Long Beach Press-Telegram
December 14, 2005
by Tim Grobaty
We got all hippied up and threw our old lady in the Vee-Dub and motored downtown to catch Bob Weir and Ratdog's two-set show Sunday night at Pine Ave.'s Vault 350.
Surprisingly, Weir looked older than he did back in the days when we first started seeing him with the Grateful Dead back in the early 70s. More than a touch of gray, and all that. But he's bigger-voiced than ever, and Ratdog has a grander, jazzier, tighter sound than the Dead not necessarily a good thing, but it didn't bother us none.
In fact, didn't nothing bother us none, other than the fact that get this our name wasn't on the VIP list. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! Naturally, time passed, and soon enough we were all VIPed up. Before that, though, we hung a bit with the ever-touring mercantile branch of Deadheads who were offering some extremely cool (though not, alas, in our brawny, overly muscular size) "Jack Straw" T-shirts emblazoned with the lyrical slogan: "we can share the women, we can share the wine."
Over by the planter there were some nice baked goods which weren't moving overly well. One potential customer was miffed/frustrated because nothing the tie-dyed, baker boy was selling no, not even the Rice Krispies Treats was weed-free. Also, if we'd had an extra ticket on us, we could've traded it in a sec for what was proclaimed to be fairly non-dirty acid.
None of that for us, Officer. We were soon whisked inside to beeline it to the drug of choice for aging Deadheads: A couple of icy Tanquerays and tonic with a Corona back we paid $35 ($40 with our generous, hippie-ish, money-means-nothing tip), which, back in the early days of Deadheadedness would've paid for more pot than you could load on a donkey.
Otherwise, it was all about the music. The Vault's vaunted sound system and generous sightlines made for an ideal experience, and Ratdog put on a fine show best we've seen in years with Weir's set list packed with some cool covers (the Stones' "The Last Time," Little Feat's "Easy to Slip"), some dandy Dead ditties ("Loose Lucy," "Friend of the Devil," "Scarlet Begonias") and a bit of Weir's solo stuff, ("Greatest Story Ever Told," "Cassidy").
Our favorite moment, though, was Weir's brilliant string-filled working of Marty Robbins' "El Paso," made extra-fine by the fiddling of violinist Phil Salazar.
As always, the Ratdog show was recorded and made available immediately for purchase. If you wish to score the play-at-home version, it's available now, along with photos and fan reviews of the Vault show, at www.ratdog.org.
