For Dark Star Orchestra, Keeping the Grateful Dead Alive Means Never Playing It the Same Way Twice

Keyboardist Rob Barraco talks improvisation, Phil Lesh and what fans can expect when Dark Star Orchestra comes to Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Dark Star Orchestra has spent nearly three decades recreating the concert experience of the Grateful Dead.

Just don't call what they do a note-for-note recreation.

Even when the band walks onstage intending to reproduce a particular Grateful Dead concert from decades ago, keyboardist Rob Barraco says the musicians don't know exactly where the music will take them.

“Every night we go out to play, we're completely improvising,” Barraco said during an interview on Off The Press with Scott Cronick on WOND. “Even though we might be doing a recreation of a Grateful Dead show from history, we're still improvising the entire show. We just know the parameters we're working around.”

That unpredictability will come to Atlantic City on Saturday, Sept. 12, when Dark Star Orchestra performs at 7 p.m. at Ovation Hall at Ocean Casino Resort. Ocean describes the band as going beyond a traditional tribute act by recreating full Grateful Dead setlists while maintaining the improvisational spirit of the original band.

Asked by Cronick what fans should expect Saturday night, Barraco offered three words:

“Expect the unexpected.”

Recreating a show without copying it

Dark Star Orchestra formed in Chicago in 1997 and has now performed more than 2,800 shows, according to the band and Ocean Casino Resort. The group's approach can involve recreating an actual Grateful Dead concert — including its setlist and the general sound of that era — or creating an original set of Dead material.

What it doesn't involve, Barraco said, is attempting to copy every note.

“You couldn't do it,” he said when Cronick asked about note-for-note recreations.

“And what fun would that be?” Cronick responded.

“Exactly, exactly,” Barraco said.

That distinction is at the heart of Dark Star Orchestra.

The musicians know the framework of a historic concert but retain the freedom to improvise within it — much as the Grateful Dead did themselves.

Barraco recalled recently performing a show from early 1969, an era he described as “real primal Dead.”

“That show was extremely enjoyable,” he said. “All the different eras of Grateful Dead are big fun to play, but that primal stuff, you've got to really be committed.”

A rarity may be coming

After so many years playing the Grateful Dead catalog, there aren't many songs Dark Star Orchestra hasn't tackled.

“We've done them all,” Barraco said.

But there are songs that appear much less frequently.

One is “King Solomon's Marbles,” an instrumental associated with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.

“We don't do it very often, but we are planning on doing it on this tour coming up,” Barraco told Cronick. “I really look forward to that because it's a pretty complex tune with a lot of improvisation.”

Barraco acknowledged that the deeper cut may divide Saturday-night Deadheads between those delighted by the surprise and those trying to figure out what they're hearing.

“I'm sure there'll be some people out there that'll know it,” he said. “Some people will be scratching their head.”

Barraco's connection to the real thing

Barraco brings an unusual perspective to Dark Star Orchestra because he didn't merely grow up listening to the Grateful Dead.

He eventually played alongside some of the musicians whose music DSO celebrates.

Barraco spent years performing with Lesh, including as a member of the celebrated Phil Lesh Quintet. His official Dark Star Orchestra biography says Barraco's work with Long Island's Zen Tricksters caught Lesh's attention, eventually leading Barraco and guitarist Jeff Mattson into shows with Phil Lesh & Friends.

Barraco went on to tour in a Lesh lineup that included Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring and John Molo and appeared on the studio album There and Back Again.

Barraco told Cronick that playing with Lesh involved enormous musical freedom.

“Even though it was his band, he wanted you to just be yourself and play,” Barraco said. “And he really didn't care what you played, as long as you were in it and committed.”

Joining Dark Star Orchestra required a somewhat different mindset.

Barraco said he quickly discovered there was discipline involved in recreating the sound and structure of a particular period in Grateful Dead history.

“I kind of got myself in trouble a couple of times when I first started playing with them, because I did a little bit of overplaying, and I got the evil eye,” he said.

He soon understood the balance.

“I have a role to play in this band,” Barraco said.

A temporary gig that lasted more than 20 years

Barraco joined Dark Star Orchestra in 2005 following the death of keyboardist Scott Larned.

Initially, it wasn't supposed to be a career move.

“The original keyboard player, Scott Larned, passed away and I was asked by their management to come on board to do a month-long tour,” Barraco said.

The band wasn't in a position to audition and rehearse a replacement. Barraco already knew the music.

“I've been doing this Grateful Dead thing for a long time,” he said.

One month became more than two decades.

“I joined the band and immediately got what they were doing and I really dug it,” Barraco said. “I asked to stick around, and I did.”

‘I want to be him’

Barraco's musical journey began long before the Grateful Dead entered his life.

His parents filled their home with music, particularly big-band music and Frank Sinatra. Then he heard The Beatles.

“I knew instantly what I was going to do with my life,” Barraco said.

He remembers seeing John Lennon on The Ed Sullivan Show and pointing toward the television.

“I told my mother, I was like, ‘I want to do this.’ She goes, ‘What?’ I was like, ‘I want to play this music, and I want to be that guy.’”

His mother responded by buying him a guitar and arranging lessons.

“I really never looked back from then,” Barraco said.

Then came the Grateful Dead.

“Hearing The Grateful Dead for the first time live made me realize the possibilities in improvisation, improvisational music,” Barraco said. “It started a lifelong journey of studying jazz improvisation to this day.”

A favorite Dead keyboardist

Considering Barraco's role, Cronick asked which of the Grateful Dead's keyboardists had the greatest influence on him.

Barraco didn't hesitate: Keith Godchaux.

“When I heard him play, when I heard the Grateful Dead for the first time, they didn't have a piano player on the records and stuff,” Barraco recalled. “Then all of a sudden, I go to see them play for the first time, they have a piano player.”

The experience stayed with him.

“I'm listening to what he's playing, and I'm like, I've never heard anybody play like that,” Barraco said.

He credits Godchaux with helping steer him toward jazz and improvisation.

“He came up with some really interesting things to play and really influenced me for a long time.”

Robert Hunter and an original musical life

Barraco hasn't spent his entire career interpreting other people's songs.

While working in Lesh's orbit, he was part of a period when musicians were creating new material, including songs involving legendary Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

“We had new music that Phil was writing with Robert Hunter, and we made a record for Columbia called There and Back Again,” Barraco said. “Warren Haynes was writing music for the band. I started writing music for the band.”

Barraco said he continues performing original material with another project, The Skeleton Crew, including songs for which Hunter wrote lyrics.

One collaboration remains particularly meaningful.

“It's called ‘Old Coast Highway,’” Barraco said. “Beautiful, beautiful lyrics, very special tune. We both thought it was the best one we wrote together.”

‘It's a mystery, even to me’

Barraco also has plenty of Atlantic City history.

He told Cronick he has played in the city with different projects over the years, including the Zen Tricksters and Lesh.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” Barraco said when Cronick suggested Atlantic City had become something of a musical home. “I used to play there with the Zen Tricksters. I played there with Phil Lesh. Yeah, a lot of history.”

Saturday will add another chapter.

Dark Star Orchestra plays Ovation Hall at Ocean Casino Resort at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12. The band is in the midst of a run that takes it through Charlottesville, Virginia, on Thursday and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Friday before arriving in Atlantic City.

As for which version of the Grateful Dead fans will hear once the lights go down, Barraco isn't giving it away.

In fact, he may not know himself.

“We could be recreating a Grateful Dead show from their 30-year history, or we might come in and make up a set list,” Barraco said.

“So it's a mystery, even to me.”

Tickets/show information: Ocean Casino Resort — Dark Star Orchestra