“The Spadtastics” is a terrible name for a Grateful Dead cover band. So they make up for it by playing their collective butts off—creating lysergic-laced interstellar jams that will make you question reality and quit your day job. They reach into your solar plexus, tear out your heart, and beat it with mallets made of cocobolo, milled steel, and peonies, and shove it back in at the end of the set. You don’t just leave a Spadtastics show having been entertained; you are made a better, more compassionate human being.

How do the Spadtastics achieve such mind-blowing Grateful-Dead-covering awesomeness? Well, they’re veterans of locally legendary bands such as MILC, Nick the Fin, Magic Garden, the Well, the Tasteful Nudes, Bananas Are A Good Source of Potassium, and Steppenwolf. They’ve been playing this music since the peak of Brent Mydland era—and have only gotten better at it through the years. Now, they are certified Diamond Platinum Status Masters of the Dead.

If you’re brave enough, you can check out the Spadtastics on this thing they invented during a particularly freaky Dark Star jam. It’s called “the Internet.”

Experience the DNA-altering incredibleness of the Spadtastics at your local purveyor of Dead tunes.

We hope to see you there.