Jake's Leg spends Halloween at Old Rock House, 50 years in

St. Louis's longest-running Grateful Dead tribute plays the Soulard-edge room on Saturday night, all ages, in the band's 50th year.

Ask a St. Louis Deadhead where they spent their first show and a fair number will name a Jake's Leg gig rather than a Grateful Dead one. On Saturday, October 31, the band plays Old Rock House on South Seventh Street. Doors are at 7 p.m., music at 8, and the show is all ages, with a $2 cash surcharge at the door for minors, according to the venue's event page.

That makes this a family affair as well as a Halloween one. A band that has played to the same city's Heads for half a century has picked up a second and third generation along the way, and an all-ages Saturday on the holiday is the kind of night where you see both.

The numbers are the headline. When Jake's Leg played The Pageant, the venue's listing marked the band's history as starting in 1976 and called the show part of its 50th year. Old Rock House's own copy goes further, calling Jake's Leg "the longest running Grateful Dead Tribute in the United States." That claim is hard to check, but few bands anywhere could argue with it.

A band that has played to the same city's Heads for half a century has picked up a second and third generation along the way.

Illinois Times has traced the band to a mid-'70s guitar-and-vocal duo of Randy Furrer and Tim Fahy, with Dave Casper later joining on lead guitar. Jake's Leg has gone through several phases and lineup changes since, but its purpose has stayed the same. Recent lineups name Joe Trunko and Ryan Wilhite as the longest-serving members. The catalog is mostly live, as it should be for a band like this: deaddisc.com lists a set recorded at Hangar 9 in Carbondale in 1995 and another from Twenty North in St. Louis in 1999.

Back in 2013, St. Louis Public Radio called the band a local staple that "typically" draws "more of the older 'Heads." Halloween at Old Rock House may test that, given the all-ages door. The room suits it. It's a mid-size rock club just south of downtown, big enough for a crowd that knows every word of "Jack Straw" and small enough that the jams still feel close.

Our records show Jake's Leg has played St. Louis more than anywhere else, which won't surprise anyone who has watched the band work the city's rooms, from the Pageant to the library's Live on Olive series.

Tickets are on sale through the venue's Etix page. Costumes aren't required, but on this night, in this crowd, you'll be underdressed without one.

Sources: Old Rock House – Jake's Leg (event page) (oldrockhouse.com); The Pageant – Jake's Leg (50th year listing) (thepageant.com); Illinois Times – band spotlight archive (illinoistimes.com); St. Louis Public Radio – Encore: Dead before death (2013) (stlpr.org); Deaddisc – Jake's Leg discography (deaddisc.com); St. Louis Public Library – Live on Olive, August 2015 (stlouis-mo.gov); Etix – Jake's Leg tickets, Old Rock House (etix.com)