8/20 -- The Allman Brothers, RatDog

The Allman Brothers Band and RatDog show at the Meadows, now known as the Dodge Music Center, in Hartford felt like a hippie fest. From the girl selling hash brownies car to car in traffic to the Merry Pranksters bus to the white van with a giant "Ron Paul 08" on the side of it, I felt like I was still in 2008 but blasted to the past in some way. The show was pretty mellow with a bunch of people just happily swaying and dancing to the rock music. Old Grateful Dead fans flashed back to their glory days as they watched their beloved band's founding member rock out with his latest jam band, RatDog. Tie-dye shirts included. The Allman Brothers included a lot of musical interludes in songs and long solos that led to half-hour-long songs, which was cool at times, but after a while, it felt a little redundant. Also, they didn't play Jessica.