Bob Weir formed RatDog in San Francisco in 1995, initially as a low-key side project he could tour with during breaks from the Grateful Dead. RatDog, originally RatDog Revue, was formed in 1995 by Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Bob Weir, bass player Rob Wasserman, guitarist and harmonica player Matt Kelly, who had been a member of Kingfish with Weir as early as 1974, and drummer Jay Lane. The group's earliest incarnation grew out of a longstanding creative partnership, as the roots of RatDog can be traced to 1988 when Weir began a collaboration with session bassist Rob Wasserman, and for the next six years or so the duo toured under names like Weir & Wasserman and Scaring the Children. The full band's sound leaned into loose, improvisational rock, blending original songs with an eclectic mix of covers.
What began as a side project quickly became something much larger. Just after the band launched its first tour in August 1995, Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia died, leading to the dissolution of the Grateful Dead, and RatDog was suddenly promoted from being merely Weir's latest side project to being his primary performing unit. Through the rest of the 1990s the lineup expanded and shifted considerably, as Weir continued to tour with the band through December 1995, and went back to performing in February 1996, having added keyboard player Johnnie Johnson, then in November saxophonist Dave Ellis joined, and in December keyboard player Mookie Siegel made the band a septet. The band's studio output arrived a bit later, when in September 2000, Arista/Grateful Dead Records released the studio album Evening Moods, credited to Bob Weir and RatDog, the band consisting of Weir, Wasserman, Lane, Chimenti, and Karan. A live document followed soon after, as a year later, Grateful Dead Records released the double-CD concert recording Live at Roseland, recorded April 25 and 26, 2001, at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon, credited to RatDog with Weir, Wasserman, Lane, Chimenti, Karan, and saxophonist Kenny Brooks. RatDog's lineup continued to evolve through the 2000s while touring relentlessly across the country. A significant shift came when original stand-up bassist Rob Wasserman was replaced by bass guitarist Robin Sylvester in 2003. The band eventually settled into what fans and historians regard as its definitive configuration, since the lineup of Bob Weir on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Jay Lane on drums and vocals, Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and vocals, Kenny Brooks on saxophone and vocals, Mark Karan on lead guitar and vocals, and Robin Sylvester on bass guitar and vocals was the longest serving lineup of the band. Over the years RatDog racked up an extraordinary number of performances, and by one account Bob Weir and RatDog played 850 shows across their run, cementing their reputation as one of the hardest touring acts to emerge from the Grateful Dead family tree. Guitarist Mark Karan and saxophonist Dave Ellis each anchored the band for over a decade, with Ellis a member of the group from 1996 until 1999 before returning as Kenny Brooks joined in 2000 until his own departure in 2012, and Karan joining on guitar in 1998 until his departure in 2012. RatDog wound down its touring activity in the mid-2010s, with RatDog last touring in July 2014. Bob Weir went on to continue performing with other Dead-related projects, but RatDog's legacy endures as the vehicle that carried his songwriting and singing through the two decades following Garcia's death, blending Grateful Dead songs, a mixture of covers including Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry tunes, and originals for devoted crowds night after night. The band remains a beloved fixture of jam band history and a direct link between the Grateful Dead's improvisational tradition and the generation of fans who came of age in the late 1990s and 2000s.
RatDog passed through the lens of this archive only once, when Wayne Dennon photographed the band at a single show in 2005, capturing the group during the height of its touring years with the Weir, Lane, Chimenti, Brooks, Karan, and Sylvester lineup. That night yielded 25 photographs now preserved here, images that have been viewed by archive visitors 19,284 times since the site began honoring Wayne's work. As a testament to both a legendary touring band and to Wayne's eye for capturing a single unrepeatable night of live music, these photos remain a quiet but cherished corner of this memorial collection.
