11.11.23 – By Max Filter

This past Saturday at the Palace Theater in Saint Paul, Dark Star Orchestra celebrated their 26th “Birthday” and played their 3,201st concert together. That’s an amazing accomplishment for any band, let alone a cover band. Dark Star Orchestra is more than just a mere cover band, however; they are consummate recreationists of the Grateful Dead live experience. Formed just over two years after the death of Jerry Garcia, Dark Star made a name for themselves amongst the Dead Head community by performing entire setlists, going so far as to change the on-stage roster of musicians and using era-accurate equipment to transport the audience to a specific time and place on the Grateful Dead timeline. Because the band waits until the end of the performance to share the details of what they played, guessing the year, tour, or exact show being presented has evolved over the years into a kind of trivia game for the enlightened head. This game has been made more difficult in recent years as Dark Star Orchestra, having now played over 900 more shows than the Grateful Dead did during their career, has also begun to create Original Setlists that fictitiously build upon the legacy of one of the most prolific American Rock Bands of all-time.

As the show began on Saturday night, a few clues could be discerned from the arrangement of instruments on the stage. The presence of two drum kits indicated that Dino “Bill Kreutzmann” English and Rob “Mickey Hart” Koritz would both be playing, ruling out the years of 1971 to 1974 when Mickey Hart briefly left the Grateful Dead. Both drummers indeed took the stage, alongside lead guitarist Jeff “Jerry Garcia” Mattson, rhythm guitarist Rob “Bobby Weir” Eaton, bassist Skip “Phil Lesh” Vangelis, and Rob “All-Of-The-Keyboard-Players” Barraco. Noticeably absent from the stage was vocalist Lisa “Donna Jean” Mackey, possibly indicating that this show would be after Donna Jean’s final show with the Grateful Dead in 1979. The band launched into the Bob Weir classic “Feel Like A Stranger” to open the set, a common enough opener to not give any major clues. While the lyrics promised a “long, long, crazy, crazy night,” the presence of Jerry’s Mu-Tron Envelope guitar tone from Jeff Mattson as well as Brent Mydland style playing from Rob Barraco solidly pointed to a 1980’s setlist. After a 10 minute rendition of “Stranger,” the band tackled “Direwolf” off of 1970’s Workingman’s Dead album. Surprisingly, Lisa Mackey emerged from the side stage to join her bandmates for this song, throwing some suspicion on the authenticity of this setlist. Next up we saw Rob Eaton sing lead vocals on a cover of Bob Dylan/The Band’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” a song frequently covered by the Grateful Dead in the late 80’s. 

The first real indication that this might be an original setlist arrived with the fourth song in the first set, a Jeff Mattson-led take on the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter rarity “Believe It Or Not.” This song was only played by the Grateful Dead a total of seven times between 1988 and 1990. At this point, a close analysis of those shows would have revealed that we were in uncharted territory, but Dark Star made that detailed comparison unnecessary by the end of the first set. Rob Eaton returned to lead vocals for the combo of “Lazy Lightning/Supplication,” which stretched to 11 minutes and featured some of the first jamming of the night. Mattson then took back over vocals for the Robbie Roberston ballad “Broken Arrow” as well as the following Garcia/Hunter classic “Ramble On Rose.” The band picked up the pace on the next song with the high-speed hobo anthem “Jack Straw,” featuring Eaton and Mattson trading vocals back and forth over the course of the 8-minute tragedy. The shoe finally dropped for most at the end of the first set, which saw Dark Star beautifully segue from “Scarlet Begonias” into “Touch Of Grey” over the course of 15 minutes, an extremely rare pairing that was only performed twice by the Grateful Dead, both in 1984. With the cat unofficially out of the bag that Dark Star Orchestra were performing an original setlist, the band left the stage for a 40 minute set break while the crowd began to share their findings and compare notes.

There’s a certain excitement that comes with being in fresh territory when it comes to the music of the Grateful Dead. It’s part of the magic that has allowed Dark Star Orchestra to continue to capture the imagination of Dead Heads so many years after the end of the original Long Strange Trip. It was with that same energy of “anything is possible now” that Dark Star took the stage to begin their second set, kicking things off with a 12-minute “Estimated Prophet.” Jeff Mattson made full use of the Mu-Tron Envelope guitar effects as Rob Eaton belted out the Bob Weir staple. After some excellent jamming, the band played the opening notes of one of the longest studio tracks in the Grateful Dead repertoire, “Terrapin Station,” to applause and cheers from the audience. Both “Estimated Prophet” and “Terrapin Station” appear on the 1977 Terrapin Station album and were a classic pairing throughout the Grateful Dead’s career. Continuing to segue between songs, Dark Star transitioned into a take on the jazz-infused Bob Weir/Robert Hunter collaboration “Corinna,” slowing things down and setting the mood for the subsequent 25-minute experimental odyssey that Dead Heads refer to as “Drums and Space.” As everyone not behind a drum kit slowly filtered off the stage, drummers Dino English and Rob Koritz embraced the chance to show off their impressive skills and synchronicity, building up to a ferocious multi-headed rhythm. 

As the extended duo drum solo began to settle down again, the missing members of the band returned to the stage and began to add to the energy, taking the audience into space and back before returning (mostly) to earth with a cover of the psychedelic masterpiece “I Am The Walrus.” The brief but faithful take on the Beatles’ tune soon transitioned into the crowd favorite “Not Fade Away,” building on itself in energy until reaching a glorious peak over the course of 12 minutes. In lieu of the call and response section that traditionally serves as the ending to “Not Fade Away,” Dark Star brought the energy down one more time with the beautiful but somber Garcia/Hunter ballad “Stella Blue.” The downturn was short lived, as the band gave a straightforward take on the tune before segueing into the high energy politically charged barnburner “Throwing Stones,” which in turn was jammed into the missing finale to “Not Fade Away” to bring the non-stop 95 minute set to a close. 

Following a very brief encore break, Dark Star Orchestra returned to the stage to thank the audience and confirm that they had indeed played an original setlist that evening. With a brief comment about how they wanted to keep playing until we all got kicked out, the band filled the remaining 10 minutes with an appropriate cover of Stephen Still’s “Love The One You’re With” and the obligatory “One More Saturday Night.” All in all Dark Star Orchestra delivered an amazing night of music that showed off their passion and dedication to the music of the Grateful Dead, continuing to do their part to make sure that this “Long Strange Trip” never ends.

Set 1: Feel Like A Stranger ; Dire Wolf ; When I Paint My Masterpiece ; Believe It Or Not ; Lazy Lightnin’ > Supplication ; Broken Arrow ; Ramble On Rose ; Jack Straw ; Scarlet Begonias > Touch Of Grey

Set 2: Estimated Prophet > Terrapin Station > Corrina > drums > space > I Am The Walrus > Not Fade Away > Stella Blue > Throwing Stones > Not Fade Away

Encore: Love the One You’re With > One More Saturday Night