Arts & Entertainment

Kadlecik Ready For 'Hometown' Performance

Furthur guitarist brings local project, The John K Band, to The State Theatre.

Sure, the lyrics are the same. The guitar style is the same. Often, the voice sounds the same.

But John Kadlecik is not Jerry Garcia. He is John Kadlecik. Understandably, he has to work hard to get some people to recognize the difference. Kadlecik - guitarist and vocalist for Furthur, the band formed by Grateful Dead co-founders Bob Weir and Phil Lesh - says he is trying to "go for the magic."

Kadlecik is a Takoma Park resident who will play with his solo project, The John K. Band, at Falls Church's State Theatre on Friday. He became an area resident after he met his future wife at a Northern Virginia gig.

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"My main role is not doing Garcia, but understanding the bridges that connect [ him to the rest of the remaining band members]," he says.

It is understandable that some Deadheads are confused, though. Kadlecik, 41, spent 12 years "playing" Garcia with Dark Star Orchestra, the well-known Grateful Dead tribute band. Kadlecik played about 1,800 shows with Dark Star Orchestra as the group traveled the country recreating classic Grateful Dead shows from the Dead's long touring history.

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Dark Star Orchestra formed in 1997, when fans of Garcia, still mourning his 1995 death, were eager for something to recreate his improvisational style.

By the late 1990s, Kadlecik had already developed that style. A classically trained violinist, he was a guitar-playing college freshman in 1987 when a friend introduced him to Grateful Dead recordings.

"I had already taught myself hundreds of songs by then," Kadlecik said. "I had burned through the entire Rush and Pink Floyd catalogue. I saw Rush recently, and I see [lead singer] Geddy Lee as a bigger influence on my style than Jerry was."

In the following years, Kadlecik went to about 60 Grateful Dead shows. He never met Garcia, though. Still, he did a good job interpreting how Garcia would play a song on any given night from 1965 to 1995 could not have been easy.

"We were not trying to replicate that exact performance," Kadlecik said of the performances. "We were trying to recreate the same set list if the Dead were performing it the next day."

When Weir's manager emailed him in the summer of 2009, Kadlecik thought it was a prank. It wasn't.

"It's a great honor," he said of playing with Furthur. "I was pretty excited. I still am. I'm not a starstruck fan. I have deep respect for their musical abilities."

When it's time for extended practice sessions, Kadlecik hops on a plane to Marin County, CA, where Lesh and Weir live. Kadlecik, originally from the Midwest, has been based in the Washington, DC, area since 2006.

He met wife, percussionist and drum circle facilitator Katy Gaughan, at a show at The State Theater. She will play with the band at Friday's performance in Falls Church.

So even though it seems like Furthur, in the longtime tradition of the Dead,  should be on the road all the time - and it will be this summer - Kadlecik is planted here.

"I have had family in the DC area all my life," he says. "I have been touring all my adult life. Every city is somewhat familiar. My wife went to American University and has been here ever since. So I am here now too."


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