Grateful Dead

6/21/2008 RatDog and the summer solstice in Seattle

Help
Slip
Jack Straw
Little Red Rooster (danny louis)
Bird Song (Warren)
Big Railroad Blues (Warren)
You Win Again
Hard Rain
She Said
2 Djinn
Standing on the Moon
One More Saturday Night
E: Franklin's Tower

First time I've seen RatDog, and I kept wanting to compare their
offering to Dark Star Orchestra when that band came to town last Sept.
Loved RatDog's Blues for Allah opener, but after "Help on the Way" and
"Slipknot" I thought they ended the songs too abruptly. However, when
the band came back for the encore, "Franklin's Tower seemed the
perfect closure, with two hours between those bookends to give Bobby
and his band plenty of chance to breathe.

Admittedly, due to my familiarity mostly, I loved the Dead songs best,
and I really enjoyed hearing Bobby's familiar voice like an old friend
I hadn't seen for years. I didn't want to see him come off as some
Sha-Na-Na nostalgia act, locked into playing only the old GD standards.
This wasn't the case.

There's no mistaking that RatDog is Bobby's band, but they take themselves
seriously as topflight musicians and it's visible that they dig what
they do. The RatDogs veered from Dead songs to originals with some
great covers like the bluesy "Little Red Rooster" or Dylan's "Hard
Rain's Gonna Fall" and the change-of-pace country sound of Hank
William's "You Win Again" (which, admittedly, I first heard through the
Dead years ago).

So, not to belabor the DSO schtick, with its truly amazing
replication/facsimile of the Dead, there was something more comforting
for me last night, more organic in hearing Bobby, seeing him turn his
head a bit sideways to the mike and offer up those smooth vocals of
his. He fussed with his guitars and sound settings like the days of
yore, but there was none of the old, what-are-we-going-to-play-next
back-and-forth I remember between Weir and Garcia. Again, there was no
mistaking that this was Weir's band. He's a core piece of the Dead
moved on, but comfortable embracing his own rich past. That part was
way cool, as they say.

Back in late '78, I had a chance to see The Bob Weir Band playing
separately in Seattle on the same ticket as The Jerry Garcia Band.
This was after my first Dead concert in '77. I remember leaving,
feeling how the sum of the parts didn't add up to the whole (of the
Dead).

Last night, there was no sense of needing to compare RatDog to
something that will never again be––it was simply nice, in some cosmic
sense––to return to these friendly, creative musical confines that Bob
Weir continues to offer. If "Help" and "Slipknot" were the welcome
back, his "Jack Straw" was ripsnorting catharsis for something that had
been missing for me. Those Dead organics: "now the die is shaken, now
the die must fall."

Next, from the sound of the jam, I thought RatDog was going to kick
into the steal-your-face bliss of "He's Gone", but, boom, the riff
shifted, and in came the jazzy licks of "Bird Song". What a song to
send you drifting to the "furthur" reaches. And Warren Haynes was
there––returned from his earlier Gov't Mule opener set––to add the
dueling lead guitar sound made famous years ago by the likes of Duane
and Dickey, and then him for the late, great Duane. I saw Warren
complement a Dave Matthews Band show a few years ago in a similar way
launching into an exquisite cover of "Cortez, The Killer."

But "Bird Song" is different, not hard rock but an exploration of the
edges, like something delicate flying. This was the best Warren of the
night, although his "Little Wing"––Gov't Mule's tribute to Seattle's
Jimi, was exquisite too. Little Wings and Bird Songs, maybe there's a
theme for Haynes to explore, a way to push him and his great rock
guitar beyond the straight up blues-rock that he's mastered, to loftier
creative heights.

The concert seemed to lull with the RatDog tunes, "She Said" and
"2 Djinn", but "Standing on the Moon" brought it up a notch. Even
when Bobby stepped back from the mike trying to remember the words to a
verse, the moment was comic relief in an overall solid performance.

Then, the show careened from the "moon" to quantum energizing, like god "having a big old party, and calling it planet earth":

"One More Saturday Night" and it was Saturday-night-Seattle at its
best. I really found my old Deadhead self then-and-there, and was dancing my ass off, keeping up, I'm proud to say, with those two whippersnapping
Dreadheads flailing beside me. To hell (in a bucket) with pilates and
power yoga, I'll take this get yer ya-ya's out exercise any day.
"Saturday Night." Encore. "Roll away the dew." In another time's
forgotten space, I was back.

Thanks, Bobby. It was great to see you again, my friend!!!

SMac
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php? ... 864-2915-8

Getting psyched to see Ratdog at the beautiful Britt festival in Jacksonville, Oregon!

Now this sounds sweet!

Grand Lido, Negril Jamaica
2009 RatDog Daze
January 28 – February 1, 2009

4 night packages start at $1,629 per person
Wow I better start saving up for this!!

On sale now General admission tickets for
Allman Bros & Ratdog Aug.23 Susquesehanna Bank Center NJ
only $80 for 4...you must buy 4 :) for that sale price
on the lawn :) *****sweet*****

this comes from a yahoo group

>
> It's a little early, but here goes:
>
> Bob Weir and RatDog will partner with the Allman Brothers
> Band again this summer. First one out:
>
> Saturday, August 23, 2008 at Tweeter At The Waterfront,
> Camden, NJ. Doors and Show time TBA. All ages welcome.
>
> Mail order tickets are available at $79.00 per ticket for Pit
> and Main Orchestra tickets. $49.00 per ticket for second tier.
> Lawn tickets will be $33.50
>
> First mail in dates for this performance will be Friday,
> March 14 through Tuesday, March 18.
> Mail order will remain open beyond those dates.
>
> The Crew of GDTSTOO
> 3.13.2008
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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Spanish Jam