Performing to critical acclaim for over 20 years and over 3000 shows, Dark Star Orchestra
continues the Grateful Dead live concert experience. Their shows are built off the Dead’s
extensive catalog and the talent of these seven fine musicians. On any given night, the band will
perform a show based on a set list from the Grateful Dead’s 30 years of extensive touring or use
their catalog to program a unique set list for the show. This allows fans both young and old to
share in the experience. By recreating set lists from the past, and by developing their own sets
of Dead songs, Dark Star Orchestra offers a continually evolving artistic outlet within this
musical canon. Honoring both the band and the fans, Dark Star Orchestra’s members seek out
the unique style and sound of each era while simultaneously offering their own informed
improvisations.
Dark Star Orchestra offers much more than the sound of the Grateful Dead, they truly
encapsulate the energy and the experience. It’s about a sense of familiarity. It’s about a feeling
that grabs listeners and takes over. It’s about that contagious energy…in short, it’s about the
complete experience and consistent quality show that the fan receives when attending a Dark
Star Orchestra show.
Dark Star Orchestra has performed throughout the entire United States, including a sold out
debut at Colorado’s Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater, plus shows in Europe and the Caribbean
with the band touching down in seven different countries. DSO continues to grow its fan base
by playing at larger venues for two and even three-night stands, as well as performing at major
music festivals including Bonnaroo, Milwaukee’s SummerFest, The Peach Music Festival, Jam
Cruise, Wanee Festival, SweetWater 420 Festival, Mountain Jam, and many more.
In addition to appearing at some of the nation’s top festival, Dark Star Orchestra hosts its own
annual music festival and campaign gathering, titled the “Dark Star Jubilee”, currently in its
eighth year where DSO headline all three nights and are joined by a mix of established and up
and coming national touring acts. Beyond the shores of the United States, DSO has taken its
internationally-acclaimed Grateful Dead tribute to the beaches of Jamaica in the dead of winter
for the past six years, with their event appropriately titled ‘Jam in the Sand’. Featuring an
ocean-side stage, DSO sets up camp to perform shows for four nights along the tropical sands
of an all-inclusive resort, selling out the event each year for hundreds of lucky attendees.
Fans and critics haven’t been the only people caught up in the spirit of a Dark Star show. The
band has featured guest performances from six original Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob
Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, Vince Welnick, Tom Constanten and
even toured with longtime Dead soundman, Dan Healy. Other notable guests have included
Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman of Phish, Keller Williams, Warren Haynes, Steve Kimock, Peter
Rowan, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and many more.
“For us it’s a chance to recreate some of the magic that was created for us over the years,”
keyboardist and vocalist Rob Barraco explains. “We offer a sort of a historical perspective at
what it might have been like to go to a show in 1985, 1978 or whenever. Even for Deadheads
who can say they’ve been to a hundred shows in the 90s, we offer something they never got to
see live.”