Our Band

What can one say?(I've been known to say a lot, too much, in fact!)

WE hit the stage every night and seem to pull out of thin air powerful magic!

I love the fact that when I'm not feeling it, they have my back , and , visa versa.

It's an honor to share the stage with them.

There's a lot more magic to come folks!!!

See you in a few

Much love Rob Barraco

Our Crew

I sing the body of our crew(to use a little Walt Whitman)!

Our tour is over and I'd like to point out that our crew makes what we do possible. We NEVER could do this otherwise!! Nick, Matt, Brian, Sara, Will and Cotter make it all happen every night without fail. Most of the time I just get in the building and start playing because it is all done for me. they get very little sleep and not nearly enough recognition. Well, time for bed and flying home! Hope to see you all soon!!!!! Rob Barraco

Here we go again

Rob K here.

Well, it feels like July today, and it is not because we are in Florida, (which is unusually cool). No, it is because I was onstage setting up my drums at friggin" 10AM today!! You see, we are playing at a festival today. The Del Ray Beach 12th annual Garlic Fest to be precise. Guess what's for dinner.

Festivals are a different animal than your normal "an evening with DSO" days. First off, they start much earlier. We pulled out of Orlando last night around 2:30. After the crew winds down for a while, they hit the bunks somewhere between 3:30-4:00 am. Today the doors on the truck opened for load in at 10:am. Not a lot of sleep for those hard working guys and gal. Dino and I hit the stage around 10:30-11:00 to set up our drums. NO, we don't have a dedicated drum tech (please don't apply, we have no empty bunks), to do that for us, but the crew does help quite a bit.

Due to multiple bands and scheduling, we usually have to set up quite early in the day, and then hurry up and wait for a night time show. When we did the JamGrass tour in 2002, our load ins were at 7am, then we played at noon and again at 8pm. By the time the doors closed on the trucks it was usually 1am. Then another 7am load in. What an unforgettable tour, though.

Today sound check will be at 2pm and we wont start the show until 7:30. That adds an additional two hours of waiting around to our normal schedule. Every one kills the time differently. Sleep, exercise, movies on the bus (although today we are parked in a garage, so no satellite signal), video games, and of course, crosswords and Scrabble. On some occasions there is the chance to see some other bands perform. That is the great part of the festival thing for us. Getting to hang out and see some of our friends play and check out some new bands is one of the few perks of being on the festival grounds for up to 18 hours at a time.

The biggest perk is the exposure. A lot of people who never knew of the Dead or have been hesitant to check us out get to see us. Hopefully that translates into new fans who will help keep this train rolling.

We have had a pretty good week. Good crowds and fun shows. We are in the homestretch now. Two more shows and then straight to the airport for early flights Sunday morning. Looking forward to getting home for a little R&R. Many thanks to all that have joined us on this tour. You have made it a successful one for us. See you up north in a couple of weeks.

Thank You Tapers

Rob Eaton puts a great deal of work into the crispy sound board recordings on his off time so thanks go to all of you who buy the bands official releases. Rob only spends time working on the best sounding shows because he cares about releasing the best we have to offer with the limited time he has to master recordings. You can find what we have available here: http://www.livedownloads.com/live-music/3,291/Dark-Star-Orchestra-mp3-flac-downloads.html

But this blog isn't just a commercial for our official releases. This blog is about giving a big thank you to all you tapers who took time to bring your rig out and tape the shows. I know there are many who enjoy listening to your recording. Much thanks go to you!

A quick lesson on how to easily find shows of audience DSO recordings through our setlists page for those who don't already know:

If you go to our setlists page from our website, ( http://www.darkstarorchestra.net/NEWSITE/HTML/dso.php?sec=setlists ) show that have available audience recordings have a little CD icon or a speaker icon to the right of the show listing. Just click on the icon and it will take you to a recording of the show. Most of the time it is a link to http://www.archive.org/ where tapers post their recording. Usually, a player is available where you can instantly listen. The camera icon will bring you to pictures and even some links to youtube videos. I know there are other places to find audience recording but I can't keep track of all of them and I may miss some on archive as well so if any tapers (or audience members) who would like me to link recordings (or recordings you may find) to our setlist page, just send me an email with a link to rdenglish@sbcglobal.net

Happy listening and thanks again,

Dino

Ode to Canada

We often get requests to go to Canada but we have been unable to pull off a show. Let it be known ... We do love our Canadian Deadhead brothers and sisters. However, the logistics of pulling off a show there are enormous. When crossing the border we would have to have a detailed list of everything we are bringing down to the wire, nut, and bolt, not to mention a tremendous amount of other hurdles we would have to jump over. Recently, we have actually been in talks with Canadian promoters in several cities and have been unable to reach a deal due to all the hoops we would have to jump through. But a small Canadian tour is still not out of the question. Negotiations have just been tabled for the moment, not halted. I still believe that we will make it eventually in which case we would most likely scale the stuff we bring down to a bare minimum for early '70s and late '60s style shows.

Until then, we have several close to the border shows. Buffalo NY, where we frequent often, is not far from Toronto. Then we have Bellingham Wa for your Vancouver folks and Burlington isn't too far from Montreal.

So Canadians, know that we love you and we haven't forgotten you. Please visit us for these relatively close border shows. We will continue to try to take off to the great white north. We know it will be a beauty way to go.

Best,

Dino

Charleston

Forgot to write about what an enchanting city Charleston is!! We had a day off there and enjoyed the great food and wonderful scenery. Lots of history stretching back to pre-revolutionary times. Some of the most stupendous antebellum homes I've ever seen. I highly recommend anyone to visit some time. Go for a run in the battery! Show was a hot '73 with ridiculous long set list.

Rob B

Our Tin Can, Pearl

As we are hurling through the countryside on our way to Atlanta in this tin can I have come to call home, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of such a magical entourage. Last nights show was nothing short of spectacular. Major musical connections abounded through the night! The Carolina Theater is a gorgeous old theater with great sound. Kevin dropped some major bombs pre drums out of Terrapin.

One of the joys of traveling across the land is being able to hook up with lots of loved ones that we ordinarily would never see in person. Last night our bus was graced with the presence of the renowned Grateful Dead sociologist Rebecca Adams and her posse. We reminisced about past GD conferences we were a part of(aka .... tests) and had a few laughs. Jeff Mattson and I have known her for many years.

Now its off to play at another favorite spot, The Variety Play House in Atlanta. Hot 'lanta!!!!!

Join The Scrabble Revolution

So in this line of "work" (everything but the playing is work ... hard work at that), we run across ephemeral situations that can be described as "hurry up and wait" for the the next thing we need to do. Each band and crew deals with this in different ways. If you really want to know what goes on with all this "Rock & Roll lifestyle" we are immersed in, it's a lot of crossword puzzles and Scrabble. The older school folks deal with the crossword puzzles from the the New York times while the new school people play Scrabble on the their i-phones. We even play each other. Anyone up for a game of Scrabble? You may be able to play one of us on line.

Have a great day!

Dino