Grateful Dead spin-off group Phil Lesh [ tickets ] & Friends is set to play a series of multi-night stands on the U.S. theater circuit in November and December.

The itinerary includes three nights each in Denver, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia, four nights in New York City and a single show in Wallingford, CT.

The always hard-touring Lesh has been on the road with The Dead [ tickets ]--a group that features the four surviving members of The Grateful Dead [ tickets ]--for much of the year. He wraps up a short West Coast tour with that band later this month.

Lesh's current crop of "friends" is the same one that joined him on tour in 2002: John Molo (drums), Warren Haynes (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Herring (guitar) and Rob Barraco (keyboards).

"There and Back Again," Lesh's first studio album since 1989, hit stores last year. The LP features the same lineup as Lesh's current touring band.