DSO 2022 European Tour!

[Tea]

We're heading to Europe! 🌍

Join us for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of 'Europe '72' with nine European performances in England, France, Germany and Italy September 13 - 25, 2022. 

Every show will be a recreation of a historic Europe ‘72 tour performance; as we'll be performing in four of the exact cities from Europe ‘72, notably in Paris, France - at The Olympia - the very same venue the Grateful Dead performed on May 3, 1972.

 

Before we head to Europe, we'll bring a few Europe ‘72 recreations to life in the States - 50 years to the day! We'll recreate the Dead’s 4/8/72 show from Wembley Empire Pool London, England at the Skull & Roses Festival on April 8 in Ventura, CA. Additionally, we will take the Europe ‘50 Years Later’ recreation to The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on May 13, offering up the Dead’s performance from Lille, France from 5/13/72.

 

Adding to these two stateside performances is the presence and participation of Jerry Garcia’s ‘Alligator’ guitar; a 1955 Fender Stratocaster originally used by Jerry on the Europe 1972 tour, shared with DSO’s lead guitarist Jeff Mattson to handle and elevate the specific tones from this legendary instrument. 

 

This historic Jerry Garcia instrument is provided for use at our shows with a special thanks to Grateful Guitars Foundation. Foundation’s Andy Logan. Logan states "Grateful Guitars is thrilled that Dark Star Orchestra is celebrating the Grateful Dead’s legendary Europe ’72 our’s 50th anniversary. We’re excited to celebrate some specific show anniversaries this year in the United States and especially to ‘take that ride again’ and tour Europe with the band and our loving tribe. We know this will enliven Deadheads around the world and will help ensure this music thrives for generations.”

 

Rob Barraco summarizes the magnitude of experience stating “It is an honor of my lifetime to pay tribute to such a transformative event that we all have come to know as Europe ‘72.”

Tickets for all European shows go on sale Friday, March 25 at 6 AM ET are available via our website.

 

Europe '72 50th Anniversary European Tour Dates:
9/13 - London, UK - Shepherd's Bush Empire
9/17 - Paris, France - The Olympia
9/18 - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
9/19 - Frankfurt, Germany - Batschkapp
9/20 - Berlin, Germany - Astra Kulturhaus
9/22 - Munich, Germany - Muffathalle
9/23 - Milan, Italy - Santeria Toscana 31
9/24 - Florence, Italy - Teatro Puccini
9/25 - Rome, Italy - Monk

[NorthEast]

Wow

 

Omg

 

This is SO exciting. I'm speechless.

[Rude]

Unfortunately it’s the last 8 shows over 9 days. Can’t really do anything besides hop a train, check in, eat dinner and see a show. Rinse repeat. The dead did like 3 shows a week on their Europe tours. I get that it’s expensive for the band so they gotta knock it out but that’s a lot of train action. We’d have prob done it a few years ago though. It’s technically a Europe tour but you will see about as much of Europe as you do any city in an American tour. 

15 day Eurail pass $341

[Ammagamalin Crew]

Maybe this starts a new tradition that will lead to Amsterdam '81? Or the pyramids 78? 

[Blindman]

SF to Paris.  Munich beer gardens.  Then Rome > home.  Beautiful time of year. 

[Johnny rem]

I'm going to skip London and Berlin. fly to Amsterdam Sept 14th, rent a car and drive to Paris, Cologne, Frankfurt, TWO DAYS off before Munich, Milan, Florence, Rome. Probably take a few days at the end to explore Rome drive back to Holland

 

About $1000 for Airbnb in cities listed above. 

 

I'm traveling solo so I have room for an additional person who would split the Airbnb and rental car. 

 

Checked rental cars, costs $656 for a car 9/15 to 9/28

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Johnny rem

[Rude]

Last night I was told we were doing this tour, but reasonable heads prevailed. Not leaving a 20 month old for 2 weeks. The way to do it is not doing all the shows. I’d do 4-5 shows to get some show excitement but enjoy Europe. That schedule would be ultra exhausting if you do it all and I’m sure several will or at least will try. I want to eat good food and not be rushed. I don’t even know if restaurants are open early enough to eat nice before a show. We ate at 10p every night in Spain. I don’t think those places even opened until around 8. 
 

my fantasy itinerary would be 

Fly to London 9/11

9/11-9/13 London. See London show 

9/14-9/17 Paris. See Paris show 

9/18-9/23 Travel to Italy and explore. See Milan Show

9/24 go to Florence. See Florence show 

9/25 Fly home. 
 

