So back when, in my college days, I used to dance a lot – at live concerts especially, but also at parties on campus, social events, and whatnot. Somehow as I’ve aged I’ve become more reserved and self conscious about it and rarely if ever dance, to the point where it’s occasionally been an issue with my girlfriends over the last 10 years or so. I mention this because this weekend I visited my friends Dave and Lisa at their new place in Westport, MA, and Friday night we went to see Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead cover band. By the second song I was on my feet bopping with the rest of the crowd, without even thinking about it. I had a blast, and it definitely made me nostalgic for my free wheeling self back in the 80’s. It was the first time I’d seen DSO and they were great. I guess they often play actual setlists of Dead shows, but Friday they were just winging it, playing songs from many eras. The highlight was a 10-15 minute take on Alligator, which was less like Pigpen’s drunken bluesy take on it and more rock/jam band, but it was great and rocked the place.

I was also surprised to see how much dope folks were smoking. The show was in Lowell, MA, in a small concert hall, and there were only a couple of hundred people there, and I saw the cops drag out two folks and security track down several others, and yet still folks were smoking dope all over the place – great clouds of it were gushing up over the floor during the sets. Either these folks are fools (most likely) or the penalty for possession must be trivial in Massachusetts.

Anyway I had a blast, I’d definitely go see DSO again, they were great and the crowd scene brought back a lot of fun memories from my teen/early 20’s years.