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entertaining u newspaper: your monthly guide to entertainment
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David Olney
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Rubbing Down Debbie
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by Tonn Pastore
What was that aroma downtown? It’s wasn’t the coffee; no it was more like a mix of Patchouli incense and BO. The Grateful Dead were in town! Well, not all of them, just Bob Weir and his band “Rat Dog.” They returned to the Florida Theatre and played for their fans last Wednesday. Bob and his band of youngsters brought the house down. Their energy was extraordinary, their sound sensational.
Why does this sixty-year old millionaire still travel to venues so small to play the same old forty-year old songs? Because they’re not the same. Weir brought new arrangements to these pieces and his band has added the energy.
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The energy from the audience at a Dead show hasn’t changed; both middle-aged rockers and their grandchildren attend. The traveling street urchins are still scary enough to frighten the local homeless bums. Dreadlocked teens panhandling old winos is quite a sight.
The reason the legend of the Grateful Dead follows into this century is that during their prodigious touring, someone recorded every single show. They were the “tapers” and each show was dutifully recorded and chronicled and copied (with tacit permission from the band). Last night in a matter of fifteen minutes the show that was just witnessed was recorded on a 3-CD set by the Rat Dog technicians. The following morning on their website the titles and order of songs were listed. A hyperlink shows when each song had been played before and the author of the song and the lyrics. The interest in such details is unrivaled by music fans in this day and age. When so many artists are losing sales to theft on the Internet, Rat Dog and the Grateful Dead continue to sell records from today and long ago.
The Florida Theatre has wonderful ushers, ladies outfitted in black and white directing the patrons to their assigned seats. The futility of their effort was comical. As soon as the band walked out on stage everyone in the seats marched toward the front. Like the entire venue had been lifted and tilted forward. Deadheads don’t sit still when the music starts. They twirl. They dance. Some stumble around in a trance, but no one sits still. For them the music never stops.
Rat Dog gave the assembled what they have come to expect, three hours of music. ‘Feel Like a Stranger’ opened the set with new measures and a different tempo. Then a Dead standard, ‘New Minglewood Blues,’ a Bob Dylan song, ‘Queen Anne’ and three more Rat Dog songs. They closed the first set with an amazing rendition of ‘Terrapin Station.’ A new arrangement of a classic Jerry song that sounded like it had the benefit of studio mixing rather than a live show.
I suppose someone knows how many times Bobby has said the words, “We’ll be back after a short break.” but when they returned from this intermission, the second set was very eclectic. Bluegrass, jazz, boogie, traditional blues and then rock n roll all in one set of continuous music. They began with ‘Artificial Flowers’ into ‘Catfish John,’ both very southern selections. They slid into ‘Milestones’ (a song some might know as ‘So What’ by Miles Davis) with Kenny Brooks adding a texture with his sax that would have had the most jaded jazz fan applauding. Then, just to make sure we were paying attention, they launched into ‘Mississippi Half Step’ and ‘Uncle John’s Band,’ two Jerry numbers that reek of his love of bluegrass. ‘Stella Blue’ followed and then they blew us out the back doors with ‘Sugar Magnolia’ featuring Steve Kimock on guitar.
Ninety minutes for the first set, almost two hours with the encore for the second. The encore was a special treat. Then everyone retreated to the lobby to wait about fifteen minutes for the CDs. The tapers are alive and well, they’ve just let their kids do the work now. Sorry, grandkids.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
