Buzz Blog

As the Grateful Dead-centric Dark Star Orchestra arrives in Salt Lake City for an 8 p.m. gig at the
Commonwealth Room this evening, it’ll do so having played with giants of the genre this past
weekend in San Francisco. On the first of two evenings at the Warfield Theatre, they enjoyed an
acoustic set with Peter Rowan, a bluegrass legend, singer/songwriter known for works with the
Dead-adjacent New Riders of the Purple Sage, and former bandmate of the Dead’s Jerry Garica
in the short-lived Old & In The Way.

“Rowan is more of a folkie and he played acoustic music with Garcia,” says DSO’s Dino English,
one of the band’s dual drummers. “So when playing with him, just minimal drums and
percussion were required. My job was just laying down a nice steady beat with brushes to let
the music do it’s thing while Rob Koritz did the same, playing mostly congas and shakers. We
certainly got a kick playing with Peter. He’s such a nice gentleman, very friendly and a lot of
fun.”

On Saturday, they upped the ante with Grateful Dead mainstay Bob Weir sitting in for a good
chunk of the band’s first set, his fifth time appearing with the group.

“He’s always an open and receptive person,” English says, “and I really do get the sense he is
an enlightened soul. Playing music with him in that setting requires much more use of our
overall skills behind a full set of drums. Bob has generally preferred to play his songs slower
over the years, so much so that it’s quite the challenge to play these tunes. I think Rob and I
(and the rest of the band) pulled it off well and Weir really seemed to have an enjoyable time
playing with us. So being able to supply the musicality he was looking for certainly does give us
all a warm feeling inside.”

As they hit the road following DSO’s up-close, stage-sharing nights with legends, English adds
that “these kinds of experiences definitely fill the tank.”

That energy will come with them to Salt Lake City this evening. “It’s been far too long since we played SLC,” English says. “And we are happy to be back.”

Giving a sneak peek into the songs that might appear at the Commonwealth tonight, English
notes that DSO plays “actual Grateful Dead show setlists roughly two-thirds of the time, and we
construct our own picks the rest of the time. We try to mix it up with different styles of shows
from when we last played in the same area. During our last time here, we played Park City for
two nights. On the first night, we did a one-drummer, early-’70s GD show, and our own set list
(what we call an elective set) on the second night. So what I can tell you about the show on
Tuesday is that it will be something different than those.

“Besides that, we do like to celebrate anniversary shows and this year coincides with the 50th
anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 tour,” he says. “We have plans to celebrate this
50th anniversary of 1972 all year long. We hope to possibly even make it over to Europe
ourselves to play some of the same cities they played in 1972, probably in the fall. So that is
something we are excited about. We are keeping our fingers crossed.”

Ticket information is available at thestateroompresents.com/the-commonwealth-room.