About

Deadiverse is an independent, fan-built archive of the Grateful Dead and the whole musical world around them, from the jug bands before 1965 to the tribute bands playing this weekend. I’m Evan, and I build and maintain it.

How it started

It started with a different band. I noticed that nobody had documented all of Jesse Welles’s songs, so I built a site that did. I enjoyed building it so much that I kept going. Around the same time, a few Grateful Dead sites I used regularly went dark, and years of fan research went with them.

So I rebuilt the code behind that first site to power multiple sites, each for a different band with its own features. I call the platform bandiverse. Deadiverse is the site I’d always wished existed: deep Grateful Dead stats in the same place as the side projects, the successor bands, and the tribute scene.

Why “Deadiverse”

The Grateful Dead are more than a catalog of records. They’re a whole musical ecosystem. Start anywhere in it and you can follow a thread outward: a song leads to a show, the show to a musician, the musician to another band, and that band to a new generation of players taking the music somewhere new. Some of those bands continue the original group directly, some grew out of members’ own careers, and some exist purely to celebrate the songs.

There’s never been one simple path through that history, and Deadiverse doesn’t try to impose one. The goal is to make the connections visible, so you can treat the music as a living network instead of a closed chapter. Start anywhere, follow a thread, and see where it leads. It’s a Dead universe and a Dead multiverse. I’m just doing my small part to help these songs reach 300 years plus.

Who it’s for

It’s a cliché, but there are different types of Deadheads, plenty of people, like myself fit into multiple categories:

• The stats and setlist people who want to know when a song debuted, how often it was played, how long it went missing, and how the repertoire shifted from era to era.
• The people looking for live Dead music now: which successor and tribute bands are out there, who’s in them, what they play, and where they’re playing next.
• Those who just want to hear the music!

What’s in the archive

As of now, Deadiverse covers shows, songs, venues, albums, musicians, and bands.

This includes the Grateful Dead, their precursor groups, members’ side projects, post-Garcia bands, and tribute acts. Songs are tracked across every band that played them, so you can follow one from its first Grateful Dead performance through Furthur, Dead & Company, and beyond. The era histories are original write-ups that put the data in context, covering lineup changes, turning points, key shows, and releases.

Where the data comes from

Show and setlist data was gathered from many places and painstakingly merged into one consistent database. That meant reconciling different spellings of venues and songs, conflicting dates, and setlists that disagree. Sources include setlist.fm, gdsets.com, dead.net, jerrybase.com, archive.org, etc. When sources conflict, I try to compare and give the more complete or accurate data preference. This is an ongoing effort and although I’ve come a long way in cleaning up the data, there’s still work to do!

Accuracy and corrections

I want the data here to be accurate, as complete as possible, and fast. A project this size will always have gaps and mistakes. If you see something that looks wrong or missing, you can fix it in either of two ways:

• Create an account and contribute directly. Contributors can submit corrections, notes, and media.
• Contact me and I’ll get it sorted.

The era histories are going through a fact-checking pass, and the archive is updated continuously. You can see recent changes on the homepage.

Grateful for Speed

If you only care about the Grateful Dead and want it as fast as possible, try grateful.deadiverse.com. It’s a stripped-down, static version of the Grateful Dead data built for speed.

What’s next?

Deadiverse is still a work in progress.

The next big pieces are:

• sequence search: ask which shows had two particular songs back to back, or a specific three-song run, and get every match.

Beyond that, the plan is more tribute-band coverage, more venue history, and deeper per-era song stats. Also, improving the code so the site runs smoothly! I’m open to suggestions too!

Deadiverse is an independent fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Grateful Dead, its members, or its management. Band names and album titles belong to their respective owners. For official news and releases, visit dead.net.