Dark Star Orchestra

The Grateful Dead will never die as long as an iteration of Dark Star Orchestra is able to take the stage. The Chicago-based DSO is more than just the most highly regarded Dead tribute band. Its members operate as musical historians, recreating not only historic set lists from the Dead’s 2,500 performance dates, but arranging the stage, replicating the visual imagery and even adjusting the band’s personnel to match the Dead’s own evolution over more than 30 years of performances. DSO began performing live in 1997, and thought various performers have come and gone over the years, the band received its own tributes when Grateful Dead members and alums including Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay joined them on stage.