‘Weir-d’ Packaging: Ratdog Too Tightly Wrapped This Time Around

By John Voket

DANBURY — If I hadn’t seen it two nights in a row, I might have dismissed Grateful Dead alumnus Bob Weir’s recent and highly polished appearance as a quirky fluke. But about halfway through his band Ratdog’s second set, during the band’s second night at the now apparently defunct Premier Concert Hall, I found myself rationalizing that perhaps Mr Weir and his well packaged ensemble had played a few too many casinos.

Had this pioneer of counterculture, jam band psychedelia gone Vegas on us? The crowd that populated the two sold-out Hat City shows, comprised of not one, not two, but at least three generations of tie-dyed, pachouli-drenched and Birkenstock clad hippy types, didn’t seem to mind at all.

Maybe it was just me….

But as song after song crisply gave way to the next, I began wondering if the spirit of The Dead had finally been wrung out of its surviving band members. (All four of my faithful readers may recall an uncomplimentary review of a totally less than satisfying turn by bassist Phil Lesh earlier this year at Wallingford’s Chevrolet Theatre.)

Maybe we’ve got the making of a trend here. Or are the individual members of The Grateful Dead simply distancing themselves from their own legacies in their solo configurations to the extent they are able without being run out of town in a chattering VW Microbus by legions of their die-hard fans?

From this reviewer’s perspective, with dozens of Dead shows and dozens more from Dead breakout acts to his concert-going credit, it seems so. The latest Connecticut appearance by Weir and Ratdog got about as far away from the spacey, improvisational, flying by the seat of their pants type of material as I have ever seen.

This was in marked contrast to shows as recent as last summer where I watched Weir guide his band through nebulous jams and seamless transitions during a memorable appearance at Central Park’s Summerstage. To say nothing of a spot-on “as close to a Dead show” performance Weir delivered during his last stop in Danbury a few years back at Western Connecticut State University.

If this is the future of the Grateful Dead and its members, I am certainly grateful that I held on to several crates full of bootleg Dead cassettes and my trusty yet antiquated Sony Walkman. Not that I would deny any musician the opportunity to grow creatively and move forward in his or her career, but this cover band version of The Dead Mr Weir is trotting around these days seems to be more of a step back than two steps forward.

Nonetheless, taken at face value, the two recent evenings I spent with Ratdog did provide an outstanding level of musicianship.

Each show opened with a sort of tuning up jam, to give the soundboard techs a chance to make a few fine adjustments before Weir opened up the gates and let his well-trained puppies run. I must say, as a side note, that although the Premier Music Hall has no new shows on its roster, these Ratdog sets featured some of the best mixed live sound I’ve ever heard in a smaller venue.

The individual elements of each musician were well-defined — Mark Karan’s leads (both electric and acoustic), bassist Robin Sylvesters articulations, Kenny Brooks variety of sax parts, and keyboard player Jeff Chimenti’s B3 and piano were all discernable while Bob Weir’s vocals and the occasional backing harmonies punctuated through the instrumentation splendidly.

The sets themselves also had numerous high points, especially if one was to judge those moments by the heightened roaring of the crowd.

Night one, set one included a back-to-back old school Dead medley of “Playin’ In The Band,” “Big Boss Man” and “New Speedway Boogie” to get things warmed up. Weir then trotted out several other long-time Dead staples like “Ramble on Rose,” and the set closer “Iko, Iko,” pounded out with way too much heavy-handedness by drummer Jay Lane.

Night one, set two opened with the acoustic-flavored trilogy: “Deep Elm Blues,” “Jack-a-Row,” and the second Dylan tune of the night, “Masters of War” (Weir managed to get “Stuck Inside of Mobile” into set one). Set two mustered on with a freeform jam, a shadow of the band’s former “Space/Drums,” ostensibly to get an additional song or two in before curfew.

Ratdog’s “jam” meandered into more Dead material with “Estimated Prophet,” “The Wheel,” and a “Playin’” reprise. Night one wrapped with “Black Peter,” “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” and the classic rock radio staple “Casey Jones.”

Night two brought a similar energy from the audience as the show stepped off with “Here Comes Sunshine” and “Minglewood Blues.” Weir then turned in one of his best songs of the two-night run, deftly crooning a new number “Senor, Fever” with a beautiful soprano sax accompaniment from the often underutilized Mr Brooks.

“Cold Rain and Snow,” and an upbeat Garcia/Hunter “Might as Well,” primed the fans for an extended intermission before the last half of the show commenced with a nicely performed acoustic set including “Mexicali Blues” and “Corinna.” Following another perfunctory freeform jam, Mr Weir rolled out the big guns before heading out into the night.

Night two, set two concluded with a well-received “Ship of Fools,” a crowd roiling “Saint Stephen,” and the evening’s encore, a touching Garcia tribute: “Black Muddy River.”

While this most recent local run from Bob Weir and Ratdog was a little too weird for me, hope springs eternal on the rumor that the surviving members of The Grateful Dead are setting aside their solo projects for a possible summer reunion tour. Hopefully, such an outing will re-infuse the spirits of those members who may have become a bit too insulated over the course of their own solo touring schedules.

On a side note, although we haven’t received confirmation of its demise, Danbury’s short-lived Premier Concert Hall has no upcoming shows listed on its website. Two remaining shows, the rescheduled Rick Wakeman performance from early March, as well as an electric and acoustic evening with Hot Tuna, have been relocated to The Ridgefield Playhouse.