A Birthday Show for Bob's Ratpuppy

100 Days of the Dead Day 24

12 Years Ago Tonight...

Ratdog
Bob's Birthday - October 16, 1996
Five Points Music Hall - Birmingham, Alabama

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Take Me To The River,
City Girls-» Fever, Salt Lake City, K.C. Moan,
I Know You Rider, I'm Goin' Fishin', Howlin' For My Baby,
I Need A Miracle-» Wang Dang Doodle, Drums-»
Bass (The Other One, Satisfaction, Star-Spangled Banner)-»
Josephine-» Turn On Your Lovelight

Encore: Johnny B. Goode

A couple months after the first Furthur Festival toured the United States in 1996, Bob (Weir) and Rob (Wasserman), Matthew Kelly, Jay Lane and Johnnie Johnson hit the road for a run of 7 shows in America's Southeast -- St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida plus Birmingham, Memphis, New Orleans and Atlanta... a mini-Fall Tour.

Back in that ancient time, Ratdog was such a different band than they are today. There was no lead guitar then and no sax until November of '96. Matt Kelly, with his harmonica, filled in a lot of the spaces that one would normally expect to hear some lead guitar. This band bordered on and slowly became a jam band but that took time. For the first two years or so their sound was almost just an extension of Weir-Wasserman or really more like Bobby & The Midnites from the early to mid 1980's.

The sound Ratdog had most certainly wasn't like the Grateful Dead and people knew that. With the exception of when he busted out some "Jerry" tunes, for the most part Deadheads didn't resent what Weir was doing but many just didn't care for it... no Jerry so who gives a crap. Healing takes time. But ya know what, many still wanted music from someone who represented the Grateful Dead.

Bobby to the rescue. After that terrible day in August the year before, even ON that day, he kept his side thing going, kept playing for us, and eventually kept expanding the Ratdog repertoire and the Ratdog sound into what it is today. Some Deadheads kept an open mind and came around to accept what Bob was doing. The fanbase grew, the kids they danced and shook their bones to some of the music they missed and longed for, they dug the 'dog, bought tickets, came out to the shows, screamed, laughed, cried, rejoiced, loved the feeling again. No, it wasn't the same... Jerry was gone, it couldn't be the same. But it was still good. Different but good.

This show represents when Bob's dog was merely a Ratpuppy. There's next to no free form jamming here and very little guitar. To me this feels and sounds more like a bar band with a bar band sound. And I dig it. Thanks, Bob... oh, and Happy Birthday!

Source: unknown audience

Audio Quality:
For an Aud the music is pretty loud, crowd is noisy at times
but mostly the music comes through loud and clear.

As of 10/16/08, this show is not on Archive.org.

Download It Right Here

10-16-96 aka 10/16/96 aka 96-10-16 setlist 320 kbps mp3 SBD download

Ratdog ~ 5 Points Music Hall ~ Part 1

Part 2 ~ Birmingham ~ 10/16/96

Part 3