Ratdog

April 14, 2001

The Royal Oak, Theatre

Royal Oak, MI

After a mind-blowing show in Kalamazoo the night before, the bar had been raised pretty high for Ratdog’s Saturday night show in Royal Oak. I arrived early and stood in line in order to get a good spot. I met some nice people in line and as usual I spied Ratdog guitarist Mark Karan walking around the crowd outside.

Before long they opened the doors and I found a perfect place on the first tier above the dance floor right on the rail. The view was perfect and the sound also turned out to be just about right.

Excitement in the theater was high as Ratdog took the stage. They began to a short jam that quickly materialized into a nice version of "Feel Like a Stranger". This vintage Weir/Barlow tune was recently revived by Ratdog so it had been an awfully long time since I had heard it live. The jazzy sound of the music for "Stranger" suits Ratdog’s strengths perfectly. Drummer Jay Lane provided the "Long, Long, Crazy Night" backup vocals.

The jam at the end morphed in to the riff from "Easy Answers". This latter day Dead song at times has been stilted in its delivery, but on this night it was slinky and funky, as it should be.

It led directly into "Youngblood" which was fun and featured back up vocals from the whole band including the usually silent Rob Wasserman.

Once "Youngblood" finished up, the band surprised everybody by going into "Dark Star". They had jammed on the "Dark Star" theme the night before, but this was the real thing. They did the first verse only and Weir handled the vocal quite well.

The jamming out of "Dark Star" led into an acoustic reading of "Me & My Uncle" featuring just Bob, Rob and Mark. Mark played some nice country licks on this song written by the recently deceased John Phillips.

"Me & My Uncle" segued into a strange full band acoustic version of "Corrina". This was an odd setting for this song, which usually receives a decidedly electric and funky treatment. It did sound pretty good though and definitely more earthy and bluesy than usual.

Bob picked up his gray acoustic guitar again for a beautiful reading of "Looks Like Rain" which originally appeared on his solo album, Ace.

Next up was a great version of the Hunter/Garcia song, "West LA Fadeaway". Ratdog has definitely made this song their own and they really tore into the solos.

After a fake ending to "West LA Fadeway", the band launched into a rollicking version "The Greatest Story Ever Told". This was by far the hottest live version of this song I have ever seen.

The jam at the end became "One More Saturday Night". I think most people in the audience expected this to end the show not appear in the first set. This was a very high-energy version that left the crowd gasping for air as the band left the stage for the set break.

The band returned after about a half hour break for a real bluesy take on "I Need A Miracle" which had the crowd singing along immediately.

They slowed things down with a very tender reading of "So Many Roads". Weir vocals were well done, but he is still obviously a little shaky on all the words to this late-period Hunter/Garcia song.

Next up was an incredible version of "Estimated Prophet", which featured a long and inspired jam in the middle. During the jam Weir came out to the front of the stage and did a few of his trademark lunges which drove the crowd into a frenzy.

The second verse of "Dark Star" reappeared out of the "Estimated" jam. Kenny Brooks obviously identifies with this song as he played lots of soulful lead sax during the tune.

After a short, but intense "Other One" jam, Wasserman and Lane took over for their nightly bass/percussion duet. This was a particularly inspired session that did not disappoint.

The rest of the band returned for " Ashes and Glass" which was well played and very jammed out.

As they were jamming, Lane tossed a drumstick at Weir’s back to get his attention. Weir leaned in over the drums so he could hear what lane was saying. He immediately returned to the microphone and launched into a fiery version of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl".

Out of "Schoolgirl" they teased "Dark Star" again and Karan started to play the lead to "China Cat Sunflower", but Weir surprised everybody by reprising "Ashes and Glass" which had the crowd again going crazy. The band was really improvising and keeping things fresh by surprising even each other.

The band left the stage to thunderous applause, but soon returned for the encore. Again they shocked the audience by playing the opening chords to "Help on the Way". The band was completely on fire by this point and the playing was inspired and intense. They hit all the vocals and changes perfectly as "Help" segued into the instrumental "Slipkot" and finally into a triumphant ‘Franklin’s Tower". Needless to say, the crowd was satisfied and nobody could have asked for more. After a group bow the band left the stage to start the long drive ahead.

I could not have been happier with my two days of Ratdog in Michigan. If you get a chance, see this band!