Last night was the second of two The RatDog Quartet performances at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, Calif. Before this new version of RatDog took the stage, which features Bob Weir, Jonathan Wilson, Robin Sylvester, Jay Lane and sometimes guest Jason Crosby, the evening started off with an acoustic performance by Jonathan Wilson followed by a Bob Weir acoustic set. Weir battled with a bunch of talkers throughout his set telling them “Hey, I’m not interrupting you am I?” He finally gave up during a cover of Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall. Bobby left the stage in the middle of the song after issuing an evil glare and telling the crowd he’d be back with his electric band.

[Image via mossismyrice on Ratdog.org]

When Weir returned with his RatDog Quartet in tow, he told the crowd “It’s okay, we’re not going to try to do anything particularly delicate now,” before launching into Friend of the Devil. The RatDog Quartet set included the first RatDog version of Fire On The Mountain which was sung by Jonathan Wilson. Wilson also sang on a cover of Sing Me Back Home, another RatDog debut. Jason Crosby, who sat in with Weir during his acoustic set, guested with RatDog for the majority of the set.

Watch Bobby’s performance of Hard Rain followed by the walk off…

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For the second year in a row the Peach Music Fest will take place at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania this summer. Scheduled to run from August 15 – 18, the first batch of acts set to join headliners the Allman Brothers Band has just been announced.

The Allman Brothers Band will play two nights as will Bob Weir’s RatDog featuring Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane, Robin Sylvester, Rob Wasserman and Jonathan Wilson. Other Peach Music Fest acts include The Black Crowes, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, Railroad Earth, Galactic, Rusted Root and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. In addition to his sets with RatDog, Weir will perform a special “Brunch With Bobby” set on Sunday morning. More bands will be announced soon.

A pre-sale for tickets starts on Thursday, February 21st at the event’s website.

Bob Weir has formed a new band which features two members of his long-running RatDog troupe. Dubbed “The RatDog Quartet,” the group will feature Weir performing with RatDog mainstays Jay Lane on drums and Robin Sylvester on bass. In addition, guitarist Jonathan Wilson will round out the band.

The RatDog Quartet will make their debut with a pair of shows at Weir’s Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, Calif. on March 3rd and 4th. Ticketing information is available at GDTSTOO.com.

Sweetwater Music Hall, a new venue for which Bob Weir is a partner, had its official opening last night in the Bay Area’s Mill Valley. The same Ratdog ensemble that performed at TRI Studios on Wednesday were on hand at Sweetwater for two more sets. Bay Area residents Sammy Hagar (Van Halen) and Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) both sat in with Ratdog at different points during the show.

[Photo via @RatDogDotOrg]

Ratdog didn’t repeat any songs from Thursday’s webcast with the exception of the group’s traditional improv-based Stuff segment. Surprisingly, Ratdog stayed away from their originals all night long. Hagar emerged towards the end of the first set to sing Loose Lucy, a song he’s sung with members of The Dead a number of times in the past. Harrison came out during the second set to add backing vocals and keys to Take Me To The River, an Al Green song that was a staple of the Talking Heads’ live repertoire.

Set One: Jam > Truckin > Brown-Eyed Women, Loser, Loose Lucy*, Let It Grow

Set Two: When I Paint My Masterpiece@, Deep Elem Blues@, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall@, Take Me to the River+, Playin in the Band > The Other One > Stuff > Jam, Standing on the Moon, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
*-with Sammy Hagar (Vocals); +-w/ Jerry Harrison (Keys, Backup Vox)

[via Ratdog.org]

Marin County’s latest venue replaces the original Sweetwater which closed in 2007. Weir discussed how Sweetwater came together with Benjy Eisen for a Rolling Stone feature.

Bob Weir brought his Ratdog ensemble back together for the first time in nearly two years tonight for a free webcast from the Grateful Dead / Furthur guitarist’s TRI Studios. A special version of the group featuring Steve Kimock on guitar performed two full sets that included plenty of Dead classics as well as a number of RatDog originals. Longtime bassist Robin Sylvester had to pull out of the event due to illness. Weir mentioned his comrade towards the end of the show and urged viewers to donate to his Furthur Foundation to help Sylvester with his medical bills.

