springFallandWinter

-----Help > Slipknot > The Eleven > Dew. I'll raise you 100 call. and raise you help/slip/wrs/dew/let it grow.

yeah. got your attention. now that would steal my face. just sayin.

----- What about Help/Slip/Tangled? TUIB rox whenever and wherever. But Franklins Tower is THE Pot of Gold at the end of the Help on the Way/Slipknot Rainbow. (btw if youre in the mood to get tangled......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru9efQketsA

----A big fan of Help/Slip/Stranger. no way. stranger is no franks.

fyi- morning dew was written by bonnie dobson. (its about the day after a nuclear catastrophe.) tim rose tried to steal it and he actually has joint writing credit on it in some places (thaz a whole notha slimy music biz story). but its all bonnies song. everyone from the allmans to zeppelin recorded it back in the day. BUT no one and i mean no one turned it into a transcendental moonshot until the grateful dead.

ive been iso morning dew for a long long time. there is no other song in the entire grateful dead catalogue which introduces itself with a more powerful 1 note signature explosion than morning dew. dark star? 4 notes and kinda mellow. help on the way? 4 chords. st stephen? 2 regular notes. but morning dew-- just 1 hair-raising reverberating hello crescendo. this is THE song. saw the grateful dead melt me with this. and saturday night in wilkes barre pa, the dark star orchestra layed down the law. this was the finest morning dew, ive evah seen them do. each musician was so in tune. this song at its best is PRIAML> and this was a knee buckling, hair-raising, eyes watering, head melting, goose bumps walk me out. everyone was one. skip was beating the sh*t outta his strings. robB was pounding and i mean pounding the keys. robE was cranking up the volume. and dino and rob were builing building building the smashing backbone. and jeff? well jeff was simply in another zone. if he was ever truly jerry, it was at this moment. pin drop soft, heart wrenching, nuclear--- it was everything. this was so powerful, the band didnt even segue into another song when jeff belted out the last-- i guess it doesnt matter ANYWAYYYYYYYYYYYYY. the band hit the last note and morning dew ended. the climax of two nights in wilkes barre pa which began with jack straw early friday evening and came to a rousing conclusion past midnight saturday night/early sunday morning. and then the band completely stopped. took a break. looked at each other, motioned to one another. rob walked around a little. and then with a few beats dso finished the night off with a rockin one mo saturday night, almost as a 2nd set encore (before returning for a true encore and an extra saturday night surprise ---lisa channeling mccartney on a rousing oh darling). really truly amazing.

FREAKIN MORNING DEW BABY~

if i told ya that dso recreated a show that was so long (4 hours) that there wasnt any time left for any filler, youd probably say-- musta been a ballin 72/73 affair. and usually youd be right. but not this friday night. and it would probably be awhile before you got to the year 1978. but man o man. what an amazing gd show. the gd came to play on 5/16/78 in chicago and the dark star orchestra came to play on this friday night in wilkes barre pa and did this masterpiece justice. gd 1978 is one of the bands most underrated years. it came on the tail of the majestic '77 conquest and preceeded the keith and donna exodus of the following year--feb 1979. but 78 has a multitude of gems sprinkled all over it--- check out 4/15/78 just to name 1 masterwork. but getting back to chicago, a blistering 10-song first set is just the appetizer for what was to come. the first set was long and sharp. so much goodness but ill just say jimmy was steppin. and i think peggyo had at least 5 lead runs. man it was pretty. and music never stopped was honey drippin. so what was to come? oh just a 24 minute soaring scarlet/fire to kick off set 2. followed by 2nd set el paso? thats pretty interesting and pretty unusual. then comes a gorgeous ship (cause all that could not sink or swim was just left there to float.) thats 4 songs right there. drums next-- right? hey ive seen a few shows and 4 songs before drums is pretty customary. ive also seen my share of 3 songs before drums, even 2 (scarlet fire/drums-- yeah really. so when song # 5 is a long estimated jam -- well thats just all cake now. definitely drums time. 6 songs before drums for 1977 on is pretty rare. happens --just not often. especially when youre talkin long jams like scarlet/fire, estimated etc. and then......and then followed by song #6--- hes gone???!!! are you shi**in me? 6 songs- an hour long before drums. thats a band thats havin fun. simple as that. and then to cap it off-- the exquisite comes a time because youve got an empty cup that only love can fill. this song can make you weep. and then the capper--the one and only bob weir masterpiece sugar magnolia---smokin. what a night. what a show. and if you think dso was havin fun, (aside from the shots being downed onstage), the drums party on this night was one for the books. i didnt even mention it here because it deserved its own thread it was so good. this was a special special special friday night wilkes barre pa show. we were all smile smile smile. the dso they just keep on deliverin. they just keep on keepin on. the dark star orchestra, the dark star orchestra.

