February 4, 2012 in 10, 11, 12, 17, 2, 25, 27, 27th, 28, 3, 30, 31, 50, 7th, 9, a, age, all, am, an, and, Are, as, at, Atlanta, Austin, Ball, ban, band, bands, beach, blue, blues, boston, Burn, but, by, ca, center, chicago, Day, denver, detroit, electric, en, Eve, fee, festival, fi, First, FOR, friday, From, front, get, gin, ground, hall, hampton, hi, How, in, is, IT, IX, jam, King, las, late, MA, MANCHESTER, marquee, MI, Music, My, nc, New, new york, News, night, no, NV, ny, of, on, one, out, PA, Part, party, philadelphia, Phish, Pt, Rabbit, rad, rage, rock, roll, room, rs, San Francisco, SC, show, Shows, So, song, sound, SPAC, St, tab, the, theater, to, tour, uic, us, va, van, vegas, venue, vt, WA, we, Web, with, years, york |
ANDREW AND HIS FULL BAND TO PERFORM HIS
I GET WET ALBUM, IN ITS ENTIRETY, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER
Andrew W.K. |
Andrew W.K., rock & roll’s reigning king of partying, has announced a tour celebrating his debut album’s 10th anniversary.
When his I Get Wet album first exploded onto an unsuspecting public one decade ago, it quickly polarized audiences with an intense sound and even more intense front man. Ten years later, Andrew has decided to do put on a special show in honor of his origins. The band will perform every song from his groundbreaking release, in album order, every night of the tour, including appearances at the Austin, Texas, South By Southwest Festival in March. Tour dates are listed below.
Pre-sale tickets for the upcoming tour are available as of Friday, January 20th, 2012, at 10am ET only on www.AndrewWK.com. Tickets go on sale to the general public on the morning of Friday, January 27th, 2012.
Andrew W.K. Tour Dates
Sat Mar 3 – Vancouver, BC – Venue
Sun Mar 4 – Seattle, WA – Showbox Market
Mon Mar 5 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
Tue Mar 6 – San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom
Thu Mar 8 – Los Angeles, CA – Avalon
Fri Mar 9 – Las Vegas, NV – Body English @ Hard Rock
Sat Mar 10 – Pomona, CA – The Glass House
Sun Mar 11 – Tempe, AZ – The Marquee
Tue Mar 13 – San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
Wed Mar 14 – Austin, TX – SXSW
Thu Mar 15 – Austin, TX – SXSW
Fri Mar 16 – Austin, TX – SXSW
Sat Mar 17 – Austin, TX – SXSW
Sun Mar 18 – Houston, TX – Fitzgeralds Upstairs
Tue Mar 20 – Denver, CO – Bluebird
Thu Mar 22 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Fri Mar 23 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
Sat Mar 24 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
Sun Mar 25 – Chicago, IL – Metro
Mon Mar 26 – Cleveland, OH – House Of Blues
Tue Mar 27 – Toronto,ON – Phoenix
Wed Mar 28 – Boston, MA – Paradise
Fri Mar 30 – Philadelphia, PA – TLA
Sat Mar 31 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Wolf Den
Sun Apr 1 – Washington, DC – 930 Club
Mon Apr 2 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
Thu Apr 5 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
Fri Apr 6 – Orlando, FL – Beacham Theater
Sat Apr 7 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
Thu Apr 12 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom
Fri Apr 13 – Manchester, UK – Club Academy
Sat Apr 14 – Glasgow, SCO – Garage
Andrew W.K. Tour Dates
::
Andrew W.K. News
Tags: ban, music news, new york, party, philadelphia, sound, time, white
January 18, 2012 in 10, 11, 12, 2, 27, 28, 29, 2b, 3, 30, 31, 50, 9, a, after, Again, age, aka, all, am, American, an, and, another, Are, around, as, at, ban, band, bands, Bass, big, blue, Bluegrass, blues, boot, Boys, brother, brothers, Burn, but, by, ca, can, cat, center, close, comes, concert, covers, cream, Crowd, dance, dancing, davis, DAW, Day, Day., dead, dirt, DJ Logic, down, Drums, Edit, en, end, Enjoy, Entertainment, Eve, fall, fee, festival, fi, final, First, FOR, four, Free, friday, Friend, From, Funk, gag, gain, game, George, get, gin, give, golden, Good, great, Groove, Guitar, guitarist, Gus, hall, hampton, harmonica, hi, home, How, ice, in, inspiration, into, is, IT, jam, jam band, Joy, Jr, key, Keys, King, know, las, Last, late, leave, Led, Lee, let, life, light, Like, LITTLE, live, live