Bob Weir and RatDog | RatDog.Org

Prior to Monday night's sold out show at the Weinberg, Bob Weir will plan a set list -- choosing from an endless list of Grateful Dead songs, RatDog originals and covers -- opting for tunes the past three or four shows have passed over.

But once Weir and his band RatDog take the stage, planning takes a back seat to spontaneity.

With Weir, the former rhythm guitarist and vocalist for the Grateful Dead; Mark Karan, guitar; Jeff Chimenti, keyboards; Kenny Brooks, saxophone; Robin Sylvester, bass; and Jay Lane, drums and vocals -- RatDog will launch the evening with a jazzy jam, and from there, allow the "the set list to create itself," says Karan.

"Night to night it can be anything from dance music to spacey, jammy stuff."

As the Grateful Dead was once two bands simultaneously -- an outfit capable of going from a 30-minute, spaced-out version of "Dark Star" to an all-out-rocker like "Sugar Magnolia" -- RatDog is at first glance, a jazz ensemble, and at second glance, a hard-nosed rock n' roll band.

After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 -- upon the death of lead guitarist and vocalist, Jerry Garcia -- band members splintered off to different projects. In 1998, members reunited as The Other Ones, before opting for simply The Dead in 2003.

Entering his 40th year of incessant touring, Weir's musical journey, despite post-poning RatDog's fall tour due to fatigue, shows no signs of coming to an end.

"He's the heart and soul of what's left of the Grateful Dead," said Dennis McNally, the longtime publicist and author of 'Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.' It's more than playing music. It's a soulful quality and way of treating each other.

"RatDog is the inheritor of the Grateful Dead magic."

The Grateful Dead was known for "fusing rock modalities and jazz improv," McNally said. "This is something the band members have a soulful and intuitive understanding of.

"Bobby understands it in his bones."

"Playing in the Band"

It goes back to New Year's Eve 1963. Weir and two underage friends, Bob Matthews and Rich McCauley, wandered the back alleys of Palo Alto, Calif., with hopes of getting into a club.

Weir, 16, an undiagnosed dyslexic -- the adopted son of a rich California engineer -- had recently been expelled from an expensive prep school.

Upon hearing the sound of a banjo coming from Dana Morgan's Music Store, the group made a fateful decision to walk inside. There, they found Jerry Garcia, alone and oblivious to the date.

Once Weir and the others convinced Garcia that his students weren't likely to show up on New Year's Eve, he closed the front of the store and lent them instruments. After spending the night playing music, a band was formed -- Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.

Among the many musicians featured in Mother McCree's were Garcia, 21, on guitar; Weir on washtub bass and jug; and Ron McKernan, 18, known as Pigpen on vocals and harmonica.

Shortly after the founding of Mother McCree's, Pigpen, inspired by the Rolling Stones, began pushing for an electric blues band.

And about a year later, the outfit morphed into The Warlocks.

Another teacher at Dana Morgan's, Bill Kreutzman, filled in on drums. Later, Phil Lesh, a mailman/intellectual who had studied trumpet and serial music at Mills College, picked up the bass and replaced Dana Morgan.

In 1965, The Warlocks spent most days high on LSD, most nights smoking pot and playing five loud, 50-minute sets at the In Room in Belmont. Playing six nights a week, the band began to develop, as later described by Phil Lesh, a "gestalt" or group mind.

Deeply influenced by jazz greats, particularly John Coltrane, The Warlocks experimented with improvisation, churning out traditional blues and R&B covers like "Turn on your Lovelight" and "Midnight Hour" with an element of elasticity. Pigpen, a greasy-haired, blues loving biker, the hard drinker in a band of psychedelic explorers, was the main frontman.

Filling in the blanks between Garcia's lead guitar and Lesh's avant garde bass style, Weir developed his unique style of rhythm guitar. In a band of misfits, Weir sported good looks and a cheerleader girlfriend.

Rounding out the band, were Tom Constanten, a keyboardist, along with Mickey Hart on percussion. Constanten was trained in classical piano, while Hart was a marching band drummer before discovering LSD and world drumming.

One afternoon, after Lesh had found a single by another band named The Warlocks, the group met to come up with a new moniker. Initial suggestions included Emergency Crew, Mythical Ethical Icicle Tricycle, and Nonreality Sandwich. While thumbing through a dictionary, one entry caught Garcia's eye: "grateful dead." Lesh loved it. Weir considered it morbid.

Hanging out with a mixed crowd among the literary and beat generation, the Grateful Dead eventually attracted the attention of the Merry Pranksters -- a community which included the likes of Ken Kesey, author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and Neil Cassady, the legendary hipster whom Jack Kerouac based Dean Moriarty, the hero in "On the Road."

Later that year, the Pranksters hired them as the house band for the Acid Tests, a series of parties in San Francisco and beyond. LSD, legal at the time, was freely distributed, often in giant buckets of Kool Aid. The Acid Tests broke down the barrier between musicians and spectators. Bands were not entertainment, but a single entity; the show was made by everyone who attended. There were no performers, no audience.

