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Dark Star Orchestra on Tour
More than just a tribute band, the seven members of the Dark Star Orchestra are dedicated to the Grateful Dead live experience, best known for playing full setlists picked from their 2,000+ concerts. The Grateful Dead's live show is legendary, a catalog of improvisation traded and celebrated across decades. The Dark Star Orchestra re-creates the Dead's intra-band interplay and pastoral guitar soloing. Remarkably devoted and true to the source material, DSO tailors their arrangements, gear and tempos to the era of the evening. Some nights find the DSO creating original setlists, playing sets from the Jerry Garcia Band or even jamming with members of the Dead themselves.
Dark Star Orchestra in Concert
Formed in Chicago in 1997, Dark Star Orchestra provides generations of fans with the chance to experience entire Grateful Dead sets, song by song. Named after "Dark Star," a part of the Dead's set known for exploratory jams, DSO rose to national prominence in 1998 when Mike Gordon and John Fishman of Phish joined them for a performance of the Dead's 1983 Halloween show. DSO promptly became a touring sensation: At 2,800 shows and counting, DSO have played more shows than the Grateful Dead themselves. They ultimately enlisted keyboardist Rob Barraco of Phil Lesh and Friends, the Other Ones and the 2003 touring version of the Dead. The DSO have played Bonnaroo and Milwaukee's SummerFest, and they've been hosting their own annual fests for years - the Dark Star Jubilee in Ohio and the Jam in the Sand in Jamaica. Perhaps the most important honor for DSO, though, is enlisting actual members of the Grateful Dead, having performed on stage accompanied by Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Donna Jean Godchaux, Vince Welnick and Tom Constanten. A 2018 show even found guitarist Jeff Mattson playing Jerry Garcia's custom-made guitar, "Wolf," which the Dead founder used for two decades.
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Now that John K isn't with DSO it made me wonder how the band would sound....I am happy to say that the show was great. They were awesome and rocked the house. Never hurts to have a 19 song 1st set!!
If you love the Grateful Dead you will really enjoy seeing Dark Star Orchestra Live.
The theater was intimate and my fellow dead heads rocked along side me. We had a few Atlantic City show goers who were a little taken aback by the scene but definitely enjoyed the show immensely. I wandered through the audience and saw so many happy faces, happy to hear the dead play from a band who couldn't come closer to the real deal. DSO rocks and offers an awesome alternative to Furthur when Furthur is not around. Dark Star Orchestra offers a different experience than the Furthur shows and the Rhythm Devils. It seems that when the Dead split after Jerry's death, half went one way with their sound contribution that made the dead, and the other went the other way. The Rhythm Devils give you the wamp a wamp wap sound while Furthur gives you the improvisation experience. Dark Star Orchestra gives you what the Dead used to be. It is more of a Dead experience and I hope more heads meet me there. I am the wacky and always happy asian guy who cannot stand still. I love this band so much because they TRULY DO OFFER THE GRATEFUL DEAD EXPERIENCE. (Besides, they look like them a lot too! And the female vocalist and dancer is much better than Donna Jean Godchaux although we will alwyas love her too!)
What can I say. I saw the Dead a bunch, and DSO does a great job recreating the experience, as long as you don't get all caught up in it not actually not being the Dead. Worth the trip
Saw Dark Star Orchestra Saturday evening at Bergen Performing Arts Center. These guys are ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. They really can recreate the complex music the Dead made so famous. They really rocked the house and had everyone up and dancing in the aisles. I'm hooked on DSO and will see them every chance I get.
Dark Star Orchestra blew my mind with one of their original setlists last night. The addition of Jeff Mattson on lead guitar and vocals was an excellent choice and I couldn't believe how hot they were on songs like Harder They Come and Tangled Up In Blue. I felt like I was at a Jerry Garcia Band show back in 91. Definitely check them out...you won't be sorry.
The DSO played an energetic, captivating show on a beautiful evening at the Twin Cities premier outdoor venue. The new guitar player was a revelation, the band was tight, the set list was from a Dead show in Oct. 1977 - the prime era for the Dead in my opinion - with a great set list. Weather Report Suite, Wharf Rat, Not Fade Away, El Paso, Estimated Prophet, Eyes of the World, Peggy-O, Dancin' in the Streets - just a few of the songs. For a Dead fan, this was as close to a perfect evening as you could wish for.
These guys had it together! The sound was so good! Thanks for a great night under the stars!
The band played great, great jams and the crowd was way into the music
dark star is great-cant wait to see them again. westbury is the best.. long live dark star
Great show/Great Friend and so much fun, The music never stopped!
Not the Grateful Dead, but the music never stops. Takes you back a decade or two.
I went with no expectations as I has never seen them before, and I was pleasantly suprised. They kicked the back right out of it. Great song selection, I've never heard the Dead do Cosmic Charlie! Absolutely awesome Viola Lee Blues!!! Great Show, They jammed like nobody's business!
The whole show was great Anytime dark star plays its always a great experience
Small venue, intimate show. Always a good time. Been there for the last 4 years, have never been disappointed!
This was my first Dark Star experience, and i will be doing my best to go to as many as i can now!!!!! They were AMAZING....
Great venue. Great band. Very high energy second set and the whole show was a lot of fun!
Nice to hear an original set. Wish they were around LA more. Great time for my wife and I thanks!
First off, DSO orchestra is great. This is the second time this long-tie Deadhead (been on the bus for 40 years) has seen them. They most definitely channel the GD. Having said that, the particular setlist left something to be desired IMO (I realize fully that whether one likes a setlist is a highly subjective judgment). For starters, the show - I found out afterwards - wasn't one of DSO's patented recreation of a particular Dead show. It was an "orginal" setlist that that band selected. Hence, a song like "Easy Wind," which the GD stopped playing in 1971 due to Pigpen's death, paired with say, "Foolish Heart," which the Dead didn't start playing until 1988. Listening to the band, I kept trying to figure out which particular Dead show DSO was recreating, and kept drawing big blanks. As for the other tunes the band played, the sets were a bit too top heavy IMO with fairly obscure Dead songs like "Blow Away" and "Lazy River Road." And in the second set, did we really need back-to-back covers ("Watchtower" and "Dear Mr. Fantasy"), when there are so many great original Dead tunes that weren't played, such as, personal faves like "Estimated Prophet," "Terrapin" and "Eyes of the World"? And the space segment - I'm sorry - just went on far too long, longer than any space segment at any Dead show I ever attended. It just about cleared out the audience. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of good music that included some of my fave Dead tunes such as "Shakedown" and a truly great "Dark Star" jam - the musical highlight of the evening IMO. So yes, I would see DSO again in a heartbeat. As I said, I realize it is a highly subjective judgment whether one likes a particular set list. It was just the luck of the draw, to make a "Deal"-like analogy.
While the set list wasn't my personal favorite, the band sounded great and put on a good show. The venue is perfect - open, good acoustics, easy to get to and plenty of bars with no waiting. Show started at 9:15pm and went on well past midlnight - a little rough for a school night.
