{"id":89014,"date":"2019-05-13T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/?p=89014"},"modified":"2019-05-13T13:51:36","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T17:51:36","slug":"dark-star-still-shines-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dcmusicreview.com\/staging\/dark-star-still-shines-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Star Still Shines Bright"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u200bDark Star Orchestra has been playing for over 20 years and has performed close to 3000 shows.  They’re back on the road as the trip of life continues and we got to speak with keyboard player Rob Barraco ahead of their two-night run at The Hamilton in D.C.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u200bKarin McLaughlin: \u200bYou’ve been doing music in the realm of Grateful Dead in many different respects for a very long time. \u200b I \u200balso read that you started out as a keyboard and<\/em> a guitar player, is that correct? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rob Barraco:<\/strong> Well, my first \u200bforay into music \u200bwas when I was little, I think I started playing guitar when I was si\u200bx. \u200bSo I played for about five years and then when I was 11, my father convinced me -\u200b he always wanted a theater organ in the house, nobody could ever figure out why, but he loves \u200bto sing. He\u200b was a really good singer, he was a terrible musician though, no time – my mother used to have to conduct\u200b him, you know. \u200b He bought a theater organ \u200band I learned \u200bhow to play and I took to it right away. \u200b In retrospect, I wish they bought me a piano, because ultimately, in college when I was 19, I switched to piano.  I was a classical \u200borgan major and it was driving me crazy, I couldn’t figure out ‘What am I going to do with this skill, play in the church?’ \u200b<\/p>\n

KM: (laughs) That’s what I was going to say!<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB: <\/strong>\u200bI was like, well, piano is so universal and plus, I also had gotten turned on to a jazz pianist and I was just \u200bso enamored and that’s really what I wanted to do. So I became a pianist at 19 and I’ve never looked back\u200b. \u200b I’ve always loved playing guitar\u200b.  I learned how to play bass through listening to the Grateful Dead, so I learned how to play a little bit like Phil Lesh<\/strong>,\u200b which did not serve me well because I tried to be a bass player in a couple of bands and they looked at me like, ‘What are do you doing?’ \u200bI would say, ‘I’m playing bass’ and they’d say, ‘Uh, no you’re not, that’s not bass.’  I went, ‘Sure it is!’ and they’d say, ‘No, we want you to do this,’  and I was thinking, ‘Wow, that’s dumb, it’s not very interesting.’  (laughs) \u200b Yeah, I love playing bass, it’s such a great instrument, but piano \u200bis my thing.<\/p>\n

KM: So you could honestly start pretty much a one man band, right? (laughs)<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> (laughing) Yeah, on tape I could.\u200b<\/p>\n

KM: You mentioned that you\u200b were a big jazz guy\u200b.  I can’t remember what\u200b article specifically I was reading, but it said that you were a big Grateful Dead\u200b fan and then you stopped listening to \u200bthem for a while because all you wanted to hear was jazz.<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB: <\/strong>\u200bYeah, that happened when I was about 21.  I saw most of my Grateful Dead shows in 1972 and in about 1978, \u200bI went to a couple of shows and I\u200b noticed that the music just wasn’t\u200b being played at the same level, at least to me it wasn’t. \u200bThat also coincides with when I started to go see the jazz artists that I was really enamored with at the time.  Those guys play at such a high level\u200b and it’s so intense.  They were taking me to that place that the Grateful Dead used to take me to and no longer w\u200bere. \u200b Why would I want to go see Grateful Dead when I could go see these guys? \u200b They were playing at \u200ba level that \u200bgave me something to shoot for, you know, to aspire to and I wanted to do something that was a real challenge. \u200b Even to this day, jazz is a huge challenge for me and I love it.<\/p>\n

KM: So you built up your Grateful Dead tolerance to a point where you had to switch to some other substance?  <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB: <\/strong>(laughs) Yeah\u200b and I never looked back. The problem was\u200b that trying to make a living as a jazz artist is just nearly impossible. I mean\u200b I was married, I had two kids, there was no way that I was going to be able to afford, even with with with my ex working, I wasn’t bringing in enough money.   I had to resort to playing weddings, but I kept getting calls from Grateful Dead bands, because they knew that I knew the repertoire and so I kept getting sucked into these bands.  It was coo\u200bl because I could utilize all my jazz knowledge in the improvisational part of doing the Grateful Dead thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

