Interview of tribute band Dark Star Orchestra

[This article was published in the New Haven Advocate.]

Living up to the Dead

Dark Star Orchestra — the tribute band worthy of tributes

At each of their shows, expectations are high. They have lived up to them more than 1,500 times, and, God knows, they will continue doing so.

The Dark Star Orchestra (DSO) have made fans of people who have seen the Grateful Dead a zillion times; they are also the virtual gateway to the Dead’s music to many young Deadheads who have never seen Jerry Garcia and his band, thus straddling two generations of audiences.

The pressure to meet the expectations of Deadheads — young and old — is definitely high, says Dino English, the drummer of DSO who plays the part of Bill Kreutzmann. “It is a huge responsibility, and we do feel it bearing down on us. But we know we’ve harnessed that energy. Having done it many times before, it gives us confidence. But yes, the pressure does exist. And I think that pressure did exist on the Grateful Dead, too. Jerry once said they’re only as good as their last show. We feel that too. We are always trying to improve. And I think we’ve improved drastically over the years.”

To call the Dark Star Orchestra a tribute band and leave it at that would be unimaginative. Re-creating the music of the Grateful Dead takes more than an uncanny ear for music. “We must know our history very well to know where to go in the future,” says English. “We take the music of the Grateful Dead as a learning experience. It’s not to imitate, not to copy.”

From their small beginnings at Martyrs’ in Chicago in 1997, the band is coming full circle. Songwriters for the Grateful Dead Robert Hunter and John Barlow have expressed interest in working with the DSO. “It’s only in the discussion phase. But,” and now the band’s perfectionism shows through, “we’ve to be very careful not to interject something [into the music] that doesn’t belong there.”

The Grateful Dead improvised on their music a whole lot. No one song would sound the same when it was played next. Doesn’t that make it extra difficult then to be re-creating the music of a band that kept re-creating itself? “It makes it a lot of fun. If we were a Beach Boys band, we’d have about 20 songs that people would expect to hear night to night. But we have 300 to 400 songs to draw from every night and it keeps it fresh for us and the audience.”

Another amazing thing about DSO is their crazy energy levels. Some of the band members are in their 50s, yet they show no signs of being tired. English, the ‘baby’ Deadhead of the band says, “We try to keep the burnout from happening. We are trying to scale down the show. We are trying to keep it to 100 [shows a year] and get more balance in our lives. Playing music can be physically challenging as well and we need to take a break, just like sports players.”

When you are as committed to every detail as the Dark Star Orchestra, magic is inevitable. Deadheads will vouch for that.