[TRI Studios Screenshot]

For setbreak, the feed showed interviews with the band members that told the story of Ratdog. Towards the end of the setbreak featurette, footage of Sammy Hagar singing Loose Lucy with Ratdog, presumably from a rehearsal, was aired. Weir had his acoustic guitar strapped on when the band emerged for the second set as he led them through Peggy-O, Friend of the Devil and Corrina. A Bird Song in the middle of the closing stanza melted into a jazz-oriented “Stuff” jam that showed off the skills of saxophonists Dave Ellis and Kenny Brooks. All in all, TRI Studios gave viewers three and a half hours worth of content in pristine high-definition audio and video for free – quite the deal.

Here’s the setlist…

Set 1: The Music Never Stopped > New Minglewood Blues, Money For Gasoline > Eyes of the World, Even So > October Queen > Mississippi Half Step, Ashes and Glass

Setbreak: The Story of Ratdog featurette

Set 2: Peggy-O@, Friend of the Devil@, Corrina@, Row Jimmy, Cassidy > Bird Song > Stuff, Days Between > Two Djinn > Not Fade Away,

Encore: Ripple

I ran some Ratdog on Stormy Mondays not too long ago, back when Bobby’s postponed solo tour was supposed to take place, but that was before anyone knew Ratdog itself would make an appearance. On Wednesday of this week, an enhanced version of The Dog will play at Bobby’s TRI Studios, that golden room with its unparalleled sonics and web casting capabilities. The band will feature both Rob Wasserman and Robin Sylvester on bass (both played the inaugural TRI Bob Weir and Friends gig) and both Mark Karan and Steve Kimock on guitar. A lot of people who didn’t really like Ratdog will praise the ’07 shows where Kimock subbed in for an ailing Karan, but the fact is most of those shows weren’t so great.

Part of Ratdog’s strong suit was the ability to respond with pure quickness and turn on a dime, especially on Bobby’s drop segues, and that seemed to slip away during the Kimock gigs. He seemed unfamiliar with the transitions and with some of the covers and Ratdog originals. Also, Karan’s playing was perfect for the band and the band’s sound was built around him as he slipped and slid all over the material, lacing songs with bright leads and satisfying fills. That’s just not Kimock’s style. Not to say there weren’t brilliant moments at most shows and a few truly excellent gigs (Albany is the absolute highlight), but there wasn’t enough room for Steve to really work his long form magic. Ratdog with Kimock wasn’t quite Ratdog, nor was it quite Kimock, which was especially apparent because just before Karan’s cancer diagnosis, he was on fire.

I remember hearing people shouting “Mark!” the way they shout “Warren!” or even shouted “Jerry!” once upon a time. With that in mind, this week we’re going to the North West shows of 07 for a closing suite of Stuff (the improv/groove segment of the second set) > a short Milestones > a blazing Dear Prudence > Two Djinn, probably Ratdog’s best tune. It’s a high energy set with lots of amazing Mark Karan, not to mention the playing from the rest of the band. As always, enjoy!

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S MIX

When Bob Weir started Furthur with Phil Lesh he promised it wouldn’t be the end of RatDog – the outfit he assembled in 1995 that toured sporadically through the beginning of 2010. Weir made good on that promise with the announcement of a free webcast from Bobby’s TRI Studios on January 25.

Over the years RatDog has featured a number of different members, so for this month’s webcast Weir has put together a RatDog Revue of sorts, enlisting the last touring version of the band (Weir, Jeff Chimenti, Robin Sylvester, Kenny Brooks, Mark Karan and Jay Lane) as well as Steve Kimock and Rob Wasserman. Kimock filled in for Karan in RatDog when Mark was battling cancer, while Wasserman was a founding member of the ensemble. Showtime is set for 5PM PST on the 25th.

Bob Weir finished up a run of abnormal gigs over Labor Day Weekend: a solo show and two gigs as a guest in the Levon Helm Band. With a rescheduled solo mini-tour forthcoming, more Furthur dates and his TRI Studios, Weir’s got a full plate, but there was a time when his only muse was Ratdog, a steady grooving road machine that boasted an incredibly tight rhythm section and a sax/guitar matrix always at the forefront of segue-laden sets.

