Dragondeer to Cover Velvet Underground at Globe Hall
by Adam Perry for Denver Westword 10/29/2021
It’s common knowledge that the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground — bands that emerged on opposite coasts and mesmerized ’60s counterculture audiences at roughly the same time — both performed previously as the Warlocks.
Perhaps not so widely known are some other commonalities: While the Dead was the de facto house band for Ken Kesey’s Acid Test gatherings, the Velvets were holding musical court at Andy Warhol’s fabled Factory parties — and in its own way, the Velvet Underground was a jam band, too, rocking thirty-minute versions of “Sister Ray” while the Dead was seeing how far out “Dark Star,” its own improvisational staple, could get.
“They were doing the same thing,” agrees Eric Halborg of Denver blues-rock quartet Dragondeer. “They were taking drugs. They were stretching stuff out. They were lettin’ people fly their freak flags. Outwardly, it just looked so different, but they were really doing similar stuff.”
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Adam Perry 