Central New Jersey is about to get a double-dose of Dark Star Orchestra.
The acclaimed and long-running Grateful Dead tribute act returns to the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank for a sold-out engagement on Friday, March 6.
The band will then be back in the area on Saturday, June 20 for its only New Jersey appearance of the summer, which will be presented by the Basie at the ParkStage at East Freehold Park Showgrounds, part of a summer concert series that’s a collaboration between the Basie and Monmouth County Tourism.
Both gigs are home turf plays for Dark Star Orchestra bassist Skip Vangelas, who lives in nearby Colts Neck.
“We just love playing in this neck of the woods,” Vangelas told The Pop Break, “because everybody is very, very appreciative of what we do, so it’s a lot of fun. I always, as the Jersey guy, go around saying that New Jersey’s the biggest DSO state in the country.”
Dark Star Orchestra has been honoring the musical legacy of the Grateful Dead for nearly 30 years, and for well over 3,000 shows. Vangelas, who first played with the band in 2001, joined the ensemble full-time in 2013.
The central New Jersey shore, focused around the live music scene in Asbury Park, is a hotbed of Dead-inspired musical creativity, found on the stages of bars, nightclubs, theaters and beyond across the area. Vangelas has thoughts on why this music continues to resolute with generation after generation of audiences and musicians alike.
“It’s because it’s not stagnant, it’s constantly evolving,” he said. “It’s constant, even when you listen to live recordings – which obviously was their forte – you can listen to a song three times and catch three different things out of it. Nothing against the polished bands that have songs that are, you know, two minutes and 30 seconds, there you go, here’s your song, here’s your lyrics, and it’s the same over and over again. The Grateful Dead’s never the same, that’s the beauty of it. It’s always, ‘Hey, what might happen next? What’s the next possibility?’ Because their music allows for that. The improvisational quality of their music allows for it to just continue to organically grow, and you never know what you’re going to hear next.”
Dark Star Orchestra, doors at 7 and show at 8 p.m. Friday, March 6 at the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center for the Arts, 99 Monmouth St., Red Bank, sold out.
Also at the ParkStage at East Freehold Showgrounds, 1500 Kozloski Road, Freehold, as part of the North to Shore Festival, gates at 4 and show at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 20. Tickets, starting at $61.85, are available via Ticketmaster. For more information, visit https://parkstage.org.
