If one considers how Grateful St. Louis is for The Kind, The Shwag and Jake's Leg, there's no doubt that this city certainly knows how to honor its Dead. Truckin' into town are two of the ultimate Dead cover bands. Straight out of the kennel comes RatDog. Led by former Grateful guitarist Bob Weir, the band plays a repertoire of Bob's solo material, Dead favorites and, of course, select tracks from RatDog's premier 10 track CD, Evening Mood.

Navigating the undulating route of HWY 93 from Boulder, our trusty VW Bus, along with the countless others migrating from the north, was a spectator to a spectacular lightning display. There's an ongoing jest between my friends and I about the contrast we experience when we leave our tranquil Boulder bubble, venturing into Jefferson County where factories and urban sprawl replace our cherished open landscapes.

We went to Van Morrison at the wiltern which is kind of a stuffy, lied center sort of place.  no one was dancing, but we HAD to...people were upset behind us for standing up at a rock-n-roll concert...so we tried the aisle...the ushers told us we couldn't dance there...so ro' went to the manager to find out where we could dance, she said dance in your seat, maybe you'll start a trend.