This week’s Stormy Monday features a long suite from the band in 2005, starting off with the acoustic material that usually opened a second set and moving into an effortlessly jammed out bit of awesomeness: The Winners, Black Throated Wind > Tomorrow Never Knows > Uncle John’s Band > The Other One. It’s a huge jam from a band in the thick of its prime.

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S MIX

Attention hipsters – Phish is responsible for the current trend of indie-bands playing special full album shows. Back in 1994, the Vermont jam-act used the second set of their stop in Charleston, WV to run through their then relatively new album Hoist in its entirety. While jambands aren’t normally known for their studio output it seems as if they are finally get on board – Widespread tackled Space Wrangler earlier this year – and now comes the news at Bob Weir and his Ratdog bandmates will run through Bobby’s solo debut Ace during their upcoming RatDog Daze festival that’s set to take place in Negril, Jamaica over the course of two weekends in late January.

• List Time: Top 20 Xmas Songs That Don’t Suck
• Flight Of The Conchords ends its run on HBO after two seasons
• Cover Alert: The Word tackles The White Stripes
• Book your favorite band at next year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival
• Beastie Boys, Beck & Santigold remix Norah Jones new album
• Blitzen Trapper, Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, Built To Spill and more design Christmas ornaments for charity

Finally, during their nine month tenure as the house band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, The Roots have impressively managed to write 1,000 “sandwiches”  – the short instrumental jams you hear before and after the commercial breaks – for the show. To mark this milestone ?uestlove has assembled 22 of the best ones,  including Caveman, Werewolf Bar Mitzvah and Teen Town – for a free digital EP that you can grab here.

Last Week’s Sauce is a recurring column featuring recordings of shows from the previous week. Thanks to bigperm for this week’s photo.

Artist & Title: The Breakfast – Rufus>Frankly Po Zest>Rufus>Frankly Po Zest
Date & Venue: 2009-10-16 River Street Jazz Cafe, Plains PA
Taper & Show Download: Keith Litzenberger

Tim Palmieri is one of the best shredders on the scene, and you get some good evidence why in this section of segued classic Breakfast tunes. The Breakfast will be all around the Northeast in the next couple of months, they are next playing this Saturday at Red Square in Albany. Tim Palmieri plays solo tonight in New Haven. Highly recommended.

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READ ON to hear tracks from Cowboy Junkies, The Brew, and others.

While the world celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11, I made the best selection I could to fit the vibe and that is a track off of the Grateful Dead’s 1989 release Built To Last titled Standing On The Moon.

Many in the Grateful Dead community have hypothesized that the outro lyrics, “A lovely view of heaven but I’d rather be with you” indicated a feeling from Jerry that while he appreciated the band’s success and fans, a part of him wanted to just be out in the crowd with everyone else. Makes sense.

The Contestants:

Big Frog: You may recognize this band from their spot opening for Phish back in 2000 during their Japan tour. The ever-elusive Phish opening act spot. Source: 8-1-2007

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READ ON for the rest of this week’s Cover Wars contestants…

Indie-jam rockers moe. have finalized the lineup for the 10th Annual moe.down which takes place at Snow Ridge in Turin, NY on September 4 – 6. Prog-jammers Umphrey’s McGee and innovative alt-rock act Cake have been added to a bill that already included Method Man and Redman, Ani DiFranco, Matthew Sweet, Sam Bush, The New Mastersounds, Ominous Seapods, The Heavy Pets, Okemah, Nate Wilson Group, Family Groove Company, Lynch, My Dear Disco, The London Souls and of course…moe.

A limited number of cheap-as-you’ll-find $105 tickets are available now.

