Bob Weir and RatDog | RatDog.Org

Bob Weir has hosted happy, hippie music parties for 39 years now.

So a third generation of Weir fans - say, their grandparents loved Weir and the Grateful Dead when they started in the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-1960s, and their parents were fans when Weir and Jerry Garcia shared that twin-guitarist bliss in the mid-1980s - dove right into the RatDog vibe Saturday night.

Of course, the teens and college kids stood right beside some of those parents and grandparents, too, as Weir's wintertime band took the folk-rock music of the Grateful Dead, a couple covers of Beatles songs and some RatDog original work to really joyous places.

Weir wore blue shorts and T-shirt, as if he were welcoming spring and ready for what's turned into his summer's band. That's the Dead, as the collection of originals who now carry on without the late Garcia calls itself.

The air was full of sweet-smelling smoke and bouncing balloons when Weir and band mates Mark Karan on guitar, Jeff Chimenti on keyboards, Kenny Brooks on saxophone, Robin Sylvester on bass and Jay Lane on drums started their long, cool trip with the Grateful Dead gem "Playin' with the Band." High-rise mike stands had their place in the sky around the sound board, too, as some fans chose to tape the concert themselves, as long has been the custom at RatDog and Dead shows.

The do-it-yourselfers persisted even though RatDog presented everybody with another alternative. By plucking down $20 before the show, fans could pick up a two-CD set of the night's music, recorded digitally by RatDog technicians, shortly after the concert was over.

And what a trademark Weir performance the tapers and buyers will have for posterity.

It was obvious that Weir and band mates were ready for a big night of jamming. That's been the usual style for Weir whatever band he's playing in.

The jam continued with a cool "Cold Rain and Snow."

Then Weir and mates tipped their instruments to a band from the other side of the Atlantic that was playing a whole other style of rock 'n' roll during the '60s and '70s.

The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Comes" came off suitably trippy and psychedelic as seen through Weir's musical lens.

Grateful Dead goodies "Ramble On Rosie," "Loser" and "Loose Lucy" had fans singing along. In fact, many fans were so cued in that it was obvious that they knew what was coming from the pre-song tuning.

Even the less initiated to the Deadhead club could figure out the first set was over when the band's jam came full circle back to "Playin' in the Band."

Weir, Karan and Sylvester began the second set with a quite lovely acoustic version of the Beatles' sweet "Blackbird."

Things became fully electric again, and the whole band connected with a big charge for a truly epic rendition of the Dead's 1970s anthem "Terrapin."

Weir showed he could read the mood with his choice for the encore: a yee-hah version of "One More Saturday Night."

Opener Jazz Mandolin Project turned in a dazzling set to mostly empty seats.

Folks who hung elsewhere may have caught the end of a great NCAA win for the Syracuse Orangemen, but they missed some very hot jazz-rock-folk work by mandolinist Jamie Masefield and band mates.