I’ve been to Germany. If skipping a section, that’s the one I’d do. I love Spain. It’s so chill there. Pretty much everything is decriminalized there. It would take an extra travel day to go that far south so on my fantasy itinerary, I had to leave it off. Any place on the Riviera, be it France, Italy or Spain would be so much fun to go to. 

[2muchfun]

The can’t make ‘‘em all (or any of them) notion just crossed my mind.

 

[bs69]

This is enough to keep me up at night trying to make it happen. 25th wedding anniversary this year. "Honey,  I booked a trip to Europe to celebrate our anniversary and got tickets for a few shows to see while we're there"

[bones]

Now here is a tour that I wish I could join !

I can't go to the USA anymore (didn't renew my waiver), so unless we get another Canadian show (doubtful), then this could be my chance to see a tour again.

 

Berlin is an incredible city and not to be missed (IMO).

All of Italy will be amazing.

 

Johnny Rem...I like your idea of flying to Amsterdam first.

I always did that on my European work trips.

Pick up while you're there and carry on with your trip 

[Walking Antique]

Does this negate the chance of any summer shows in the US??

[Ammagamalin Crew]

Respectful and kind of the band to spread the shows for those outside USA. I'm sure this will sellout immediately as there are lots of Deadheads that contribute to archives and sugarmegs from Europe. I sent a few JGB 1987 Stone master tapes to a Sir Mick for him to transfer to digital and upload. the US gets it share of shows. Looking forward to tonight's event at Ovation (although the new place in Cincy, James Brady ICON music center is a terrible venue), makes me leery of new venues. James Brady ICON music center is set up for the promoters and the bands and how to extract as much $$ out of the goers. We'll see what Newport has to offer with it's new venue 🤞. Hoping to get a ticket at the door tonight🤞

[bs69]

14 hours ago, bones said:

Now here is a tour that I wish I could join !

I can't go to the USA anymore (didn't renew my waiver), so unless we get another Canadian show (doubtful), then this could be my chance to see a tour again.

 

Berlin is an incredible city and not to be missed (IMO).

All of Italy will be amazing.

 

Johnny Rem...I like your idea of flying to Amsterdam first.

I always did that on my European work trips.

Pick up while you're there and carry on with your trip 

Bones! Great to see you checking in. Hope you can make it

[Milehighjoel.]

Just got Paris.  London in 45 min.   You can order Paris presently 

[Stackalee]

Managed to score tickets for Paris last night and Cologne this morning!  Very psyched the band is heading this way!  

[chuckaroe]

Come and enjoy the Berlin show!!! This city is very forward thinking and is very different  than the rest of Germany!! Where the venue is located I don't think you'll need to worry too much about finding things to get you into a good head space for the show. 

 

I'm so excited to see some amazing jams!!! Finally!!! 

 

I might try to fly to Paris and see that show too! 

Edited March 26, 2022 by chuckaroe
Spelling error

[Rob in CT]

My wife and I are going to London, Paris and Frankfurt. Very excited. Never been there and probably wouldn’t go without a good reason like this. Can’t wait to see Stonehenge and so much history. We are doing 3 nights per city so we can explore 

[Tom Banjo]

How do people plan to get from city to city while on this tour?

[Hardpan]

9 hours ago, Tom Banjo said:

How do people plan to get from city to city while on this tour?

We’re taking the train. Some long rides between cities and I think a car would be a hassle to deal with. All the venues are pretty close to train stations. Most of the train rides between tour stops you can walk onto with the Eurail pass, but the international ones (England >France, France >Germany) you need to book a seat in advance. The train from Munich to Milan is overnight and leaves too early to be able to catch the Munich show, so we’re taking the bus the next morning. Looks like a nice ride thru the Alps ⛰ It’s around 550 bucks for the Eurail pass to do the whole tour in first class, seems like a good upgrade with bigger seats, more space etc over coach which looks cramped and still around 400 bucks. 

[Rude]

1 hour ago, Hardpan said:

We’re taking the train. Some long rides between cities and I think a car would be a hassle to deal with. All the venues are pretty close to train stations. Most of the train rides between tour stops you can walk onto with the Eurail pass, but the international ones (England >France, France >Germany) you need to book a seat in advance. The train from Munich to Milan is overnight and leaves too early to be able to catch the Munich show, so we’re taking the bus the next morning. Looks like a nice ride thru the Alps ⛰ It’s around 550 bucks for the Eurail pass to do the whole tour in first class, seems like a good upgrade with bigger seats, more space etc over coach which looks cramped and still around 400 bucks. 

nice. Shooting for them all. Thats like an iron man triathalon. Too bad the 3 day break isn’t mid tour instead of after show 1 when you don’t need it. Are you guys booking a hostel/hotel every night or using the train as a hotel a few of the nights? I knew a few of those legs were going to be tight getting to the next one. I’ll just live vicariously through you guys. Is it you and your brother doing the run?

