Cosmic Charlie

Basic City Taproom and Arcade open 3pm
Foundry doors open 6:30pm
Music starts 8pm

Members of Cosmic Charlie are a versatile bunch, having collaborated with the likes of Widespread Panic, Robert Fripp, Indigo Girls, Ween, Jimmy Herring, River Phoenix, Juliana Hatfield, and Vic Chesnutt, to name a few.

Originating as a “one-night-only” Jerry Garcia birthday tribute (performing under the moniker ‘One More Saturday Night’), word spread quickly that this was no ordinary musical confluence. Gigs started knocking at the door, high profile ones no less. Headlining the two-day, ten band JERRY JAM extravaganza at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. Promoter Jeff Dunham quickly booked Cosmic Charlie to headline both days within hours of hearing a live recording of Cosmic Charlie playing Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain. The 3-day Jomeokee Jamboree in Winston-Salem, NC, featuring String Cheese Incident, Widespread Panic, P- Funk, and more. Promoter Jay Stephens booked Cosmic Charlie to close out all 3 nights with two sets of high energy Grateful Dead. Jay hadn’t yet even seen Cosmic Charlie but booked the band after heading rave reviews of the one of the band’s first shows (in Asheville NC).

Comsic Charlie began to regularly headline top venues in the Southeast, including Variety Playhouse (Atlanta GA), Georgia Theatre (Athens GA), Visulite Theatre (Charlotte NC), Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh NC), and The Orange Peel (Asheville NC). Word traveled fast and the band quickly built a regional following in the Southeast that continues to grow to this day.

In 2004 the band expanded it’s reach with a cross-country tour that saw Cosmic Charlie featured on Main Stage of the Oregon Country Fair in Veneta OR (the site of several legendary Grateful Dead shows).

As other Dead bands have come and gone, Cosmic Charlie has continued to cement its status as one of the most-loved and longest-running Dead tributes in the U,S. Numerous challenges – van breakdowns, club fires, huge falling oak trees – could not sideline the band from its mission of bringing live DEAD music to the people.