Rat Dog at Six Flags Darien Lake

It seemed like only a short pause between the time Keller Williams took his final bow that the transparent curtain was raised to reveal Rat-dog in the midst of their frenzied opening song. The majority of the festival going crowd had taken their position either at the open hill lawn seating or the canopy under the seating section. A woman MC with an unusually high-pitched voice, began signaling the crowd to welcome Bob Weir’s post Grateful Dead incarnation onto the stage, while they began tuning up with a few stray chords and out of cue drum rolls. When they finally did blend their tunings into a cohesive sound, it was unrecognizable. I still am not too fluid in the (I was there the Dead covers frankly), but the songs were catchy and enjoyable. They seemed like cousins to the Dead’s version of bluesy riffs. Bob had a desire out there to show that this wasn’t going to be a Dead cover show. Bob had the aura of mellow control all about himself. He was dressed in his traditional summer wares: blue tank top, jogging shorts, and tennis shoes. He looked more like a middle age company exec during his leisure hours, than the former rhythm guitarist of one of the most influential bands of the second half of the twentieth century. At the front of the stage he led like a composer. His head bobs and nods to his fellow players being almost interpreted as non-verbal cues to aid the music. After several originals songs, that wound and moved at a continues/uniform pace, Bobby gave the crowd what they came to see. A signature song from their 1986 release “In The Dark,” was played in its entirety in the form of “West La Fadeaway.” From there, Weir grooves, with the accompaniment of his talented keyboardist into a tight “Cumberland Blues.” By then I was expecting a return to some originals, or a more studio oriented track from “American Beauty.” Instead he laid all fears to rest that he wouldn’t explore into the depths of the Dead’s magnificent repertoire, when he launched into a marvelous “Eyes of the World. (Arguably one of my favorite Dead songs.) “ He blasted through this song, with the accompaniment of the stellar lighting mechanism, and finally came out of the song ten minutes later. An original Rat-dog number followed, but only to be topped by “Sunshine Daydream.”

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