Phil Lesh Shares ‘Darkstarathon’ Episode 2 Featuring Oteil Burbridge On Drums

Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh released the second installment of his Darkstarathon performance video series. Episode 2 boasted a new Phil Lesh & Friends lineup including Dead & Company bassist Oteil Burbridge on drums.

Along with Burbridge, the lineup consisted of guitarist Grahame Lesh, guitarist Lebo (Dan Lebowitz) and keyboardist Jason Crosby. As Phil noted when announcing Darkstarathon, “I will be collaborating with many musical friends to create a ‘Dark Star’ that pauses but never ends. Each band will pick up where the last band left off and it will be a living breathing infinite piece of music.”

The music picked up following Daniel Donato’s “Sleep Walk” tease in Darkstarathon Episode 1. Oteil set the tone for the jam right away with a jazzy, tom-filled shuffle. All the players communicated beautifully on a sparkling exploration accented by jazz chords from Crosby and interweaving guitar from Grahame and Lebo with Phil taking the bassline for a walk.

The quintet get into more familiar “Dark Star” territory about 11 minutes in. As the first verse was covered in Darkstarathon Episode 1, Phil began the second verse of the song before Grahame took over on “glass hand dissolving.” The father and son came together in harmony on the chorus.

Phil then jumped into a driving bassline to herald another jazz-inflected jam. An instrumental “Stella Blue” came next ahead of another “Dark Star”-esque exploration which traversed varied topography to cap the highly improvised Darkstarathon Episode 2. Watch below.