Bob Weir & Ratdog Tickets

Drove north from Bloomington IN to Grand Rapids MI to experience Bob Weir & Ratdog June 10, 2014. I thought this show would be an unusual location that is not played by GD related acts. The DeVos Auditorium Hall was everything I hoped for; clean, modern, well-designed facility. Great acoustics; a real benefit I was hoping for!!!!! Very nice and wonderful staff at DeVos >> no hassles and they seemed to enjoy this crowd. I had a balcony seat but the event was not sold out and they moved us down to the mezzanine. Nicer! The entire show was really well-played with few mistakes and a great energy throughout. Jackstraw nicely opened the first set after a few minute standard musical intro that is par for the course these days. Easy To Slip, in my opinion, was the best performance of the first set >> played to perfection. Greatest Story Ever Told was a nice surprise and also well-played. Next came Weather Report Prelude, parts I and II >> Bob was a little rusty picking out the prelude part, but the rest was smoking hot. Really nice closure to set 1 which clocked in around 76 minutes or so. Set 2 was wonderful throughout with the opening Dylan tune "A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall" well sung in it's entirety. Kudos to Bob remembering all the lyrics without a teleprompter; at least from the mezzanine I did not see one on stage. Next "Friend of the Devil" was perfect, but not overly extended and missing Jeff Chimenti and Robin Sylvester for most of the song. Nice, but brief piano solo towards the end of FOTD. Bob and Steve Kimock interplayed nicely on this tune without cluttering guitars. Rob Wasserman and Jay Lane were wonderful on this as well >> truly wonderful ensemble interplay. Next came 3 songs in succession: He's Gone > The Wheel > Two Djinn. Just wonderful, but here is where my only real complaint of this concert exists. They had the sound volume way too loud and this ended up disrupting the delicate acoustic clarity in this performance hall. This was noted mostly during Set 2 and especially on Two Djinn; the separation and clarity of notes played was lost to some degree; muddling occurred. Hopefully the CD of the show is better. By the way, "The Wheel" had one of the best post-Jerry cresendo "bound to cover just a little more ground" I have seen. The mid-set 2 jam without Bob Weir was once again entertaining (if your a Deadhead). I like this part of the show because it seems to be new improvisation with each show. Wonderful versions of Wharf Rat and Good Lovin' were played except they could have turned the volume down a notch. US Blues encore was nice to hear and the last one for me was the Furthur Rochester Hills MI show a couple years ago. I will take one last moment to make an observation >> Bob has some difficulty making it through the lyrics of this song error-free and this night was no exception. On the other hand, he personally plays this song with a high degree of difficulty playing slide throughout. Now I admire greatly that he takes this challenge upon himself, but maybe a "cleaner, less awkward" version of US Blues would result without the slide and letting Kimock fill in more prominently. Just an idea... no biggie and I enjoy hearing US Blues since these days it is rarely played. I do not remember the time length of Set 2 exactly but I'm guessing somewhere near 100 minutes. Thank you for reading this review and that's all folks.

Kimock was on. Nice Greatest Story Ever Told-Weather Report-Let it Grow to close out 1st set.

Let's just be clear about what this show is. It is an effort to reproduce the magic of a Grateful Dead show. It's not phony or contrived because the frontman is one of the principal architects of that magic, and his voice and his playing are still in full force. The band behind him is largely excellent, especially the other guitarist and the keyboard player. All that's missing is Jerry. The setlist was songs the Dead wrote, songs the Dead covered, and songs the Dead could have written. The night was absolutely perfect. All that was missing was the hippie chicks undulating in the aisle. This is the closest Grand Rapids has ever come to a Dead concert (their scheduled March 1968 show at Fountain Street Church was canceled, allegedly due to weather), and it is something we have sorely needed. The audience was hugely appreciative.

Show was fantastic. Song list was most of my favorites and the band was tight. Bobby was really strong and there was a clear groove in the room with the band and the audience. Paramount, despite its age, was very good acoustics. I was on aisle in row O on the floor which was a great seat. Had seen Ratdog at the Wellmont in Montclair a few months earlier and I came away not very satisfied with the show. The Paramount show now has me believing that they just had a bad night at the Wellmont.

Great night, great venue, plenty of dancing room !!!

BOBBBBBYYYY! Was a great night of music in a beautiful venue seeing Bobby Weir and Ratdog.

One of the best shows I have seen in some time. Bob Weir rocked the Ryman. I can't wait until they come back again!

masterful! incredible! on the money and then some! wow! yeeee haaaaaaa !!!!!!!!! tore the roof off the ryman!

Can you say AWESOME! Love love the Ryman! Had a great time with friends and family.

Bobbie and the boys just get better as times goes on. What a show! The band was incredible and the crowd was way into it. One More Saturday Night encore just like the first time I saw the Dead which was in Nashville at the old auditorium in 1978, 36 freaking years ago. I gues I'm getting old but I can still dance, which I did for 31/2 hours.

As always (unless you don't know where the bad seats are), the Ryman was a great venue to host a Legend. Bob Weir played some classics and some deep cuts in this set, and neither were disappointing. He still has the greatness that has defined his career!

Excellent sound, band played outstanding. Very enjoyable experience in an obviously wonderful venue.

Ratdog grabbed the gold ring. Bob rocked and Kimock took over the top.

Great concert, incredible music and nice crowd. Loved it all!

This version of Ratdog seemed to rock it out better than previous versions. Kimock was smokin'. Bobby's voice sounded great and the 2 bass players seemed to work. Great setlist. Iko for fat Tuesday. Jack Straw opener and Touch of Grey closer with lots of good stuff in between.

This show was a masterpiece. i loved every stinky second of it.. go to shea's and ride the balcony.. i love seeing the old and young come together for this type of show

A SPECTACULAR NITE FOR THE DEAD FAITHFUL AND THE FAITHFUL OF SHAKEDOWN ST. IN FRIGID WHEATHER. BOB AND DOG WAGGED THEIR TAILS TO UNSTOPABLE DANCIN' FROM START TO FINISH. THANKS BOBBY I NEEDED U GUYS THIS NITE AND ALL THE MERRY PRANKSTERS. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DEAD SHOW TO BE AMONGST THE MOST AMAZING AND WONDERFUL PEOPLE. THANKS BOBBY AND YOUR MISFITS JIGSTERS. THE BAND WAS TIGHT FROM START TO FINISH AND GAVE U A FISTFUL OF SPYMPONIC PSYCHEDILICA. FIRST DEAD SHOW 1969 AT 14 AND NEVER LOOKED BACKED....IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RIDE AS THEY KEPT TRUCKIN' UP TO BUFFALO!! THANKS DOGGG!!!

A fun hot show on a cold night! Watching the balcony rockin' is scary. especially when you are sitting under it. They should check that out. This beautiful theater was built as a movie house in the 1920's. Not sure if it's built for 1600 people dancing on the balcony!

Good show. Beautiful venue. Love RatDog but missed the horns! We did wish the second set was a little bit more lively.

Bob Weir and The Band really put on a nice show.It sounded like Bob may have had a slight cold but his voice was strong and clear.It took the crowd a little to get going, but the place really got rockin,