[justcoophere]

I saw Ratdog this past week (8/22/07) in Holmdel, NJ for the 1st in 5 years and was really impressed with the performance. Not only did Bob Weir sound great, look like he was having fun and leading the band, but the jams they pulled off (some quite lengthy) sounded exploratory and deep. They also played for 2 solid hours. I have to admit; I lowered the bar before the show and didn't expect much. RD never really did it for me in the past, but this band is different.
I have read some mixed reviews about this lineup and would like to hear other opinions about the new lineup and recent shows.

[Darkhorse014]

i saw them in march with karan and was blown away. So i know he can def. play, but i've heard some insane ratdog tapes from august. With kimock they switched guitar players and didnt miss a beat. I'd love to see them with either of guitar players.

Bobby still has it

[BOUKINATOR]

Kimock is great but it's definately not Ratdog without Karan... I've seen dozens of shows with Mark and he gets the job DONE and then some... plus he and Bobby mesh so well after what is it, 7 years???

GOOD VIBES TO ((MK))!!!

[shakedown_04092]

Agreed - MKII is the man! Love Kimock, sounded great on this tour, but MKII & Bob have a nice connection going, not too unlike Bob & Jerry's (you know what I mean....not trying to compare Jer to MKII). They just mesh really well together & bounce off each other nicely.

If you havn't seen Ratdog in the last 2 years....GO NOW do not pass go, do not collect $200 (ok...just collect your "supplies") and head to a 'Dog show. You'll be happy you did. If you don't like Ratdog, that's like not liking sex. And that's just dumb.

[IamDocWatson]

u can not say they didnt miss a beat...the song catalog has been cut down by like 4 times its original size and they play the same like 30 songs. with MK they had like a 300 song catalog and each night was a new setlist the last tour with mk only had like 4 songs repeated the whole tour, and they were breaking out 1st time played tunes all the time still.with kimock if u went to every other show u got basicaly the same setlist...and in my opinion kimock blows i had neevr been bored at a ratdog show until he started playing his leads. he said he didnt know most of the songs and had no practice or rehearsels, they barely even had a soundcheck before their first gig, MK blew steve out of the water in the other ones and kimock blew it in ratdog...all that said i went to like 6 of the shows and will be at more of them because i like the band so much i wont hold anyhing against kimock or RD in this situation..but if your asking for opinions on him i definately have one...(((MK))) heres to mark getting healthy

[poicephalus]

I saw the Red Rocks show last month. Good show, with an interesting acoustic Dark Star with Bob in the Keller set.

I've heard mixed reviews about the shows this summer, but I thought they played well at RR.

I hadn't seen Kimock play in a long time (Kingfish was the last time). Why does he sit now? He devided his time between standing and sitting. Reminded me of an old blues musician like Johnny Lee Hooker when he got old.

[krzykat]

Kinock rocks,

[gratephulphish123]

i saw bob with mk last year and kimock this year

mk blew kimock out of the water, mk's show was high energy rockin, kimock was more subtle and melodic, which is cool but they were playin stuff like loose lucy, maybe it was the fact that they only got two hours but i liked the concert with karan much better (i did get a better setlist with karan though)

[mttourpro]

I had to chime in here as I am a big Kimock fan. I also like MK a lot with RD.

I expected more from Steve (saw 2 shows this tour) and was a bit disappointed that he seemed to be abit reserved. He took decent solos, but not the type of stellar (or interstellar) playing that I know he's very capable of.

Although the recent Kimock interview talks about no rehersal time, etc, he knows the cataloge pretty well and is certainly able to solo over what are fairly basic changes and songs for the most part....True they shortened the repetoir a great deal but I think he likely made a point not to go too ballistic and stay somewhat behind the spotlight given it's (hopefully) just a temporary fill-in.
To say Kimock "blows" is a rather harsh statement. To say MK "blew SK out of the water" for TOO shows is also (IMHO) just plain wrong. They're different regarding their approaches and, I don't know which TOO shows you saw (Doc) but when I saw them, Kimock was playing some very serious leads throughtout the tour. MK kinda took a back seat to him in 98. I believe SK was the only guitar player in 00. Though, I could be mistaken on that. I guess YMMV. Just my 2 cents.

If you get a chance to see Kimock's band, do yourself a favor as you'll be seeing him in the spotlight on his own tunes and he won't hold back a thing. I for one hope MK gets better real soon and that he's back with RD ripping it up.

[kenneybonz]

though it seemed like bob was taking pains to make it an un grateful dead performance..and who can blame him.. having created such great sounds as the midnites.. but kimrock is just great in that group

[Hajimemashite!!!]

i would say that kimock is better guitaist, just not for ratdog

[BOUKINATOR]

Kinock rocks,

yes but Kanan rocks a bit harder

[smile_smile_smile]

can i just say i saw ratdog for the first time at the tweeter center a couple weeks ago with kimock and i dont hear what anyone likes about ratdog, it was extremely hard to listen to and disappointing, i dont say this to start something, but only to be lead to a show that can show me why they are any good, something on archive would be preferable

[shakedown_04092]

Hmmph

Anything '05 and up, I'd say. Surprised you didn't like it though. Bummer.

[smile_smile_smile]

i wanna say it was the sound cause i was on the lawn and they didnt have the speakers on cause it was t-stormin that night, but abb sounded great