Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady Guest With Dark Star Orchestra At Dark Star Jubilee

This past weekend, Grateful Dead tribute act Dark Star Orchestra hosted and headlined the Dark Star Jubilee festival at Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio. Hot Tuna was among the other acts on the bill and the group’s Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady sat-in with DSO on Saturday night.

Dark Star Orchestra followed performances by The Lil Smokies and Hot Tuna Electric on Friday by re-creating the Grateful Dead’s June 11, 1993 show that took place 25 years to the day earlier on the same site. Saturday’s action included sets from the Dino English Quintet, Holly Bowling, Jeff Mattson & Friends, Hot Tuna Acoustic and Los Lobos before DSO took the stage.

Kaukonen and Casady led Dark Star Orchestra through “3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds” and “White Rabbit” from the pair’s Jefferson Airplane days. DSO then rolled on with a pair of elective sets heavy on ’70s material. The band jammed on Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter” as part of their “Space” excursion before beginning “St. Stephen.” Dark Star concluded their closing stanza with “Morning Dew” and the day-appropriate “One More Saturday Night.”

Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads, Kitchen Dwellers and California Kind performed on Sunday ahead of DSO teaming with Melvin Seals for a set featuring material from the Jerry Garcia Band repertoire. Dark Star Orchestra keyboardist Rob Barraco and guitarist Rob Eaton sat out the set with Seals. Next up was a performance from The Infamous Stringdusters before Dark Star Orchestra concluded the festival with a pair of electric sets that included a full “That’s It For The Other One” suite.

Photos by Suzy Perler

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”772″ gal_title=”20180526 Dark Star Jubilee Perler”]

Listen to an audience recording from Saturday night taped by Toaste:

Setlist (via Starbase)

Saturday, May 26

Set One: 3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds* > White Rabbit*, Not Fade Away > Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, Mr. Charlie, Black Throated Wind, Tennessee Jed, Box Of Rain, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider

Set Two: Shakedown Street, Man Smart (Woman Smarter), Terrapin Station > drums > space@ > Saint Stephen > Morning Dew > One More Saturday Night

• * – with Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen
• @ – Featuring elements of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”