Hey Deadheads, this one's for you! Sure, Jerry Garcia's gone, but Dark Star Orchestra, the band widely acclaimed as the best Grateful Dead tribute ever is still on the road, recreating the atmosphere of Dead tours long gone--and they'll be hitting the Jefferson Theater in just over a week's time! So really, we're sure you're going to want to be there. I can't pretend to understand the whole Dead mystique, personally, but considering that Dark Star Orchestra features members of several post-Grateful Dead satellite bands and have been joined onstage by former members of the Dead themselves, I imagine these guys have that whole thing on lock. And they take their tributes in a unique direction, picking out significant Grateful Dead performances from the past and recreating the set list in full, while still indulging in original interpretation and improv. Just to give an example, here's a 25-minute video from The Ogden Theatre in Denver, from last summer, in which DSO recreate a segment of the Grateful Dead's September 6, 1983 set, doing a medley of "Help On The Way,""Slipknot!" and "Franklin's Tower."
So yeah, if that's your jam (no pun intended), then you could certainly do a lot worse than whiling away an evening in Charlottesville next week, rollin' away the dew with the Dark Star Orchestra.
WHAT:The Jefferson Theater Presents An Evening With Dark Star Orchestra!
WHERE:The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St, Charlottesville VA
WHEN: Thursday, December 5, Doors open at 7 PM
ADMISSION: $25 in advance/$27 at the door--order advance tickets HERE
And best of all, you could catch this entire action-packed evening for free! One lucky RVA Magazine winner will receive 2 tickets to the Dark Star Orchestra show at the Jefferson Theater, just by entering their info into the lovely Punchtab box below. Will it be you? Enter and find out! But do so before Friday at 5 PM, because that's when the giveaway ends!