Grateful Dead Lives on Through the Quarterly

Music | January 14th, 2016

Jamie Hutchinson

There are numerous Grateful Dead tribute acts around the world and the Fargo-Moorhead area is lucky to be home to one of them. While the Quarterly doesn’t play often (or even make it out of city limits), that’s all part of the appeal.

“It’s not the weekly, it’s the Quarterly,” says Pat Lenertz, who sings and plays guitar in the band. “It’s kind of more of an event than if it was just all the time.” They use this mentality with each of their shows by featuring a rotating series of set lists that often focus on specific eras of Grateful Dead’s catalogue. The first set of the next show is supposed to focus on the Dead’s early ’70s country music with the following set exploring different territories.

Lenertz doesn’t hesitate to mention Josh Vorwerk and Mike Nelson, who do the sound and lights at the Aquarium, and how much they contribute to the show. “They get the set list early and they actually design the lights and prepare the sound for the set list specifically,” he says. “So they’re basically like another member of the band.”

Since forming in November, 2007, the Quarterly has been playing local shows about four times a year, hence the name. Common to many music scenes, the band was formed from various local musicians who happen to be in other bands with each other. It was through being big fans of the Grateful Dead and the realization there are many local Grateful Dead fans that the Quarterly was formed.

Playing the jam band music the Grateful Dead are known for comes easy for Lenertz. Known as a veteran in the local music scene, he’s played in several bands over the last 15 years. In addition to the Quarterly, he plays in the Pat Lenertz Band and reggae band Heavy is the Head.

The Grateful Dead formed in 1965 and continued until 1995 when singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack. Their decades-spanning career gained them countless fans, known as Deadheads. While some older fans have seen the jam band play plenty of times, there are younger fans that never got to see Garcia on stage — something Lenertz notices in the audience of his shows at the Aquarium.

“We have old folks who have been to Dead shows and we have the young kids who have never seen Jerry play or anything but just love the music,” he says. Lenertz falls into the latter of the two, although he was able to see surviving members play with John Mayer, an experience he considers wonderful.

The Quarterly will play their first show of the New Year at the Aquarium on Jan. 16 with Matty J and the Human Element as the opening act.

IF YOU GO:

The Quarterly, with Matty J and the Human Element

Saturday, Jan. 16, 9 p.m.

The Aquarium (Dempsey’s upstairs), 226 Broadway, Fargo