Dark Star Orchestra has announced that guitarist Jeff Mattson will perform with two guitars that belonged to Jerry Garcia at a pair of concerts at The Warfield in San Francisco next month.
On February 14th, Dark Star Orchestra will recreate the Grateful Dead‘s August 1st, 1973 concert which, in addition to being Garcia’s 31st birthday, was also the last time he played his infamous Fender Statocaster—nicknamed “Alligator”—live in concert. The following evening on February 15th, Mattson will have the privilege of playing Garcia’s Martin D28 acoustic guitar as DSO recreates the acoustic portion of the Dead’s concert from February 15, 1970 as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of that show.
This is all made possible through the guitars’ current owner Andy Logan who said,
I was three years old when Alligator was last on stage, and drooled over Europe ‘72 bootlegs and videos never dreaming I would get to see Alligator played live. Thanks to Rick Turner and Dark Star Orchestra, we fans will all get to hear Alligator’s return to the stage with its unique tone cutting through the room. Other than the Grateful Dead, there’s no band that has put in more time studying and playing this material, than Dark Star Orchestra, so I am thrilled they will have the honor to kick off the next chapter for this time-tested instrument that is dripping with Grateful Dead history.
Tickets for the two-night San Francisco run are available here.
Dark Star Orchestra is back on the road February 6th for a show at The Showbox in Seattle, WA followed by a run of shows through the Pacific Northwest in Washington, Oregon, and northern California, before heading down to San Francisco for the two-night run. Tickets for DSO’s recently-expanded spring tour are available here.