walked into the building and was greeted by a motley crowd of aging hippies, young hippie wannabes, baby boomers and the odd normal young person like myself. The air was a miasma of dense pot smoke and what I could have sworn was a faint armoma of patchouli (which I've concluded is what hippies naturally smell like if it's not overshadowed by their infamous body odor). I walked in after their set started and won't try and tell you all the songs that were played since I didn't know most of them. The Dead were so prolific that I only really recognized three songs DSO played that night and they were: Space, Sugar Magnolia, and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Tangled up in Blue".
It didn't really matter to me that I couldn't sing along to every song because I was so in awe of DSO's playing. Their lead guitarist was somehow able to capture almost perfectly, the improvisational, electric, folk rock/country blues, style that Jerry was so famous for. The stage set up included a bassist, rhythm guitarist/vocalist, female vocalist/dancer, keyboard player, the lead guitarist/vocalist, and dual drumsets. Each of these worked together beautifully to create a sound which I think would have made Jerry Garcia proud.
The kind of people in crowd only made the concert even more enjoyable. Even though I detest the preachiness and unoriginality of hippie-ism in general, the dancing; happiness; and mood of the mostly hippie crowd was infectious and definitely added to the experience. Sometimes it was annoying (I remember whispering to my friend once we'd creeped up to the front that "we have the Manson family behind us" as a bunch of nu-hippie girls smoked doobs while hanging onto one nu-hippie guy) but suited the music.
My only complaint about the concert was about a stunt they pulled near the end. Instead of asking us for a short intermission they allowed the drummers to play a bunch of cheesy, awkward, electronic, beats while they took a ten minute break behind stage. I guess it was supposed to prepare for their trippy, spaced-out, rendition of "space" which was, once it started pretty good but the wonky Casio-keyboard-sounding, prelude was lame.
*I never took any pictures or video because I didn't feel like it*
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