Venue
Cosmic Charlie put on a great show! Fun! One great Dead tune after another. No throw-aways. All excellent. The “halftime show” was the entire Dark Side of the Moon. Not as flawless as actual Floyd but very cool. Singer and sax were a great addition. And this extended into a stellar Eyes of the World. Special treats - Foolish Heart with heart-felt jam. - Drums was very cool. Sophisticated and … Fun!! See Cosmic Charlie again? Heck yeah!!!
I'm a big time Dead Head so I'm kind of picky with my Dead - and Cosmic Charlie did a pretty good job. They were definitely a more type of hard rock version of the songs, which is cool. My only real "complaint"was there wasn't any transitions between songs - no real outro jams into other songs. Scarlet Begonia was followed by.. well I can't remember, but it wasn't Fire on the Mountain - and that's a creative choice, but to play the Dead you have to string 1 or 2, or 6 songs together at some point. My favorite part of listening to live Dead shows is sometimes you just plain forgot where you are in the show, and forget what song is even being played, before they bring it all back around and send shivers down your spine... But the songs they played they did pretty well. A highlight of the Dead set was Sugaree, whom I think they did better than Dead & Company ever did. The second set was Dark Side of the Moon, which was actually fantastic - like bring you to tears type of stuff. They played the On the Run so cleverly - and did 90% of the studio effects with their instruments - I've seen much bigger Pink Floyd cover bands rely on just playing those sounds through the PA. The Great Gig in the Sky - the woman just did the song absolute justice, and belted it out like the record - it was amazing really. Time and Money were great as they should be - and I think by Money the crowd was in jubilation. I felt that concert-goer glaze during the Pink Floyd set a lot more than during the Dead set. It ended with Eclipse and I was very glad we went to the show at the end of this set. Well it didn't end, they then started what I thought was the encore - and played Samson & Delilah. It was great! Then... Eyes of the World? So my guess is they did a whole second Dead set after Dark Side, making this a 3rd set, but unfortunately our parking meter was going off, and we had to get home regardless at around midnight already, so we weren't able to stay to see how the rest went. I had some very nitpicky complaints as a player and concert goer that I wanted to share: the lead guitarist - kept pushing his earbuds back in, tuning his guitar fully, in the.. middle of solo's (like all 6 strings, 10+ times, in the middle of the song), tapdancing on pedals, inane use of volume swells, all along with his showmanship act - it was too much at times and pulled away from the songs. The bass player and organist looked bored or angry, and the bass player's vocals were almost muffled sounding, and I'm sorry but you can't drag your way through "Mr Charlie"as he did. He could have used an energy drink I think. The rhythm guitarists volume was very loud, and he used a lot of harmonics and extended chords that outshined the lead at the wrong times, though I found him to be an excellent player. This all could have been down to being an off night, or something with the venue, or just that's how the band is and I'm being picky, but they're just the things that detracted a star for me really, that and the lack of true transitions. Overall it was a nice musical night out. The venue was good too. I'd recommend Cosmic Charlie to anyone who likes the Dead, Pink Floyd, or classic rock, and I'd go again myself.
My first time seeing Cosmic Charlie and they did not disappoint. High energy, Grateful Dead tunes with their own interpretation. You can tell these guys love the music, and the energy is infectious. They played 3 sets including a run through of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Good times and I will not miss them the next time they come to town.
The band will get you moving and dancing. There drum section might even out do the original at times.. Great show. Very musically articulate with good show vibes too. Reccomend catching them when around..
The show was awesome. Way more than I expected. I have one recomendation. Show the movie The Wizard of Oz in the background while playing Dark Side album. I don't think anyone else could have done a better representation of the album.
Complete Dark Side of the Moon album and some great Grateful Dead jams. Guitars, keys, sax, female vocals, two drummers and one crazy good drum solo. See this band. You won't be disappointed.
