Circles Around the Sun takes a Grateful Dead song, finds a quintessential component of the song, strips it down and then composes and reimagines a song around that component. It’s as if we slipped briefly from this reality, into a another realm where the music of the Dead is at once both recognizable yet strange and new. During this performance one could not help but notice a familiar bass line of “Sugar Magnolia” strongly embedded inside of “Scarlotta’s Magnolias”. One could also not help but notice that the 9:30 Club was also stripped down as well to it’s quintessence, an amazing quartet of musicians on stage with their instruments and a few monitors. There was no photographer pit, no elaborate stage decorations or light snow, or wireless transmitters between instrument and soundboard. It was four amazing musicians locked into their instruments - Neal Casal (guitar) played intricate and effortlessly the entire evening hardly ever adjusting his pedal tones; Dan Horne (bass) layed down stunning and intricate baselines all night that resonated and penetrated deep into the 100 decibel performance; Adam MacDougall (keyboards) hunched over his keyboards like a mad genius and adjusting the ethereal sounds coming out instrument; and Mark Levy (drums) enthusiastically set the back beat of the evening and playfully engaged his cymbals adding both beautiful rhythm and texture to the performance.

DC Music Review looks forward to seeing Circles Around The Sun circle back to the region soon for another night of astounding and inspired psychedelic jams. Until that time we will always have the matrix recording and photos below to remind us of an unforgettable performance.