Spring Tour

[Billy_Martin]

5 hours ago, Dead duck said:

Love it. Enjoy the road and the shows. 👍👍

Went to wrong city lol

[Greg from Chestertown]

Reminds me of a story. It’s getting to be that time and the crowd is making its way across the lot to get into the spectrum in Philly. A guy walking near me stops, puts his hands on his head and screams ‘my fucking ticket is on my dresser in Pittsburgh!’ He literally just turned around and started walking the other way. 

[Billy_Martin]

That's just as bad. I'm making it fun. I'm in Raleigh driving for Lyft trying to make a few bucks back. Nice town.

[Greg from Chestertown]

I have one that will make you feel better. I’m in Ocean City, N.J.(my first DSO show location) visiting my parents. The Sunday paper lists all the concerts that summer, says Furthur is playing two nights this year in Philly. Later that summer, on the day of the ‘first’ show, my daughter calls from Philly and asks if I can ride up and fix her car. I say sure, then what’s her name and I will catch Further. I fix the car, we shoot over to Fairmont park, amazed at what a great parking spot we got. We’re rushing across the lot, the show has already started. I noticed that I didn’t recognize the song that filled the air. All of a sudden the show ends and a wave of thousands of black people flows out of the venue and across the lot. Apparently, the paper got it wrong and so did I. You are not alone.

[Dead duck]

Jubilee year one I told my cousin that we would wait until we got 60-70 miles out of Louisville before we stopped for gas because gas was cheaper outside the city. Pull into small town and sure enough it was cheaper but I’d left my wallet at home. So I had to go back to get it but then had to get gas in the city because I didn’t have enough to get back to cheap town. Then an old garmin (that was later stolen) took us to Legend Valley Video, which looked like it had been out of business for a decade. Overall that first trip to LV we turned a 3.5 hour drive into an 8 hour one. Not to mention the flooding and all I took to “camp” in was an ez up and a lawn chair. No tent no nuthin

[Billy_Martin]

50 minutes ago, Greg from Chestertown said:

I have one that will make you feel better. I’m in Ocean City, N.J.(my first DSO show location) visiting my parents. The Sunday paper lists all the concerts that summer, says Furthur is playing two nights this year in Philly. Later that summer, on the day of the ‘first’ show, my daughter calls from Philly and asks if I can ride up and fix her car. I say sure, then what’s her name and I will catch Further. I fix the car, we shoot over to Fairmont park, amazed at what a great parking spot we got. We’re rushing across the lot, the show has already started. I noticed that I didn’t recognize the song that filled the air. All of a sudden the show ends and a wave of thousands of black people flows out of the venue and across the lot. Apparently, the paper got it wrong and so did I. You are not alone.

That's awesome.  My kid and I still had fun. I should go to jubilee to make up for it.

[Billy_Martin]

32 minutes ago, Dead duck said:

Jubilee year one I told my cousin that we would wait until we got 60-70 miles out of Louisville before we stopped for gas because gas was cheaper outside the city. Pull into small town and sure enough it was cheaper but I’d left my wallet at home. So I had to go back to get it but then had to get gas in the city because I didn’t have enough to get back to cheap town. Then an old garmin (that was later stolen) took us to Legend Valley Video, which looked like it had been out of business for a decade. Overall that first trip to LV we turned a 3.5 hour drive into an 8 hour one. Not to mention the flooding and all I took to “camp” in was an ez up and a lawn chair. No tent no nuthin

Lol. My situation seems cushy compared. 3 star hotel eating snack with my daughter.

[PoetryGirl]

Feels like SPRING BREAK!!!!!   Whoop whoop

[Billy_Martin]

2 hours ago, PoetryGirl said:

Feels like SPRING BREAK!!!!!   Whoop whoop

I'm feeling that.

[PoetryGirl]

Feeling a little sad that tonight my tour comes to an end. I have other obligations in Charleston for tomorrow night. If it were Raleigh then Charlotte, the song would be different. C'est la Vie. 

 

I am sure Eaton will be happy to be among his DSO family for a little sympathy.  

 

Yet- 3 more joining the bus tonight! Can’t wait!

[Rude]

18 minutes ago, PoetryGirl said:

Feeling a little sad that tonight my tour comes to an end. I have other obligations in Charleston for tomorrow night. If it were Raleigh then Charlotte, the song would be different. C'est la Vie. 

 

I am sure Eaton will be happy to be among his DSO family for a little sympathy.  

 

Yet- 3 more joining the bus tonight! Can’t wait!

 

Then we just have to dance a little harder tonight to make up for it. I know Mei will miss dancing with u guys but we will make up for it soon   

[Billy_Martin]

3 hours ago, PoetryGirl said:

Feeling a little sad that tonight my tour comes to an end. I have other obligations in Charleston for tomorrow night. If it were Raleigh then Charlotte, the song would be different. C'est la Vie. 

 

I am sure Eaton will be happy to be among his DSO family for a little sympathy.  

 

Yet- 3 more joining the bus tonight! Can’t wait!

