"Best Folk Artist
2 Years in a row...
Hertitage Jazz
Festival"

Wednesday

NOV 13

hotoby Susana Millman

C

Ratdog: Top row, left to right, are Rob
Wasserman, Bob Weir and Jeff
Chimenti; bottom row, left to right, are
Matthew Kelly, Jay Lane and Dave
Ellis.

Wasserman, saxophonist David Ellis,
harmonica player and singer Matthew
Kelly, drummer Jay Lane and key-
boardist Jeff Chimenti — in a way that
is not unlike the Dead.
In fact, a legion of Deadheads do
look at Ratdog as a surrogate Dead in
the wake of that band's demise follow-
ing Garcia's death. Ratdog has done a
bit of touring, and it's been a featured
attraction on the two Furthur Festivals,
summer outings that celebrate the
organic approach of the Dead's music.
During last summer's festival, Ratdog
even performed a few Dead songs.
But Wasserman says he and his
bandmates blanch at such expectations.
"Essentially what we've been doing
is trying to be ourselves and find our-
selves and have our own sound, which
I think we're finally getting to now,"

Wasserman explains. "It was the old
Deadheads who were expecting some-
thing that couldn't happen. They were
expecting to see Jerry Garcia up on
stage again, and he's not alive. Or they
wanted us to be carbon copies of the
Dead, and we're not.
"We're not trying at all to be the
Dead. The only thing that's from the
Dead is the spirit of improvisation,
which is pervasive in our band because
of the players. And also the fun; we
have a lot of fun. I bet we actually have
more fun than the Dead because this
band is really close to each other."
Wasserman says that cohesiveness
has been some time in coming, marked
by membership changes and a kind of
trial-and-error approach to building the
band. The current lineup is comprised
of players who are all based in the San
Francisco Bay area, which allows
Ratdog to function more like a normal
group.
The addition of jazz players has also
given Ratdog a more distinctive flavor,
says Wasserman. "I really don't know
how to describe it," Wasserman says of
the Ratdog mix.
"It's rhythmic music at this point. I
think we're headed more toward music
people can dance to, music that people
can move to — not just esoteric mind
music."
Wasserman says Ratdog has done
some recording, with hopes for a
release in 1998. Meanwhile, Weir and
Wasserman will be releasing a live
album — previously available only
from the Dead's mail order company
— recorded during their early duo per-
formances in 1988.
Weir is also busy working on a
musical about Negro baseball legend
Satchel Paige, while Wasserman is
assembling his next project, which he
refers to as a "bass dance record" that
features him playing over bits of elec-
tronic music, loops and samples.
"I have fun telling people it's a bass
dance record; no one can imagine,"
Wasserman says. "I'm not just talking
about the low end; I'm playing a lot of
the melodies, a lot of the guitar parts,
using a couple of computer geniuses to
help me sample myself.
"It's probably the most fun album
I've ever done. I didn't know if it would
work. But it does work, and it's got a
lot of really infectious grooves and
stuff"

$4

'

with
special guest

F.

Mi/HEAD
& FEZ

"Integrating
Klexmer with
Funk, Country,
Rock and New Orleans
Rhythms, the Klezmer
All Stars take Klezmer
to the next millennium"

Tickets
$10

Al Tickelmaster & Motor
18 & Over Welcome
Doors Open 9:00pm

3515 Caniff • Hamtramck • 313-369-0080 • www.motorlounge.com

•

•

WHERE TO cos
WHAT TO DO!
WHOM TO SEM

Find out in this week's

JN Entertainment

❑

section.

10/31

1997

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• 99

