“I know how to throw a party,” said a smiling Mike Kestin, head of Jam Fam Productions, the concert promotion company that brought the veteran Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra to Sussex County Fairgrounds On Saturday, May 1.
And it was truly an amazing party. Surrounded by the bucolic hills of this northwestern New Jersey venue, more than 2,000 people descended from wherever to see DSO play songs of the Dead and a few covers of other bands while enjoying the day’s sunshine and blue skies and into the cool night air.
The concert was reminiscent of what life was like pre-pandemic– fans unmasked and drawn close together onto one of the fairground’s fields, entranced with the crystal-clear sound of DSO that had taken over their minds and bodies.
Unlike the prior night’s performance and other shows, DSO made up its own setlist for this nearly four-hour show instead of playing one of the Dead’s past shows.
The band’s first set opened with a rousing “Franklin’s Tower” and led into a Bob Weir and Ratdog number called “Corinna” Next on deck was the funk-fueled “Shakedown Street. The set also included a couple of covers: Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (the bass player nailed it with his Dylanesque vocal delivery), and country crooner George Jones’s “The Race Is On”. They were followed by “Run For The Roses”, “We Can Run”, “Black-Throated Wind (dedicated to a fan or fans who had been yelling for the band to play that number both nights), “The Bird Song”, “The Other One” (first verse) and concluded with “The Bird Song.”
The second set opened with “Jack Straw”, a regular on Dead setlists. That was followed by The Beatles’ “Revolution”, “Box of Rain”, “Playing In The Band”, and crowd-pleaser “Terrapin Station”. “Drums and Space” sent the crowd into another zone, complete with twirlers between the cars. The rest of the set included a reprise of “The Other One”, Traffic’s classic “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” Jerry Garcia’s solo number “The Wheel” (“If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will”), and back to “Playing In The Band.” DSO ended the partylike atmosphere with its encore “Keep Your Day Job”,
Muligo wishes to thank DSO. Mike Kestin, Will The Sound Guy, The Smilin’ Security Guy, Mary ( a charter member of The Muligo Mob who scored tix and saved an amazing spot in front of the stage for the rest of us MMers), the staff and volunteers who made it possible to hold such an event, the friendly police officer who gave us directions to our parking spot, and, of course, all of the fans who, for a few hours, made this show one helluva party.