Bob Weir and RatDog | RatDog.Org

In my 15 years in Southwest Florida, I don't think I've ever used the word "face-melter" to describe a concert -- mostly because musical performances here are never as adventurous, unpredictable and fierce as what RatDog show at the sold-out crowd at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall last night.

Long before Bob Weir - the rhythm guitarist for the Grateful Dead and now frontman of RatDog - plucked his first guitar string, any local resident could tell that this concert was going to be unlike any other in the long history of Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall.

Hours before the 8 p.m. start time, the west-side parking lots began filling up with fans from all over the southeast who, like Deadheads, have followed RatDog from show to show. Vendors selling glass pipes, T-shirts emblazoned with the famous Grateful Dead skull and Jerry Garcia lined rows and rows of cars while the music of the Grateful Dead blarred from car speakers.

Some fans were still stuck in their work suits while others in dreadlocks and carrying the aroma of patchouli, pot and body odor scrambled for tickets and other concert "necessities" like beer, weed and nitrous oxide. In fact, you couldn't weave your way through the parking lot crowds without seeing someone carrying a balloon.

Yes ... The circus was in town last night and it only got better as the night wore on.

Inside the refined Mann auditorium, concert tapers with microphones and recording equipment set up while the Deadheads in their tie-dyes waited patiently for the band to take the stage and when they did, not a soul was sitting for entire three hour performance that spanned each era of the Grateful Dead's history.

The concert kicked off with a groovy jam that found its way into the Grateful Dead's "The Music Never Stopped." When Weir launched into the lyrics "There's a band out on the highway, They're high steppin' into town It's a rainbow full of sound, It's fireworks, calliopes and clowns," I couldn't help but enjoy this welcome departure from the ho-hum acts that usually play Southwest Florida.

With fans wiggle-dancing and using their hands to follow the music, Weir and RatDog spent the next 15 minutes covering Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" and "She Belongs to Me" before delving into the first Jerry Garcia song of the night, a bopping version of "Loose Lucy." The 1 1/2-hour first set ended with a rockin version of "Hell In a Bucket" with Weir, now fully gray, screaming into the mic, "At least I'm enjoying the ride ... ride ...ride" while saxophonist Kenny Brooks wailed.

The second set -- always the special set for the Grateful Dead -- also held true with RatDog. Weir started things off acoustically with one of the Dead's earliest numbers "Stealin'" before bringing the tempo down a bit with a pretty version of "Friend of the Devil." Psychedelia took over with Weir's "Victim of the Crime" and didn't skip a beat before taking on the reggae-ish "Estimated Prophet."

With everyone still standing, the slow beginning notes of "Terrapin Station" wafted through the theater culminating in a massive sing-along with the crowd screaming the lyrics, "inspiration, move me brightly ... Light the song with sense and color, hold away despair ...

Continuing the epic song Weir delivered the lines, "In the shadow of the moon" while crowd screamed back "terrapin station." "And I know well get there soon," Weir cried out. "Terrapin station," the dancing crowd shot back before the band once again delved into a Garcia favorite, "Sugaree."

The second set ended with Weir's barnstormer, "Sugar Magnolia" -- a song that had people dancing from the front row to the very back.

And if that wasn't enough RatDog concluded with night with a song the Dead only played on an album -- never live, the complex "At A Siding" which featured sax man Brooks blazing, and lead guitarist MarK Karan with his down making sure every not was hit just exactly perfect.

For those locals who were there last night, this will be one local show they won't soon forget. The band was tight and those from outside the area praised the theater and its staff. Here's to hoping we get more of this kind of adventurous music and less Englebert Humperdicnk in the future.