You still have morning Dead moments with birds chirping and flowers blooming all around.

[Tea]

From the band and crew:  

 

Welcome Back, Rob Eaton!

 

We are pleased to confirm Dark Star Orchestra will return to full-form Friday, April 13 as Spring Tour 2018 hits Charlotte with the return of our rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Eaton who has been on hiatus to tend to a family situation.  We enjoyed bringing you our JGB rendition and hope that you’ve enjoyed traveling around that alternate universe as much as we have.

[Billy_Martin]

Please play JGB again in the future.

[Tom Banjo]

I’m happy Rob’s back. My excitement for wanee just went up. Love the jgb but man I love Grateful Dead music and Bobby Weir as channeled by Rob Eaton is an important part of that equation. 

[Island Bro]

I love hearing how the band has made use of their time without such a key ingredient...they turned a significant challenge into an awesome opportunity,,,and now that Eaton is back at his post I would be watching out for some serious thunder and lightning in the music--damn I would love to be there tonight upon his return. 

Welcome back Mr. Eaton!

[Rude]

Decided to extend my 8 show run to 9. Splitting for savannah around noon tomorrow. Using my tour rationale I’m driving 5 hours to Savannah to cut my drive home Wednesday from 11 hours to 9 hours. Plus it’s outdoors. And if I only did Charleston without savannah I think I’d be imbalanced for a while. Savannah is pretty much Georgia’s Charleston so it’s just basic math. 

[Billy_Martin]

Have fun brother.

[Tom Banjo]

Rude is coming for Scotty’s crown. I expect to see him at the Capitol in May and ride that one right through the Jubilee. 

[PoetryGirl]

Wanee is just a stone throws away- I think you should go for that gold ring! 

[Rude]

I’m stalling dealing with work clients. Heading to Atlanta after show then home by 2pm tomorrow. Clients are stressing I won’t mske deadlines. 

 

A tad tad bummed that savannah is indoors. A pic looked like it was an outdoors show and was just informed it’s indoors :/. Wilmington outdoors was glorious. Nothing better than communing with my peeps under the stars. My parents were like is everyone always this friendly?  I’m like it’s one reason we are on the bus. The concept of people refusing money for a ticket was completely foreign to them. If it wasn’t sold out we’d have purchased tix to support the band but at their only show that communal aspect made it a little more special. 

[Rude]