Before we take off for the weekend, here are some links…

• Pearl Jam announces new tour dates and an album release date
• Genesis unveils plans for an ambitious box set of live material
• Where will Farm Aid 2009 take place? Check their twitter feed
• Highline Ballroom’s Piano Series includes The Duo & The Bad Plus
• The Yankee Phish Fan who screwed with Fenway is unemployed
• Bruce Hornsby talks to Billboard about all of his current projects

Finally, if you haven’t added the HeadCount Blog, edited by Richard Gehr, to the list of sites you visit daily, you’re missing out. Yesterday, we learned that Bob Weir has entered the Twittersphere by posting a number of photos from his most recent trip to Washington D.C. with The Dead band mate Mickey Hart. Here’s one of the shots…

[Photo via Bob Weir's Twitter Feed]

Navigating traffic on the way to Phish at Jones Beach last Friday, myself and four friends in the car started naming a bunch of great “rain” related Phish songs that could be played in honor of the impending weather. They didn’t play any of our ideas. Though I did take away my next selection for CW and that is this song off of the 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

Every webpage out there supplying information on this song is quick to point out that the structure of the lyrics is based upon an old Scottish ballad titled Lord Randall. Have a look at the first verse…

O where hae you been, Lord Randall, my son?
O where hae you been, my handsome young man?
I hae been at the greenwoods, mother, make my bed soon.
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting, and fain would lie down.

The Contestants:

Bill Frisell: Leading off this week we’ve got our only instrumental rendition and it’s from one of the greatest living guitarists, Bill Frisell. Bill has got a lot of great folk/rock instrumental covers out there, I am particularly fond of his performances of I Heard It Through The Grapevine and Have A Little Faith. Source: East/West

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READ ON for the rest of this week’s Cover Wars contestants…

December 30 has always been a major holiday for jambands. Nearly every major act took to the stage last night for their last standard show before busting out all the stops for tonight’s New Year’s Eve concerts. Let’s take a look at what went down last night across the country…

[Photo via Mule.net by Chris Rushin]

Gov’t Mule – Hammerstein Ballroom – NYC [via JRoxx]

Set 1: Blind Man In The Dark, Lola Leave Your Light On, Gameface, Towering Fool, She Said, She Said-> Tomorrow Never Knows, Spanish Moon *with Marc Quinones and Ivan Neville*, Into The Mystic *with Marc Quinones*, Kind Of Bird *with Marc Quinones*

Set 2: Like Flies, I Think You Know What I Mean-> When The Levee Breaks, Time To Confess, Red Clay *dedicated to the memory of Freddie Hubbard with Jimmy Vivino, Jeff Young and Marc Quinones*, Drums *with Marc Quinones*, I’m A Ram, Mule *Who Do You Love Tease*
Encore: Come On Into My Kitchen Intro -> 32/20 Blues *with Jimmy Vivino and Jeff Young*

The Skinny - Most expected Ivan Neville of opening band Dumpstaphunk to sit in throughout the night, but it was Warren’s ABB band mate Marc Quinones who spent the most time on stage with the Mule. The Mule also enlisted Jimmy Vivino [Fab Faux, Max Weinberg 7] and Jeff Young [Jackson Browne, Steely Dan] to celebrate the life of Jazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who passed away on Monday in LA. Of course, Neville did make his way to the stage for a cover of Little Feat’s Spanish Moon.

READ ON for setlists and reports from Phil and Friends, RatDog, Umphrey’s McGee, the Disco Biscuits, Widespread Panic and more…

After Monday night’s seemingly successful Dead reunion, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir and bassist Phil Lesh are teaming up for a New Year’s Eve concert at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. While we’re sure there will be plenty of sit-ins, the concert’s billed as RatDog and Phil Lesh & Friends with Jackie Greene opening. Tickets for this show, as well as a second concert on New Year’s Eve Eve, are available starting Thursday via GDTSTOO and Music Today. The public Ticketmaster onsale takes place on 11/2.

We’ll help you get over the hump by sharing some linkage…

• Don’t send former Beatle Ringo Starr any more fan mail
• Check out the CMJ 2008 Music Marathon full schedule
• My Morning Jacket has rescheduled their Chicago dates
• Boing Boing uncovers a rare Lester Bangs audio interview
• Eddie Vedder wrote the foreward for a Pete Townshend bio
• WSP’s JoJo Hermann rapped about his love for the ol’ USA

We feel really bad for the judges of the 2008 Jamtopia Concert Photo Contest who had to pick the best image from hundreds of breathtaking photographs. I tried to pick my favorites, but I couldn’t really narrow the entries down. But Jamtopia’s judges did what they needed to do and have selected a winner. Check out the 12 Best Concert Photos of 2008 as a preview of the final decision which comes down on November 1.