Dark Star Orchestra - 26/09/24 and 27/09/24

Dark Star Orchestra made their way to Europe for only the second time in their 30 year playing history last week. The band first came over the Atlantic in 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dead’s 1972 tour, before coming back for a four night run to celebrate the 1974 tour. It was the 2022 show in London that really solidified my desire to start taking this music and its creative potential seriously. Within 6 months I was confirmed as a PhD candidate, studying the lyrics and the live experience that DSO had conveyed so directly.

These two concerts marked something of a return, a cycle that happens again and again across the wider scene. The ways in which we grow between shows become apparent when we meet up again with old friends, and new directions become apparent as we share experiences with new ones. I attended both shows in London, at Alexandra Palace, where Dark Star Orchestra played on the same stage that the Grateful Dead graced 50 years ago. On the 26th I took an old friend of mine who had a loose familiarity with the Dead, Chris, along with an American Deadhead buddy of mine who has moved over here, Tom. DSO recreated the 10th of September show, which has a pretty spectacular setlist:

Set 1

Set 2

E: U.S. Blues, Piece of My Heart**

*Omitted DSO **DSO Extra

This show was surely one of the best of the 74 Europe tour, and has one of only 6 Dark Stars from that year. The levels weren’t quite right and it took a couple of songs to get totally tuned in. By the time Beat it on Down the Line started, with an enormous intro, the band was locked in. My highlight of the first set was surely the WRS, which is always nice to hear with its full intro. I can’t wait to get stuck into Let it Grow analytically, the lyrics about the ploughman have screamed for analysis to me, while the verse with the angels and the thunder has maybe the most to say in the entire catalogue I love the audio demo of Bob playing this, and it was my first time hearing it in a live environment which would definitely become a bit of a theme across the two nights. The setlist as written on dead.net has both a Tennessee Jed and Black Peter that aren’t on either the tapes or DSO’s setlist, but the set is packed enough for it not to matter in the slightest.

The second set really came alive, with a spectacular Dark Star that admittedly got a little abstract for Chris, but luckily he was back from the bar in time for a truly mind blowing Dew that turned the crowd into a puddle. The additional encore was amazing, and vocalist Lisa Mackey really came to make a mark on the European Dead scene

The second night I went with a larger group. Along with Deadhead Tom and his fiancée, two of my closest friends from university and one of their sisters came. This show was an elective setlist, created by Dark Star Orchestra and honestly mind blowing:

Set 1

Set 2

E: Woodstock, Brokedown Palace

It was all of my friends' first time seeing any Grateful Dead music live, and one friend's first real experience with the music at all, and you can’t really have asked for a better show than that. The look on one of my university friends faces as some slightly suspicious chocolate and our favourite kind of music made their alchemical magic is something I’ll never forget. After a second set smoke break it was special to be able to put my hand on his shoulder and sing ‘woaah what I want to know, will you come with me?’, towards the peak of the concert, the experience, towards my passions and interests, towards tomorrow. It really made me think about the ritualistic qualities of the live experience, something I plan to get into in a later chapter. The whole Grateful Dead scene hums with this underflow of magic and mysticism, and it was conveyed in full force both nights.

Me and Tom had a great time trying to guess the era of the show, and were pretty sure that it was not an original Dead show by set break. The first set was full of firsts for me, but the most special by far was Mission in the Rain. I love that song a lot, especially the lines ‘Ten years ago, I walked this street my dreams were riding tall/Tonight I would be thankful Lord, for any dream at all’. The closeness of Garcia and Hunter is so apparent in the whole thing, while it addresses some of my own fairly deep seated fears (all the things I planned to do I only did halfway, sings the man with the un-updated Instagram and website), so it was amazing to hear it live and one I hadn’t honestly even considered I might. I even went to the mission when I was in San Francisco, to visit the place that stands so powerfully at the centre of this song.

The way that this song explores place and history is something I’d be interested in writing about more significantly, and seeing as it’s not really a dead song I guess I can do it here. Expect a blog post sometime!

The whole show was a really special time, with some amazing twists and turns. Unbroken Chain was almost as surprising to us as it may have been in 1995 when it got played for the first time. Imagine coming out of a fairly scary Space was another incredible moment, beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. I will gladly continue to get everyone I can to buy a DSO ticket whenever they come over here. There really is nothing quite like it.