So after reflecting on spring southern leg of tour I wanted to make a post. There were so many special shows and songs and times from Atlanta>savannah, I don’t know where to start.  I started the tour unable to walk without the help of a walking boot pumped up to the extreme. Night 1 in Atlanta was a little tough. Had to hit the ADA area(best spot in the house) to be able to sit for around 1/3 of the show. I felt really weird sitting during the music. I was really self conscious and got in my head a little. The pain was pretty bad even with a steroid and pain shot the night before I headed out on tour.  But these b2b Jerry band recreations with the 6 song set 3’s were just the shit. The shows completely complemented each other. That’s why we all keep coming back. If they played 76/77 dancers every night, I think it would get a tad boring over time but DSO changes it up more than the dead ever did because of changing eras vs just changing setlists. Got to hear Lisa sing Bobby tunes. Got to hear so many 1st timers for me. Got to hear a few songs that I didn’t know musically even though I’ve seen the titles. That’s always awesome. I love hearing songs I don’t know. After night 2 Atlanta having been blessed with 2 amazing shows, we headed to Birmingham hearing rumors that Donna was going to be singing(note we barely touched phones besides posting a setlist so we didn’t know this news wasn’t teally news to anyone looking at Dso’s Facebook site). It was a glorious day. We watched the masters as much as we could before we split for the venue. Again we were blessed with the goods. Fantastic show with several more 1st time hearing Dso play. Then to cap it, Lisa and Donna doing a filler I’ll be with thee. Jerry gospel is it for me. I’m not a religious guy by any means but I felt the spirit. Told Gr8tfulpair Jerry band gospel makes me believe. Jerry’s so emotional and believable in everything he sings and Jeff made me a believer too. At this point I was in need of an off day. Headed Back to the Carolina for a rest day before Asheville which helped my injury recovery by leaps and bounds. During the Asheville show I was having a tough time connecting to the music. I think I was in pure Jerry band mode and this was mostly Jerry dead. This was when I was wondering if Jerry band was more my thing as this was one of gr8fulpairs fav shows. Finally the weather was starting to turn warm as we got to the lake house fairly early and I got to sit on the dock and soak up some sun. It was glorious. I had even walked down sans boot.  The weather and my physical health had both started to improve and soaking up the vitamin D combined with the thought that winter is finally over just gave me a perma grin. We took an epic boat ride with Doc and Gr8tfulpair that had been a long time coming. Sometimes it seems winter will never end. I think I just need to move to the tropics. Fuck the cold. After the day off it was time for the 4 show stretch. Unfortunately with the injury I wasn’t able to do as much exploring as I’d have liked to in Charleston. 1st time there too... but this tour was about music and friends. The Charleston crowd was fantastic.  This was my 3rd the night they drove old Dixie down. Saw it in Atlanta Birmingham and Charleston. It gave me chills thinking deeper of this song in the heart of the south. Atlanta crowd sung it loudly, the Charleston crowd got silent, but the B-ham crowd went into talk to their friends mode. It was so strange. I got chills each time it was played but I think the early show time and the Birmingham day drinking theme impacted the crowds ability to get into it. Charleston was a fantastic place and crowd. I don’t suggest being front row like I was in front of Jeff as my eardrums were screaming after 3 songs and I had to hit the balcony. It was oppressive loud 3 feet from the PA and 10 feet from his 4 stack speakers. The couple next to me left the area a song before I did because of the loudness. I found a home in the balcony and the rest was butter. Next day in Charlotte we added Tea to the crew and got our 1st show back with Eaton. The Fillmore had the back half of the venue curtained off. We asked security about this and they said this place holds 2200 and only 900-1k presold tix. We are like this is a dead crowd. With curtain a now 1100 capacity venue cannot hold 1k deadheads plus so many people will buy tix at the door. After 2-3 songs and us thinking this sucks balls as people crowded tight they opened the curtain and hundreds of like minded heads headed backwards. A weight had lifted. Plus the Fillmore has 40 security enforcing taped lines you have to be inside so it was already starting to be an issue. Dodged a bullet there. So at this show I realized I do like the GD as much as Jerry band. Maybe for dead to work for me I need bobby/Eaton. The Jerry band recreations were a special memory I’ll akeaya have but now we were back to smoking dance sessions. By this time I’d developed my boot dance fully. Since the boot has a bottom that makes a ball, I was able to spin on it like I was on ice. It felt like I was hovering and you could hear people say you don’t see someone in a boot dancing like that every day lol. By the end of tour I felt i had an advantage over others because of the ability to do these floating 180 turns. Add in some spilled beer on the dance floor and and any time I lifted the good foot the spin was uncontrollable. On to the Raleigh airport the next day to grab the girlfriend. Was a nice change to have my rider with me. This tour we booked suites most nights and we were in a nice embassy and we also picked up goingbacktowhere for a night. The 4 musketeers had a blast. We’d done it last at the Norfolk show. A few awesome pics commemorate our experience from each. Raleigh was a heavy dance party from start to finish. It was the perfect show for our group of 5 at this point. The dead couldn’t have written a better era setlist than this.  On to Wilmington the next day. This ended Gr8tfulpair’s 7 show run. Was sad to see him go. Went to the parents beach house in Kure beach for a few minutes of chill time before headed back yo Wilmington to locate tics. The parents 1st show. My dad had actually seen the dead at the village theater in 66/67. Counting our New Jersey friend we got 3 miracles even though we had money out to buy them. It really exemplified the spirit of the dead and my parents were flabbergasted by it all. That 73 style original was just fantastic. Our vibes kept that evil thunderstorm away as we enjoyed our last show, or so we thought. Stayed at the beach for 2 nights then I’m like why aren’t we doing savannah again?  It’s onlu a 5 hour drive. Well once a thought like that gets in my head it’s over. It takes very little peer pressure to go see an extra show. So glad we went. Gorgeous weather. Hung outside in the grass lot for a few hours before the show and soaked the rays being thankful to be alive. By this time the boot was gone all but during the show. Walking gingerly ok for non show but no way I could do anything but stand unless I went boot so no choice.  We go for the music but it’s the friendships and people you meet along the way that make this so much more than just seeing musuc played. With the uniqueness of it all, this was definitely my fav run of shows ever. Laughed til I cried nightly. Gonna be hard to top this for me. Thanks DSO for a real good time. After 2500+ shows you still work your ass off to turn lemons into lemonade. A lot of work had to go into these shows. A more appropriate dead analogy may be to replace lemons with ergot lol.  I think I just needed to keep this memory fresh in my head. Oooh and who can ever forget the most epic Uber ride ever in Birmingham. We did several u-turns but how many times do you do a full 360. I’d guess 6 u-turns and 1 360 on a quest to find beer in a gangastafied uber. So many other things will remain inside jokes for years to come. I feel like I should do a mic drop after that 2 weeks   Oh and fuck paragraphs.

[gr8fulpair]

Yep, that about sums it up. May never get that range of music again in any length of run. It filled my cup, and my spare cup, and even spilled a little on the floor board of the Alabama Uber right before I thought we were gonna die. The best of times. 

[BillK522]

That's quite a post.

The circus is in town.

 

Jubilee on the horizon.

Paging Dr. Barry.

 

Praise DSO.

[Michael Doc Watson]

It was an honor and much fun to share the spring tour with Rudd and Gr8fulpair for six of those shows. The boat ride on the lake was one of the highlights that was only topped by spending some time with all our other DSO friends, Scott, Jen, Joe, Sue, Vince, Brian, Ed, Chris, Big John, and Samson. et.al.  Now it's only a few more weeks until we meet again at the Jubilee.