Biography
The Grateful Dead tribute ensemble known as Dark Star Orchestra takes its name from one of the band's landmark compositions. Engineer and producer Bob Matthews, a longtime associate who contributed to the Dead's albums between the late 1960s and early 1980s, founded the group. Instead of assembling standard sets, the musicians devote each performance to an exact historical concert by the Dead, matching the song selections, arrangements, and equipment of the original event. One such recreation took place on May 8, 2004, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, where the ensemble reproduced the Grateful Dead's May 5, 1977 show at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, CT. Matthews coordinated audio and video documentation of the concert, yielding the double-DVD set Live at the Fillmore, issued on his ArSeaEm Recording label whose initials stand for R.C.M.