Listening to Dark Star Orchestra recordings

I sometimes hear people ask "Why listen to recordings of Dark Star Orchestra when you can listen to the real show".

That's an easy one with many answers:

A. Many DSO shows are not derived from actual Grateful Dead shows set lists.

B. Even the ones that are from GD set lists are played uniquely by DSO.

C. Most of the time DSO recordings are done using modern recording technology making the sound enjoyably listenable.

D. Apparently, people just like to... given this info from Archive.org http://www.archive.org/details/DarkStarOrchestra

Most Downloaded Items:

Dark Star Orchestra Live at Gathering of the Vibes on 2005-08-13
74,585 downloads
Dark Star Orchestra Live at Starr Hill Music Hall on 2006-02-07
71,486 downloads
Dark Star Orchestra Live at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park on 2004-07-04
46,130 downloads
Dark Star Orchestra Live at Crystal Ballroom on 2005-02-25
38,136 downloads
Dark Star Orchestra Live at Keswick Theater on 2007-12-31
37,774 downloads

That's 268,111 downloads of the top five downloaded shows. Of course it takes some time to get on that list so I believe the newer recordings will break into that list soon enough. And this is just one web site as I know there are many others.

What that number tells me is something I've stated before .... TAPERS OF DARK STAR ORCHESTRA ARE APPRECIATED BY MANY (that goes for you video tapers too!).

At the time of this writing there are 420 recordings up on Archive of almost 2000 shows. So I would take a guess that just about 1/5 of the shows are actually getting taped given that some shows are taped by several tapers. About 4 out of 5 shows are getting away. It's never to late to do your fellow DSO listener a favor and pick up the craft of recording shows.

By the way .... I hear tapers are now called "recordist" as very few actually record on tape anymore.

Here are some from this tour:

http://www.archive.org/details/dso2011-05-12.ccm4v.zman.ots.flac16

http://www.archive.org/details/dso2011-05-05.ccm4v.zman.fob.flac16

http://www.archive.org/details/dso2011-04-30.mstc.flac16

It's been a fun tour! Thank you all! ...Glad to be able to play for you!