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Jefferson Starship Soars In North America
Fire up the engines and prepare to take off with Jefferson Starship once more. The heir of famed ’60s act Jefferson Airplane is playing scattered dates around its native continent in the coming months.
– Jefferson StarshipA logo for Jefferson Starship
That’s right, Jefferson Starship is still touring, although most of the original membership from Jefferson Airplane is no longer in the band. The only holdover is David Freiberg, also of Quicksilver Messenger Service, who is described as the band’s “guru.” Donny Baldwin plays the drums, Chris Smith does the keys, Jude Gold holds down the guitar, and Cathy Richardson now sings in place of the iconic Grace Slick.
Check out Richardson’s self-shot video to get a sample of how the band sounds.
Jefferson Starship is a separate group from Starship, which is largely still the project of Mickey Thomas.
The group also expressed great mourning at the loss of guitarist Paul Kantner, who died in 2016, and has a dedicated page for remembrances of him on its website.
The dates scheduled don’t really constitute a tour so much as a few shows here and there. There are three Florida shows at the end of the next weekend, the first of which is at Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center in Bonita Springs on March 24.
There is an amphitheater show April 1 in New Port Richey, Fla., on April 1, then a few dates in May, July, August and September. The band is also playing Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center, which sets sail from Miami on Jan. 2 2018, and seems to have a single gig booked in Green Bay, Wis., at Meyer Theater on March 2 next year.
Here is the 2017 plan:
March 24 – Bonita Springs, Fla., Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center
March 25 – West Palm Beach, Fla., Bowery
March 26 – Key West, Fla., Key West Theater
April 1 – New Port Richey, Fla., Sims Park Amphitheatre
May 6 – Hopkins, Minn., Hopkins Center For The Arts
May 26 – San Juan Capistrano, Calif., The Coach House Concert Hall
May 27 – Topanga, Calif., Topanga Community Club (Topanga Days)
July 14 – Kettering, Ohio, Fraze Pavilion For The Perf. Arts
July 15 – Lakeside, Ohio, Hoover Auditorium
Aug. 26 – Billings, Mt., Line Camp Amphitheatre
Sep. 16 – Baltimore, Md., Pier Six Pavilion
Sep. 22 – Las Vegas, Nev., Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino
Tickets to select dates are on sale now. Learn more at JeffersonStarship.com.