KM: \u200bYou mentioned two kids, \u200byour son is a musician as well, correct? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> Yeah, he is a drummer. He’s a great, amazing musician, he really is.  He and I play\u200b with some of the guys from DSO. We have a side project doing our lead guitar players music and other stuff, it’s called Jeff Mattson and Friends.  <\/strong>My son Tom is the drummer of that \u200bband. My daughter was actually a tremendous pianist when she was young, \u200bher teacher thought she would go to Juilliard and do the whole thing. \u200b\u200bThen wh\u200ben she \u200bturned about 12, she became huge social butterfly and that was the end of that, because she didn’t want to practice anymore. \u200b You know, you can’t force that discipline on somebody, they have to want it and she didn’t, but she went on to become a very successful attorney.<\/p>\n

KM: Did she ever admit that she wishes she had stuck with it? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB<\/strong>:Yes. \u200b She called me when she was in college and she goes, ‘Why did you let me quit?’ I was like, oh yeah blame me for everything (laughs). \u200b She can still play beautifully though when she does sit down in front of a piano.<\/p>\n

KM: \u200bSpeaking specifically about \u200bDark Star and what \u200byou guys \u200bdo with your shows – you want to recreate not only obviously, when you do a specific\u200b show with setlist\u200b, you’re also trying to recreate the feeling of the Dead show and the experience. How do you convey that to the fans? I mean, obviously people that have been in attendance at\u200b actual Dead shows and they come to your shows, they know what it’s about. \u200b But there’s a ton of new people, the\u200b people that were attending the Dead shows in the 60’s and 70’s are bringing their kids to these Dark Star shows or\u200b JRAD or other cover\u200b bands that play the Grateful Dead music\u200b.  You even see, especially in the jam grass and even non jam grass scene, you have everybody covering \u200bDead.  How do you give that feeling to people that never felt it in the first place? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB: <\/strong>Well, the number one aspect \u200bof this music is the improvisational nature, every note is \u200bmade up.\u200b So even though we’re recreating a show from a specific era, \u200bwe’re very conscious of the arrangements of the tunes in those \u200beras, the tempos of the tunes, even the instruments that they use to get the sounds that they were getting. \u200b After that, when the show starts, it’s all improvised and that’s the thing that I think turns Deadheads into Deadheads.  Once they grasp that, they’re in for life because \u200bthey start to realize t\u200bhey can see that band every night and it’s going to be a different experience. \u200b<\/p>\n

When we were seeing the Dead in the mid 70s. Every show they\u200b played almost the same songs\u200b, because they\u200b didn’t have an expansive \u200brepertoire at that time and we didn’t care, right because it was all different every night. So \u200bat the end of the tour, we can compare, \u200band say, ‘Man that “Estimated Profit” on 5\/11 was the best one of the bunch, because they did this and they did this and then the one on 5\/15, it wasn’t quite as long.’  \u200bYou know what I mean? \u200b<\/p>\n

It’s all about the \u200bimprovisation and the musical conversation that the musicians have with each other. \u200b We’re taking each other on a journey and the benefit of that, is the audience gets taken on the same ride. \u200bIt ‘s a journey of surprise, because we don’t know where it’s going to end up.  We’re as surprised as they are where we go and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  <\/p>\n

\u200bThe one good thing about Dark Star, I can honestly say we never fail.  I’ve been to Dead shows, especially the latter day Dead shows where it was miserable failure and a lot of that was drug induced, just\u200b not caring. \u200b We approach the music with such enthusiasm that even when we don’t make\u200b a 100% connection, it’s still going places. \u200b<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

On top of that, \u200bevery night for us is completely different because we make sure that \u200bif we do a ’77 show tonight, tomorrow night could be an ’89 show, or it could be a ’69 show and it’s a completely different animal. \u200b We do it on purpose, because we want to make it so a it’s different for us to keep us interested and be different for the folks that are actually touring with us because we have a bunch of people on tour\u200b that go to all the shows. \u200b Like Tonight, we’re in Boston.  So we look at t\u200bhe list that we played the last four years and we make sure that we’re playing something different. \u200b Dino English,<\/strong> \u200bone of our drummers\u200b is the one doing the setlist and it’s a really daunting job because he has to\u200b create an entire tour and make sure that all those things are served. I could never do it, I would never have the patience.<\/p>\n

