Dark Star Orchestra – Wed., February 10, 2010 – Barrymore Theatre

It's really about the sound that's created. It's about a sense of familiarity. It's about a feeling that grabs listeners and takes over. It's about a contagious energy: it's about the experience.

Offering a continually evolving artistic outlet within the Grateful Dead's musical canon, members of Dark Star Orchestra seek out the unique style of each performance era and offer their own interpretations and improvisations at each show. Using entire set lists from the Grateful Dead's decades of touring as a launching pad, Dark Star Orchestra recreates song for song performances straight from the set list of these historic shows.

"For us it's a chance to recreate some of the magic that was created for us over the years," DSO guitarist and vocalist, Rob Eaton explains. "We offer a sort of a historical perspective at what it might have been like to go to a show in 1985, 1978 or whenever. Even for Deadheads who can say they've been to a hundred shows in the 90's we offer something they never got to see live."

I have been to nearly half dozen DSO shows and each one has been a wonderful experience. The band does channel the sound, feeling and mood evocative of Grateful Dead shows from the past (not having witnessed one myself but happy to go along with the opinions of several of my esteemed Deadhead friends). As one of my friends put it "they (DSO) put on a great show. The sound and experience is better than any of the 30+ Dead shows I have been to." - AM