2023-05-15 @The Ritz, Raleigh, NC

[Tea]

1973-02-23 @Assembly Hall, U. of Il, Bloomington, IN

Promised Land, They Love Each Other, El Paso, Bird Song, Mexicali Blues, Deal, Looks Like Rain, Tennessee Jed, Box Of Rain, Playin' In The Band

 

Wave That Flag, Me & My Uncle, Dark Star-> Eyes Of The World-> China Doll, Around & Around, Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad-> One More Saturday Night

 

E: Casey Jones

F: Piece of my Heart ❤️ 

 

Such fun with great company and a killer show! That Dark Star was simply  beautiful !  Review to come - I’m gassed 

 

 

 

[Direwolf919]

Dark star>eyes

 

Can't stop smiling!

[Tea]

16 hours ago, Direwolf919 said:

Dark star>eyes

 

Can't stop smiling!

Great to see you again!  Really, really fun stuff ⚡️

[Tea]

Not a huge fan of this venue but they can't all be The Anthem.  Security was mostly chill - a few crowd control measures that were unnecessary but eventually they calmed down and let folks do their thing.  After the first couple songs, Bill K & I decided to sacrifice a little sound for the freedom to jump and spin. 

 

1st set was really tight from the jump and was pleased that my energy was right there - even after standing in a field for 8 hours cheering on my kids to precede the show.  Every song was it's own adventure for me (even without vitamins)!  Nice to see El Paso come up and that one was a romp!  Silky, spacy Bird Song and a poignant Box of Rain were my favorite of the set.  That was until Playin came up.  They featured it prominently a couple shows ago - far from a bad penny, this one had all the ooze, melt, and spacy that makes me swoon!   Shit - if they play that song like they just did, feel free play it every damn show - don't mind that kinda repeat!  Pretty nice spot stage-right to let this music move us - sweaty smiles going into setbreak!

 

2nd Set was really excellent!  Not really a Wave That Flag guy but DSO put it on the map for me.  A little more Cowboy until we got to the Dark Star.  So many layers and themes to this one which made it a joy to dance to!  Love and Light, Darkness and Fear, Happy and Bright, culminating in a full melt before it's structure returned.  Simply Aced it!  Oh - and then we get treated to a fat and stretched out Eyes that almost felt like another dark star towards the end as it bounced back and forth from Joy to Fear and back again!  I love when the band does that - just bleeping with us.  A haunting and deliberate China Doll was a great way to forge ahead - even as heartbreaking as that song is. 

 

The closing salvo almost had a desperate energy to it - at least me desperately trying to keep up with the pace.  Around x 2 started compactly before breaking forward with all of the fanfare!  Out of breath now but the band paused for the next song.  Thankful.  I noticed that the crowd was super quiet here (they suffered from some Low-T in my opinion - pun possibly intended).  No hoots, yells, hollers, just quiet.  Once of the Rob's asked if we were having a good time which elicited some response but then went quiet again Weird.  Well....

 

They simply ripped that GDTRFB > OMSN.  Ripped it.  NOW the crowd was like holy bleep and the cheers yelling and screaming started filling in between the notes.  Casey had a similar effect until Lisa brought the house down for Piece of my Heart ❤! 

 

It was a really great show for me with really inspired dancing for Bill K and other usual suspects!  Even though I felt like the band deserved a more spirited crowd given how excellent they sounded, it was a really great night and I'm super thankful for DSO and crew!  I've been travelling on the toughest road of my life so I really, really needed what DSO and dancing friends delivered.  THANK YOU 🥰