By Michael
Swanger michael@dmcityview.com
 Don't
you hate it when someone brags
they saw a legendary band during
their glory days and holds it
against you because you didn't
attend the same show? They look
at you as though you made a grave
error in your life, or even worse,
they look down on you with pity
that your parents didn't conceive
you sooner. It's enough to give
the most confident music fan an
inferiority complex, making them
feel like the outsider on an inside
joke.
It was 40 years ago when a group
of musical jesters known as the
Grateful Dead started as a jug
band, then rose to the top of
San Francisco's psychedelic scene
and soon became international
fathers of improvisational rock.
It must seem like eons ago to
20-somethings today. Along the
way, they were embraced by Baby
Boomers during the '60s and '70s
and later, Generation Xers who
followed in their parents' footsteps
during the '80s and early '90s.
But after the 1995 death of
the band's spiritual leader Jerry
Garcia, the Dead's long strange
trip came to a sobering halt,
leaving young fans holding splintered
pieces of what was once a tight-knit
"family." Original members
like Phil Lesh (Phil Lesh and
Friends) and Bob Weir (Ratdog)
formed solo projects, and a new
generation of Deadheads grew up
in the "jam band" era
worshipping neo-Dead acts like
Phish, the String Cheese Incident
and the Dave Matthews Band. For
many, classic Dead shows might
have been relegated to the history
books were it not for the efforts
of one group to recreate the past.
Each time the Dark Star Orchestra
takes the stage the years melt
away, giving young fans a glimpse
of what it might have been like
to "see" the Dead in
their prime. The six-piece Chicago
group pays homage to the Dead
each night by recreating one of
the band's 2,500 historic performances
with compelling accuracy right
down to the stage configurations,
set lists and arrangements. Their
true-to-life concerts are so refined
that members of the Dead themselves,
including Weir, Bill Kreutzmann
and Donna Jean Godchaux, have
performed with them.
"There's a ton of people
who never got to hear the Dead,
and we're giving them a chance
to hear the music as close to
how it was originally performed
as we can," says drummer
Rob Koritz.
Since its inception in 1997,
the Dark Star Orchestra has gone
to great lengths to be Dead-on
through faithful interpretation.
But unlike most cover or tribute
bands, the Dark Star Orchestra
remains true to the spirit of
the Dead by using the band's musical
vocabulary as a framework for
their own creativity. Koritz,
who has college degrees in classical
and jazz music, says it's a fine
line where imitation ends and
inspiration begins.
"We don't play their songs
note for note," he says.
"Part of what we try to nail
is the tones, tempos and arrangements.
But once we get out of the verses
and into instrumental jamming,
it's 100 percent all us."
Last April, an eerie and tragic
coincidence further cemented the
connection between the two bands
when Dark Star Orchestra cofounder,
singer and keyboard player Scott
Larned died of a heart attack
at the age of 35. The Dead lost
a few keyboard players of their
own over the years.
"One of the first thoughts
that went through our minds was
'Holy shit, another keyboard player
goes down,'" he says. "He's
missed quite a bit."
Like their heroes, however,
the Dark Star Orchestra has pressed
on, alternating the use of keyboardists
Dan Klepinger and Rob Baracco.
Koritz says each one brings new
Dead tunes to the mix, helping
the band recreate as many Dead
shows from as many eras as possible.
"We want people to know
that we're giving it our all because
we really love this music and
want to do it justice," he
says. CV
Sample Tracks
Listen
to over 50 sound clips, including
live performances, here . . .
| 
City
Sounds: Raising the Dead