The Grateful Dead could play for two minutes or two hours. There were no expectations; as Garcia said later, "it was carte blanche."

In late September 1966, Garcia, Weir, Pigpen and others moved to 710 Ashbury St. in San Francisco. Lesh and Kreutzman lived a couple blocks up the hill.

The residence at 710 became the heart of the "Haight-Ashbury" scene -- rooted in what became to be known as "the San Francisco Sound." From a creative standpoint, the Grateful Dead were at a peak.

Their 1968 album, "Anthem of the Sun," which attempted to simulate a "trip," mixed live performances and studio sessions. And while the band became known for wreaking havoc in the studio, by 1969, they had released "Aoxomoxoa" and "Live Dead."

But as the '60s came to a close and songwriting ties with Robert Hunter took off, the band's material expanded beyond the psychedelic, towards the lyrical, folksy, soulful realm captured in "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead."

As documented in "Europe 72," the Grateful Dead did their best work onstage, splicing rock 'n roll, country rock and folk -- the full gamut of Americana -- between off-the-cuff, improvisational jams.

The divergent backgrounds, two drummers, jazz, LSD, the musical connection forged at the Inn Room, a willingness to experiment with musical bars and beats no one had ever considered ... the result was a new sound, a new brand of rock 'n roll.

Alternative Outlets

As the years transpired, the Grateful Dead molted into one of the most successful touring operations in history.

But even as the band played 100 nights annually, Weir sought new musical outlets.

"The Grateful Dead was a beast that bossed the band members around," said McNally.

"Members would bring songs into it and would grumble about how they turned out. Bob was the youngest and probably felt picked on sometimes. Searching for other musical outlets was good for the soul."

As an excessive alcohol habit took its toll on Pigpen, Weir's vocals, as well as his ability to energize the audience, were placed at the forefront. In 1972, Weir released "Ace," his first solo album, backed by his bandmates.

Other Weir sidebands included "Kingfish" and "Bobby and the Midnites," before he settled into a duo with bassist Rob Wasserman in the late '80s.

As the music developed, other musicians were added around Weir and Wasserman, starting with Lane, of the Freaky Executives and the Uptones. Lane continued the jazz-chain by introducing RatDog to Chimenti, a jazz, blues and rock pianist. With saxophonist Kenny Brooks, a New England Conservatory of Music graduate and member of the Charlie Hunter Quartet, the jazz presence of RatDog was in full swing.

Formed in 1995, Weir foresaw RatDog as a musical vacation from the Grateful Dead. But intentions and plans were altered by Garcia's death, Aug. 9, that same year. The following day, the band played its second show billed as RatDog, at the Casino Ballroom in Hampton Beach, N.H.

The set list featured Weir's original material, "Bombs Away,"; blues covers, "Good Morning Little School Girl,"; an emotional encore, "Knockin on Heaven's Tour," but only one Grateful Dead tune ("Throwing Stones").

The tour pressed on, steering clear of Grateful Dead material. As time passed, Weir's Grateful Dead repertoire was slowly added to the mix, and eventually, so were songs sung by Garcia.

"So many people saw RatDog right after Jerry died; the band has evolved so dramatically," McNally said.

A major step was adding Karan's guitar licks in 1998.

Playing in RatDog "is a trip," Karan said. "It opened up my head. I had been in situations where I hadn't been doing a lot of jamming -- playing record-oriented stuff. I was re-inspired by playing music for the sake of music."

Karan, who grew up in the Bay Area, attended free Grateful Dead concerts in Golden Gate Park, organized in the '60s by the promoter Bill Graham.

The experience "designed my whole life. My head has always been there. I felt so phenomenally blessed that I was able to connect with something so important."

Karan followed the band for a decade, until 1977, when he decided to pursue other music scenes -- going through funk and punk bands tied to major record labels.

"I stumbled into it. When you play for a living you don't always have a lot of choice," he said.

But playing in RatDog has brought him full circle, he says. "I don't make a ridiculously good living, but I can cover my expenses."

Artistically, "there's phenomenal freedom in not having to care about a record deal."

While he carries the somewhat arduous task of filling in the guitar-work of Garcia, Karan says "he's never really thinking about it.

"I grew up on it. Some of this stuff is so deeply rooted."

Songs played by RatDog for the first time this tour, include Garcia gems, "Ship of Fools," "Lazy River Road," and "Black Muddy River."

Early in 2003, Wasserman opted for other projects. Sylvester, another Bay Area native, stepped into the mix, which some feel enhanced the bands ability to jam and groove.

Rather than rehearse songs repeatedly, RatDog prefers to "get to them onstage."

"We schedule rehearsal," Karan said, laughing. "We wind up in the same place. Music is played ..."

But the music, he says, lends itself well to the approach. "The last thing Bob wants to be is Dark Star Orchestra," a cover band known for recreating Grateful Dead shows note for note.

At least directly, Weir "doesn't want to recreate the past," just the magic.