\u200bThen about every third or fourth show, we put together our own \u200bset list -we call it an elective set.\u200b That\u200b gives us the ability to maybe juxtaposition tunes that the Dead never really put together which makes it really interesting for us. \u200bWe can also cross pollinate \u200beras in those shows. \u200bAlso when we do the elective sets can draw on Garcia Band<\/strong> repertoire and Bob Weir’<\/strong>s repertoire\u200b.<\/p>\n

\u200b”There’s so many different aspects to a musical performance, but all those perfect nights where the sound comes together\u200b and the music is playing the band as they say, it’s magic. It just takes you away and you wake up out of it like, ‘How’d we get here?'”<\/p>\n

KM: So what is your personal favorite era to play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> I love the one drummer shows \u200band the reason is,\u200b when you get into the jams, you can go to all these crazy exotic places and you can turn on a dime with one drummer. When you have two drummers, it’s not as easy.  Phil Lesh, when I was working with him, he said it’s like the difference between driving a Ferrari \u200bor driving a freight train.  A Ferrari, you can turn on a dime\u200b and a freight train you have to just motor through.  So those are the those are the ones that are my favorites.<\/p>\n

When the music starts, truly doesn’t make a difference to me, because I get sucked in so hard that\u200b by the time it’s over, I’ll look up basically look up and go, ‘It’s over? We just played three and a half hours?!’  Of course, you know, every night is different -\u200b some nights I really get sucked in and some nights, it’s more of a struggle. I mean, connecting with my instrument, me not connecting with my band mates. \u200b There’s so many different aspects to a musical performance, but all those perfect nights where the sound comes together\u200b and the music is playing the band as they say, it’s magic. It just takes you away and you wake up out of it like, ‘How’d we get here?’  Truly that’s the feeling I used to get one I used to go to Dead shows when I was really into it. \u200b When it’s over it feels like five minutes. \u200b<\/p>\n

KM: So you guys \u200bare clocking over 20 years, I think close to 3000 shows, you have your own festival\u200b so let’s talk about that.  \u200bWhat’s something that’s really unique and special about that opportunity, as opposed to going on tour and being able to play all these cities and venues \u200bas opposed to being able to stay in one place and \u200breally get your feet set in a location with the same people \u200band you’re able to call it\u200b a Dark Star event?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> So the first event we put together was the Dark Star Jubilee<\/strong>\u200b, we started that in 2012 and it was such an honor to be able to put on your own festival. \u200bI’m very thankful to our manager, Tim Walter, who really was\u200b the one who pushed us to do it, he’s the one who took the financial burden in the beginning. The beauty of that type of event is a you know, when we’re on tour, we never get to see anybody else play music. So here we are, we’re hand picking the bands that we want to come to our festival and we get to actually see all \u200bthis different music, we get to interact with all these musicians, \u200bwe get to play\u200b. \u200b That’s a beautiful thing for musicians, you know?  That’s part of the growing process as a musician to be able to play with other musicians.  <\/p>\n

We’ve cultivated the festival now, to the point where, \u200bwe’re getting around 4000 people\u200b and that’s the \u200bmagic number, we don’t want it to get any bigger than that, because it’s a perfect festival.\u200b It’s kid friendly, the camping scene is great, the cops don’t really hassle anybody, we don’t have\u200b the crazy drug element in there, at least not too bad (laughs). \u200bIt really is beautiful – as long as the weather cooperates\u200b. You know, the first year we did it, we did it on Labor Day weekend, and Ohio had its one and only hurricane blow through and it swamped \u200bthe fairgrounds.   Couldn’t even use the main stage, \u200bwe had to do it on a little, tiny stage, but\u200b we made it work. \u200bThen the second year we did it, we decided to move it to Memorial Day weekend where we \u200bwouldn’t have to contend with hurricanes. \u200b How about \u200b30 degrees? \u200b  I’ve never played when it’s that cold out – you’re outside, it’s 35 degrees, the wind is howling, I mean it was rough!  Ever since then, except for occasional thunderstorms rolling through, we’ve had some great weather – knock on wood. \u200b<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

