One of my first Deadhead shows, in college, was at an Iowa City bar called Gabes. In spring 1996, Jerry Garcia’s death was still fresh in the minds and hearts of the Deadheads, and a Chicago-area band called Uncle John’s Band filled the sonorous void for many.
A couple of years after moving Omaha, my husband, Wade, and I heard of a band known as Dark Star Orchestra coming to the now-closed Music Box. As I looked up at the stage to the members of the band, I realized we were seeing a new version of our beloved Uncle John’s Band, expanded and now fully re-creating Grateful Dead shows. We’ve also seen them in a few other places around the area, and I consider the concert they played in Des Moines on July 3, 2013, to be one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen (right up there with seeing James Brown at Bonnaroo in 2003).
So, upon hearing DSO was coming to the Astro in Omaha June 30, for the first time since 2017, we were practically first in line for tickets.
As the night approached, buzz started going around the internet: “What show would we see?” Several people speculated that the show would come from the 1980s. The night before, in Kansas City, the band re-created the Grateful Dead’s show at The Spectrum in Philadelphia on Friday January 12, 1979.
Seven men played keyboards with the Grateful Dead over the course of 30 years, and one of those men, Keith Godchaux (who played from 1971-1979), brought his wife, Donna Jean, into the band as a vocalist. Donna Jean was the only female member of the band, so Dark Star Orchestra audience members can tell if they are getting a 1970s Grateful Dead show if vocalist Lisa Mackey performs. Indeed, Mackey came out and played the opening song “Cold Rain and Snow” with the band. She then appeared and disappeared through first few songs.
While wondering if we were in the 1970s, the band threw the audience a curveball with the ecological-minded “We Can Run,” a song written by Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland, who performed with the band after the Godchauxs had left. At that point, I thought perhaps we were getting an original Dark Star Orchestra mix. This suspicion was 99% confirmed when they closed set 1 with “Johnny B. Goode,” a Chuck Berry song that the Grateful Dead often used to close shows, not sets.
Also adding to the 1980s-style vibe of the show was lead guitarist Jeff Mattson, who at times seemed to mutter the lyrics. If he was attempting to play in the style of Jerry Garcia in the 1980s, he re-created it pretty well. Garcia’s unhealthy habits had caught up to him by the 1980s, and it was sometimes painful to hear
Still, the high vibes of the energy in the room signified a crowd of happy, satisfied jam-band enthusiasts, who heard crowd-favorites such as the quintessential song “Truckin’” and the long, primarily instrumental “The Other Ones.” Drummers Dino English and Rob Koritz also performed an approximately 15-minute drumming session during which the rest of the band left the stage, as often happened with the Grateful Dead members during these drumming jams. The security guard to the right of the stage, near our seats, looked bewildered when the band members left, as it was well into the second set, but the band had at least an hour of time left.
Between songs, I overheard several people mentioned they had never seen Dark Star Orchestra before, and, as Koritz said (via email), there may be a reason for this.
“Business has been very good as of late and I think one of the reasons is Dead and Co.,” Koritz said. “With John Mayer as part of the group, that has exposed a whole new audience to the music of the Dead, and we are seeing a lot of younger people in our audience because of that.”
While some of those younger members may be craving the nostalgia of the peace, love and happiness of a bygone era, Moritz said it’s the music that appeals to the crow at a DSO show.
“The music really is timeless,” Moritz said. “We give an honest representation of that. Factor in the scene outside of the concert and the familial aspect of the Dead community and it isn’t gong to stop any time soon.”
Neither will Dark Star Orchestra, who is headed for Colorado through July 6 before going further west on their summer 2024 tour. At the end, guitarist Rob Eaton revealed the June 30 show was a Dark Star Orchestra original set, but, as they sang in their encore: “Love the one you’re with.”
I certainly did.