…Still Dead After All These Years!

FEATURE

 by Ernie Thomas

This Chicago-based band have been “raising the Dead” across America for six years now. 

 They are no crystal ball-rubbing charlatan act, but rather the world’s premier Grateful Dead tribute.  

 Though referred to within savvy music circles simply as D.S.O. –– just as Bachman-Turner Overdrive was called B.T.O. and Blue Oyster Cult was called B.O.C. –– the group’s actual name is Dark Star Orchestra.   

D.S.O. have become godheads to the lost souls of the Deadhead Nation, who have sought out surrogate bands since the 1995 death of Jerry Garcia.    

Unlike other tribute bands, Dead and otherwise, D.S.O. do not just perform faithful covers of a band’s songs.  Instead, they recreate actual shows given by the Dead on a specific date in a specific city, following the same song list from that concert. 

 “We don’t do the songs note per note, but we do them the same way the Dead played them during that particular period of their career,” explained Jon Kadlecik, D.S.O’s “Jerry Garcia” and co-founder.  “The Dead may have played the same song in 1972 and 1977 and 1987, but they never played it the same way. If we’re doing a show from ‘77, we play it the way they played it then, not the way they played it in say ‘87.” 

The recreation is fanatically detailed.  D.S.O. tailors its musical gear to match each show. Their positions on stage are in accordance to the exact stage plot the Dead used, right down to the strategic placement of every microphone.  The instruments they play vary with the time period being recreated.   

Keyboardist Scott Larned, who co-founded the band with Kadlecik, may play a Hammond B-3 organ on stage one night, and just a piano the next.   

Likewise, certain members report on stage for some shows and sit on the sidelines for others. When recreating certain ‘70s shows for instance, they feature female vocalist Lisa Mackey, in the role of Donna Godchaux, who toured with the Dead during that period. Some nights they have two drummers on stage and other nights only one, depending on how the Dead played the actual show they are duplicating. 

The idea for doing this kind of obsessive Dead tribute first came to Kadlecik back in 1992, when he was still doubling as both fiddle player and guitarist in Chicago’s original music group, Hairball Willy, who covered Dead tunes in their live sets.        

 When Hairball Willy disbanded, he found himself playing Garcia’s notes in a couple of short-lived Dead tributes, pre-dating D.S.O.  Kadlecik said those earlier bands “just didn’t cut it,” because other members were not dedicated and serious enough.  Kadlecik has great respect for the Dead and is totally “dead-icated” to getting it right. 

In hooking up with Larned –– who had been in an early incarnation of the Chicago-based national recording act, Freddy Jones Band –– Kadlecik found a kindred spirit who was ready to step up to the plate and do justice to Jerry Garcia’s memory and musical legacy.   Together the two devoted Deadheads recruited other like-minded players.

  “Years of preparation that have gone into this,” explained Kadlecik on how he, Larned, Mackey and their other D.S.O. cohorts –– Kevin Rosen (as bassist Phil Lesh), Dino English (as drummer Micky Hart), Rob Eaton (as guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir) and Rob Koritz (as second drummer Bill Kreutzmann) –– can shift from era to era and style to style seemingly effortlessly.    

 “We were all Dead fans long before we ever put this band together, so we all know their music really well.  We’ve all seen the the Dead perform several times.  We’ve all spent years collecting tapes of [their] shows.  Doing this [music] is kind of second nature to all of us, because we’re all real familiar with their music as fans.”

 At one time, Dark Star Orchestra had vowed never to repeat any show once they had played it.  Their mission statement was to eventually recreate each of the nearly 2,500 concerts the Grateful Dead are known to have performed during their 30-year career.  While they still aspire to the latter,  Kadlecik said that on rare occasions they repeat some of the really exceptional shows, but never in the same city twice.   

 “We might repeat a concert we did three years ago in Colorado during a gig in Cleveland,” he said, “but we’d never do that same show in Colorado again.”  Sometimes there is a reason why certain shows are replicated on certain nights.   

 “Scott [Larned] usually picks which show we do.  Sometimes it’s because the Dead played that show in that city or at that same venue or on that same date.  Sometimes its just arbitrary,” said Kadlecik, adding that his favorite Dead period is the mid-to-late ‘70s. 

Since debuting on November 11, 1997 at the Chicago night club, Martyrs, Dark Star Orchestra has gone from having local players, to having members who hail from places like Colorado and St. Louis.    

Together, this remarkable ensemble have become ranked in the industry touring publication, “POLLSTAR”, as being one of the Top 50 touring bands in America.  They have headlined the huge “Jamgrass Festival Tour” in many states, where they have shared the stage with such bluegrass greats as –– The David Grisman Quintet, Yonder Mountain Band, Sam Bush (of New Grass Revival), Leftover Salmon and others.   

Dark Star Orchestra’s ability to consistently sell out shows in every city they visit and their penchant for recreating actual shows rather than simply recreating the music of the group they emulate, landed them a full page feature in “Rolling Stone” (June 20, 2002 issue). 

 It has also prompted a bevy of major name artists to join them in on stage jams, including ex-Dead members as –– Tom Constanten, Vince Welnick and Bob Weir –– who have all gone on record with favorable comments about D.S.O. and their remarkable knack for channeling the Dead in both spirit and musical output.

 In hearing Kadlecik speak of the amazing success he and his band mates have shared through the music of the Dead, one of Jerry Garcia’s most famous lyrical lines seems to sum up the D.S.O. experience best ––  “What a long, strange trip it’s been!”

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