Bob Weir lets loose his inner Garcia at Denver Botanic Gardens on Monday. Photos by .
Walking up the box office at the for the show Monday night, it seemed to be barely controlled insanity, as if the parking lot from a Dead show had been magically transported to York Street. Vendors selling wares, including glass pipes, hung outside, as did fans in patchwork clothing looking for a “miracle ticket.”
Inside the venue, the craziness was marginally dimmed, though it’s the only time at a show at Botanic Gardens that I can remember a line of security holding fans back from the front of the stage in between the opener and the headliner. There was tons of equipment around the stage, and a tent all along the top of the hill by the soundboard, showing the level of production.
As the music started, the question that arose was whether Weir is trying to become the second incarnation of his former bandmate in the Grateful Dead, the late Jerry Garcia. It’s hard not to notice that as Weir’s hair has grayed, he has grown a white beard and seems to be channeling Garcia’s appearance. Weir’s set did little to dispel that notion.
The band opened with “Here Comes Sunshine,” a Garcia tune. The vocal harmonies were a little rough at first. Guitarist Mark Karan ably mimicked Garcia’s piercing guitar tones, while Weir added a trance-like wah pedal fill. A long jam took the band into a funky, trance-type “Easy Answers,” a song Weir first performed with bassist Rob Wasserman.
In the Dead’s heyday, Weir often seemed the target of pointed disdain from Deadheads who worshipped at the altar of Jerry. Weir, however, penned several excellent staple tunes with the Dead, including “Sugar Magnolia.”
Many artists in their waning years, such as the Who, seem to tread on former glories, playing on their fans’ nostalgia. Weir seems to not even be doing that, treading on Garcia’s former glories. In his set Monday, he only played one song he wrote with the Dead, plus his cover of Bob Dylan’s “Queen Jane Approximately,” which the Dead used to do.
In fact, RatDog became an adept Grateful Dead cover band, perhaps the best Dead cover band on the planet, except they were playing almost all Garcia tunes, to the rapturous enjoyment of the audience.
“Lazy River Road” flowed by at a languid, river-like pace, with Kenny Brooks providing a smooth sax solo. Weir removed all the darkness and tension from a relaxed version of “Jack Straw,” turning it into a much happier song. Acoustic versions of “Peggy-O” and the Band’s “The Weight” came at the midway point of the set, and the audience sang the chorus over Weir’s subdued vocals.
After Weir had played a long “Terrapin Station” and then started “Standing on the Moon,” it was clear that he’s more than content to give the people what they want. Weir was always the second (or third) man in the Dead, standing in Garcia’s large shadow. In a way, he has the last laugh now, playing sets heavily dependent on Garcia tunes to an audience that will happily lap up every note.
Weir ended his set with “Johnny B. Goode” and returned for an encore of yet another Garcia tune, “Ripple.” The line “Would you hear my voice, come through the music,” seemed layered with levels of meaning, as Weir’s voice seems overshadowed by Garcia’s, even in Weir’s band.
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band the defCATS.
Michael McGrath is a Denver area photographer. His work is available at . Visit .
