Keeping the Dead alive: ‘It’s almost like it changes your DNA’
"I have realized that this community is its own thing -- and it can keep going in perpetuity," Rob Barraco of Dark Star Orchestra
July 13, 1984 holds a special place in Grateful Dead lore.
That was the date when the famed Bay Area psychedelic rock act performed at what is often referred to as its favorite venue — the Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley — and something quite dramatic happened during the encore.
Having just completed two sets of music, thrilling their loyal Deadheads with such classics as “Dire Wolf,” “Scarlet Begonias” and “Stella Blue,” Jerry Garcia and company then reappeared to play the group’s trippy signature number — “Dark Star” — as an encore.
While they were playing it, as legend has it, a shooting star sailed across the Berkeley sky and further blew everybody’s minds. Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing happened on Friday the 13th?
Exactly 40 years later, Grateful Dead tribute act Dark Star Orchestra is set to re-create (and, as they are known to do, re-imagine) that legendary show for fans at the same venue on July 13.
Melvin Seals and JGB are also on the bill.
The show also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Rex Foundation, the Dead’s charitable organization that was founded in 1983, and hosted its first benefit shows in 1984. Showtime is 5:30 p.m. and tickets start at $78.15 (subject to change), apeconcerts.com.
I recently had the chance to talk about the big show with Dark Star Orchestra keyboardist Rob Barraco, who has also performed in such GD-related projects as The Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends and the Zen Tricksters.
Q: Good to chat with you, Rob. How does it feel to have been jamming in Dark Star Orchestra now for over 19 years?
A: It’s quite the honor to be able to play with most of the same people for all these years. They become your family and you get to know them intimately — and musically intimately. It actually turns out that we’ve developed our own language when we play. It’s pretty cool.
Q: You joined the band some eight years after it started in 1997. How did that all come about?
A: Their keyboard player Scott Larned passed away in April 2005 and their manager called me up on the phone and was like, “Look, these guys have a month-long tour coming up. They are in no position to audition anybody. We know that if we ask you to come onboard for that tour, they won’t need to rehearse because you know the material so well.” And I agreed to do it. And I really haven’t looked back.
Q: There are no original members in the band at this point, right?
A: The only (remaining) person — who joined the band two shows in — is Lisa Mackey. Other than that, both our drummers are the oldest ones in the band. But none of them are the originals.
Q: Back when the band was first starting out, do you think anybody had any idea just how long Dark Star could last?
A: No. When John Kadlecik started the project with Scott Larned, I think their thought was, “Yeah, we’ll play a couple of shows here and there.” And it just turned into a juggernaut, because this community just loves this music and they just want as much as they can get — doesn’t matter who’s playing it.
They found a niche — re-creating shows — and it caught on.
Q: Perfect segue, my friend. Tell me about the show you will be re-creating at the Greek and what made it so special.
A: Somehow, (the Grateful Dead) ended up encoring with “Dark Star” — which, as far I am concerned, is their coolest tune — and it hadn’t been played in years.
The lore is that there was an unbelievable shooting star that happened when they started playing (“Dark Star”), so it made it really special.
It’s a show that’s been talked about on and on through the years.
And we’re playing it on the 40th anniversary of that show.
Q: I’m looking at the Dark Star Orchestra Wikipedia page and it says that the band played its 2,000th show way back in 2011. So, that was 13 years ago.
A: We’re way into the 3,000s now. We have surpassed the Dead (show total) by quite a bit.
Q: Wow. Isn’t that a trip that you’ve now played more shows than the Grateful Dead?
A: Of course, it is. Like I said, I don’t think anybody envisioned such a feat.
Q: Dark Star Orchestra is best known for re-creating specific shows in concert. Yet, there’s another side to the band as well, right?
A: If you took a week, we probably do three to four re-creations. The other shows, we call them elective sets — and we make up our own setlists. And those are really cool because we juxtapose years that had nothing to do with each other. Like, I have to play and sing three different ways in a show, which is a great challenge for me — makes me a better musician. We put together setlists of songs that the Dead never really put together. And we try to make it work. And, most of the time, it does.
Q: Of course, Dark Star Orchestra was one of the first nationally known Grateful Dead tribute acts. But it just amazes me how many others are out there now — they’re everywhere.
A: I was in Dead cover bands in the ‘70s. I was in Dead cover bands in the ‘80s. I eventually found my way to playing with Phil (Lesh) and it was while I was playing with Phil that I got to talk to people all over the country. And that’s when I came to the realization that every town has a Dead band. Some of them have multiple Dead bands — Portland, Maine, has like three Dead bands. It’s so insane.
But it doesn’t surprise me anymore. I have realized that this community is its own thing — and it can keep going in perpetuity.
Once you plug into it, it’s part of you. It’s almost like it changes your DNA.