So then our next our next adventure was Tim said, “How would you guys like to do a festival in Jamaica?” And we’re like, “Yeah, who wouldn’t?!” So that became Jam in the Sand<\/strong> and it’s the same concept but much smaller scale.  There’s 300 to 500 people who will come\u200b and stay in all \u200binclusive place, we play three nights on the beach and we have support, you know, we’ll have two other bands play with us.  This year, we’ve got the JGC<\/strong>\u200b with Melvin Seals <\/strong>and \u200bDonna the Buffalo<\/strong>. \u200b We’ve had \u200bDonna the Buffalo before and it’s worked beautifully. They’re like a \u200bZydeco Cajun thing. \u200bThen of course, \u200bMelvin \u200b- \u200bmy jaw hits the floor every time I see him play.   \u200bIf I was ever was going to just become an organ playe\u200br again, that’s what I aspire to be, like Melvin on the organ.  I love the sound of the instrument and I love the way \u200bit feels, but I’ll never play like Melvin. Melvin is out of the \u200bchurch, you know, and he goes to church every night.<\/p>\n

KM: And takes everybody with him. (laughs)<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> (laughing) Yes, he does. \u200bSANCTIFY! I love him and so that\u200b great. This year, we’re going to \u200bdo our \u200bJubilee in Asheville, North Carolina.  Two days. It’s not a camping festival, but there’s plenty of camping in the area and we’ll see how that goes.  People seem pretty enthused and \u200bmy other band called California Kind <\/strong>is playing at it, so I’m excited about that. \u200b<\/p>\n

KM: I want to do some rapid fire. Okay, you ready for this? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB: <\/strong>Ready\u200b!<\/p>\n

KM:  What do you think this the song that you played the most over the years is? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>  “China Cat Sunflower” \u200b<\/p>\n

KM: What’s your favorite song to play? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB<\/strong>: “Dark Star”.<\/p>\n

KM:  What about to hear? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> “Dark Star”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

KM:  Who’s your favorite original Grateful Dead band member? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> Phil Lesh<\/p>\n

KM: What is the best or most favorite sit in that you have ever done with a band?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>  Sitting in with the Allman Brothers<\/strong> for the first time at the Beacon Theater<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

KM: (laughing) I think I read the story about that – you got warned about breaking the bench, right? <\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> Yes (laughs) Gregg (Allman) tapped me on the shoulder and said, “That was good, except one thing.” Oh my god, I was so embarrassed.  I must have sat in with them a dozen times and every time I sat in with them after that, until they moved the keyboard over the other side of the stage, I would have to share his bench and I would move just my arms and my fingers.  (laughs)<\/p>\n

KM: That’s hilarious!  What about the favorite sit in that you guys have had for Dark Star?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> Phil Lesh.<\/p>\n

KM: Ok can you possibly somehow describe a Dark Star Show to someone that’s never heard of the Grateful Dead in five words.<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong> Woooooooow. Psychedelic, improvisational, jazzy, rocked out music (laughs).<\/p>\n

KM: There you go. You did it. That’s pretty good.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u200bThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Performance Details<\/strong><\/p>\n

Performance Details<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Performance<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Details<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Monday, May 13, 2019<\/p>\n

Doors: 6:30PM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Show: 8:00PM<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hamilton<\/p>\n

www.TheHamiltonDC.com<\/a><\/p>\n

600 14th Street NW<\/p>\n

Washington, DC 20005<\/p>\n

(Google Maps Link<\/a>)<\/p>\n

600 14th Street NWWashington, DC 20005<\/a><\/p>\n

$38.50 – Bar Area \/ Pit<\/p>\n

Tuesday, May 14, 2019<\/p>\n

Doors: 6:30PM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Show: 8:00PM<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hamilton<\/p>\n

www.TheHamiltonDC.com<\/a><\/p>\n

$38.50 – Bar Area \/ Pit<\/p>\n

Venue Review: <\/strong><\/strong>Learn More About The Hamilton, getting there, parking, food options and more<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200bDark Star Orchestra has been playing for over 20 years and has performed close to 3000 shows.  They’re back on the road as the trip of life continues and we got to speak with keyboard player Rob Barraco ahead of their two-night run at The Hamilton in D.C. \u200bKarin McLaughlin: \u200bYou’ve been doing music in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4769],"tags":[442,8788,5106,79],"class_list":["post-89014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-dark-star-orchestra","tag-interviews","tag-karin-mclaughlin","tag-the-hamilton","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nDark Star Still Shines Bright<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u200bDark Star Orchestra has been playing for over 20 years and has performed close to 3000 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