so much to say about friday night wilkes barre (3/7/25) night 1---gd 5/16/78. but gotta start at the end----DRUMZ~ what a percussion party. friends and family plan. dino and rob were knockin it out when they were joined by rob b, lisa and a whole buncha assorted goodtimers on assorted percussive bangers. skip then wandered out to see what all the fuss was and he was sucked in by the great vibes and ended up on something. there were bongos and maracas and clackers and well anything that would make a joyous banging sound. if it was outside ya woulda called it a drum circle but it was more of a persussion gathering. and it was jamtastic. what a party. sounded, as tony the tiger would say-----GERRRRRAAAAAAATTTTTTE!

tasty nugget from an otherwise down year.

hotpockets for lunch?

yikes

isnt this the infamous 8 am show?

a little back story on the giza shows. when the dead went over to egypt for these concerts in sept of '78, they brought along alotta recording equipment because they planned on releasing a live album from the shows to help defray the costs of the venture. however, when they got home and listened to the tapes, they found that, due to internal medicine and external forces, the performances, sound, playing, vocals and recordings were, to be kind, pretty sub-par. they dtiched the entire project and never put out a record. so when we got to philly and saw the big ole camel on stage and heard the egyptian chant to open the show, it was pretty obvious we were being transformed back to the desert for one of the pyramid shows (we got the 2nd of the 3 nights). that would give one pause knowing how not-good these actual shows were. well all i can say is that the dso probably never listened to these actual recordings and just saw some of what they thought were interesting setlists. because this was one of those rare occasions where the show the dso put on, was actually waaaaay better than the original grateful dead concert. first set--- well theres not much even the dark star orchestra could do with that, though fotd was decent and loser was really powerful. a 7 song (8 if you count the opening chant) set ending with miracle/stagger lee, one of the weirdest vibe/image songs the dead ever wrote, was predictably uneven and short. both stagger and miracle were brand new songs that had only been played a handful of times in sept of '78 as the album shakedown street wasnt relased until november of '78, following the egypt trip. the 2nd set however was freakin nails with a jumpin jack straw complete with perfect bomb breaks between jeff, eaton, headband and skip. it was a monster jack followed by a beautiful ship, sitting in its normal placement for '78. the rest was just jamtastic---est/eyes/drums/terrapin (after drums)/sugar mag. eyes was dancin all over the place. terrapin, after-drums placement, was a fantastic sweet surprise and again, the breaks were built up and exploded. stellar. this was an out-there terrapin. really strong. and sugar mag was rollicking and perfect with eaton taking his sweet time in the break before starting sunshine daydream, and lisa giving him the hands on her hips, stink eye business. lotta fun goin on. yeah everyone just having so much fun. fun was the key word. this band is enjoyin each other and the audience so much and and the good vibes and energy just bounce back and forth which sets them apart. from the opening crowd chants of e a g l e s, following their teams demolition of the hated cowboys and clinching a playoff spot to eaton sparring with the crowd by stating "sorry, for me its all jets and mets" (2 of the phillies main adversaries), well it just got all the fun started. and since the giza shows were short and without an encore, it left plenty of room for an unofficial pre new years unannounced real 3rd set which was one of the great surprises you will ever see the dark star orchestra pull off. it was the energizer bunny. it just kept going and going. and it kept on going to the jaw dropping surprise and amazement of the crowd. first a blow out samson and delilah. then the band gem shape im in. everyone thought that was it. nah. not a by a mile. here comes a long, jammy, silky, sweaty the way you do the things you do. man oh man. ok well thats it-- right-- time to go. wait a second. band still isnt leaving. and then lisa just smokes it with look whats comin down the street..... got a revolution. crazy volunteers. franklins music hall was losin its mind. ok drive safe. see you next time. the end. right? nope. volunteers morphed into a sublime and jammed out brothers and sisters. pretty amazing concert and evening for a grateful dead show that the actual grateful dead thought sucked. this was a blowout. following the previous nights anthem statement, these were back-to back pearls. a great time was had by all.

john kadlecik is a dmv local. and since he was in town playin the state theatre (the place i first saw dso at way back when) friday night, we figured there was a good chance hed be at the anthem saturday night. and when we saw him scurrying around the stage at intermission, our hopes were confirmed. and listen im not getting into any of the old bad blood stuff between the band members. he was there and this had great possibilities of jeff and jk firing off double guitar leads. so what happens? band comes out for the second set with jk on stage BUT jeff is nowhere to be found. hes sitting on the side backstage watching. when guitarists joined the grateful dead for a jam........steve miller, carlos santana, mick taylor etc, they dont replace you, they join you. they didnt replace jerry, they joined jerry. instead of dual guitar duets and interchange, we get jk playin solo lead on, wait for it, feel like a stranger--- get it. and thats it. a little background vocal, a little solo lead, no dynamic dual bullets being fired off, and poof hes gone. made no sense. really too bad. twas a real missed opportunity for everyone.