To quote a fan at the Mattson, Barraco & Friends show, “What we have here, is a half of DSO,” as in Jeff Mattson on lead guitar and vocals, Rob Barraco on bass guitar and vocals and Lisa Mackey on vocals, all of Dark Star Orchestra fame. They were joined by Joe Chirco on drums and Jason Crosby on keyboards and violin. But as one would expect the show was anything but a typical DSO set but rather an unrehearsed freeform compilation of songs the band just wanted to have fun playing.

Sullivan Hall, a 350 people capacity venue located in Greenwich Village in New York, NY was nearly packed on this Sunday night, that was rescheduled from an earlier night due to the December Blizzard of 2010. The crowd was really stoked and they cheered and danced the entire night. Jeff Mattson laid down some serious riffs and Rob Barraco, typically on keyboards in his other bands was right at home on bass. The two jelled rather nicely with Joe Chirco on drums and Jason Crosby was simply magic on the ivories and violin. Barraco made a joke about them not being rehearsed and Jeff also made some comment about not apologizing for not knowing the material that well and it was evident that they relied heavily on their cheat sheets. However this not take away from what is obviously some magic in the making. I’m sure that everyone there will be looking forward to them returning again real soon.

Set list courtesy of darkstarorchestra.net
Set 1: Absolutely Sweet Marie, You Can’t Do That, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Midnight Moonlight , White Rabbit, And It Stoned Me*, Season Of The Witch> Quinn The Eskimo> Season Of The Witch> Jam> Paint It Black> The Other One
Set 2: Walking The Dog*, Lonesome And A Long Way From Home*, Okie From Muskogee, Take Me To The River, Don’t Pass Me By, Dear Mr Fantasy, Ragged But Right, Bird Song> Jam> One More Cup Of Coffee> That’s Alright Mama> Bird Song
Encore: Goodnight Irene
Notes: *with Lisa Mackey (Dark Star Orchestra)