[Hardpan]

58 minutes ago, Rude said:

nice. Shooting for them all. Thats like an iron man triathalon. Too bad the 3 day break isn’t mid tour instead of after show 1 when you don’t need it. Are you guys booking a hostel/hotel every night or using the train as a hotel a few of the nights? I knew a few of those legs were going to be tight getting to the next one. I’ll just live vicariously through you guys. Is it you and your brother doing the run?

Yep we’re gonna give it a shot. It’s gonna be a marathon of marathon 72 shows. It would be nice to have the break in the middle sometime but it will be nice to have time to explore a little in London and Paris. We booked hotels for all of the single nights and airbnbs for London and Paris. We figured out the travel by train, it’s all doable the next morning from city to city versus overnighting it. The one exception was Munich to Milan which was a 9 hour overnight train that bypasses the mountains. The bus the next morning is around five hours and cuts thru them.  Would have probably done something like sleep on the train for some stretches but there’s the problem of having our bags with us at the show and dealing with that stuff.
 

Me and Jake are doing the run, my wife is gonna be with us from London to Berlin and heading home from there. She’s got a friend out there so she’ll have stuff to do while we’re at the shows and will attend her  second DSO show at the Olympia, her only other one was Red Rocks 2018 😄

[Rude]

Looks like a blast. Just won’t be away from the little boss for 2 weeks at this age. The last 3 show run I felt guilty leaving him and he didn’t want to sleep for my mom. She aged 3 years in the 3 days she kept him not sleeping through the night away from home.
 

Are you bringing taping gear? That would be tough to lug around and could see it becoming like a job lol. 

[Tom Banjo]

Rude the decision is wholly yours but I think you should try to come and do 2/3 shows. It won't be same without you for a bit. I know it's probably not affordable but maybe bring grandma and the little one. 
 

we can't afford that though so I get that. Flights too expensive. We plan to do some of this but grandma is gonna come stay at our house plus we have scottie living here. He's like a live in baby sitter for the girls. They love him. He's been so great with our little ones. 
 

 

[Hardpan]

I hear ya on that, Rude. It’s tough when they’re so little and tough on grandma for sure also. I chalked it up as being impossible with leaving the kids but Jake said he’s goin either way so I figured I had to give it a shot, it didn’t take much convincing and my mom agreed to stay with them. Our youngest starts kindergarten in the fall so it makes it easier.
 

Not bringing the taping stuff, I’ve more or less abandoned doing it, it was fun and met many friends while set up but it really cuts into the amount of fun you can have. If I could set something small up that I didn’t need to monitor I’d do it every time. 

[Rude]

21 hours ago, Tom Banjo said:

Rude the decision is wholly yours but I think you should try to come and do 2/3 shows. It won't be same without you for a bit. I know it's probably not affordable but maybe bring grandma and the little one. 
 

we can't afford that though so I get that. Flights too expensive. We plan to do some of this but grandma is gonna come stay at our house plus we have scottie living here. He's like a live in baby sitter for the girls. They love him. He's been so great with our little ones. 
 

 

taking a baby to Europe at 18 months? That flight would be torture. Everyone would hate us and we’d hate it. We have to split the trip to the beach over 2 days because more than 8 hours and he’s a mess. He won’t sit still 30 secs at home. He’s wild. No way he could sit in my lap on a plane for 8 hours. You know better than anyone, you can’t really enjoy a show when you have to watch kids. You guys hardly get to finish a show when you have them. It seems like work and I tour for fun. In a few years when he’s older, we can do more stuff but it is what it is now. I don’t miss not seeing as many shows. Mei misses it more than me for sure. She wanted to take Jonathan to the caverns but talked her out of it. No way he’s gonna sleep in a tent and the shows at 8 and that’s past his bedtime. He would be a terror and wake everyone at camp up several times not being in his own bed. My mom’s keeping him Saturday and we are driving down for night 2. I was hoping somehow dso would have 2 Wilmington shows between the 2 Vermont shows July 4th week and we’d bring him and my parents as that place has 6p start times but shows are staying up north it looks like.