I love The Grateful Dead. I really do. When I was 14 I transposed the entire Dead Anthology book into Eb so I could play my saxophone along with Dead CD\'s. But I am sick of all this Dead cover band and side project nonsense. Enough is enough. It really bothers me every time some Dead knockoff that is milking limited talent by playing Dead tunes gets a big slot over a current jamband that is taking the music to the next level. I think these Dead bands have a place at festivals because The Grateful Dead paved the way for all of this and there are still lots of Deadheads out there who eat the stuff up. But that place is NOT headlining festivals. If Ratdog were playing at 3PM I wouldn\'t have a problem with it. However, there are too many smaller bands who are touring their asses off who need that slot to give it to bands that are already rich and don\'t need to try. The Grateful Dead had 20 years as the exclusive jamband in America, I think that\'s quite enough headliners for one band.