music, log, logic, long, loose, lot, love, loving, MA, Made, Main, mass, MD, Meat, metal, MI, mike, miles, monday, Mr, Much, Music, My, name, Nat, nc, New, night, NJ, no, NV, ny, of, on, one, op, Open, out, PA, Part, party, Paul, Phish, photos, Piano, picking, play, Pot, pro, Pt, quartet, rad, rage, rant, raz, reaction, read, return, Road, rock, room, row, rs, run, Say, SC, set, Shine, show, Sky, So, solo, Something, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, St, Stab, stage, stars, start, Starting, step, steve, story, studio, style, tab, Taste, That, the, theatre, third, times, to, Too, Tribute, Trip, tuesday, two, uic, us, va, view, vocal, WA, Walk, war, water, Way, ways, we, Wednesday, with, words, years, You, Your |
Words by: Dennis Cook | Images by: Brad Hodge
Full review below photo gallery, and we’ll be back on Friday with a massive photo gallery and our picks for this year’s MVPs!
1/13/12 – Jam Cruise 10: Day 5 (Fort Lauderdale, FL) View Photos
 The Spot 01.13.12 – by Dennis Cook |
The final day of Jam Cruise usually brings out one of two reactions in people: Smiling denial that the trip is coming to an end or a creeping melancholy that grows more profound as the night consumes the day. Until this point, one is so totally absorbed in this beneficently surreal environment that the world of text messages, alarm clocks and the myriad other obligations that fill our days at home seem not only distant but even grow a little strange given how normal resets by weeks end on the boat. Quite a few folks got out on deck early to snag a chaise lounge in a prime music viewing spot and began a steady regimen of sunbathing and fruity rum cocktails. Others slept off yet another heady night/early morning of wild adventures in the disco or Jam Room, emerging midday bleary and charmingly disoriented, acquaintances quick to throw their arms around them, hand them water and ease them into the last chapter of a story they will retell repeatedly in the coming months. With a masquerade themed final night, many kept the reality of the last day at bay, aided by a later-than-usual arrival in Ft. Lauderdale the next morning, which allowed greater chance of some sleep or extended partying. However one approached Friday, a bittersweet thread wove things together, emotions worn close to the surface, tears falling with a readiness that caught many off-guard, and a pervasive need to share ones feelings, particularly a drive to express ones love for others aloud, permeating the day.
 Surprise Me Mr. Davis 01.13.12 – by Brad Hodge |
Surprise Me Mr. Davis, looking like men whod fully enjoyed the previous four days of revels, kicked off the official music program on the pool deck, announcing, Rise and shine, sleepyhead, loves been looking for you. A certain off-kilter raggedness suits them, and the set presented their core charms well killer songs, interesting musicianship and a group personality thats achingly honest in a way that makes one feel a touch more real just being around them. Sing-along anthem Everything Must Go exemplified the open-handed, leave-your-worries-behind philosophy at work on Jam Cruise, and for many folks, especially the parents in the audience, So Close To Dreams was a choke-back-tears moment where it truly did seem the world was really magic. One becomes less cynical about a notion like that after more than four days of activities dappled with what seems like real magic, leaving one nicely tenderized in a world that usually rewards toughness and thickness of skin. A hearty endorsement from our Cruise Director Julie capped their set who would return later with an even more exuberant shout-out for Orgone at the end of their set encouraged people to pay more attention to this talented bunch, though left out a ringing endorsement for bassist Marc Friedman, who like kindred spirit Brad Houser in the Dead Kenny Gs, is an easy to overlook musical jewel, quieter in his way but no less lethally gifted or essential to the special formula that makes Surprise Me, well, such a consistently happy surprise.
 Pool Deck 01.13.12 – by Brad Hodge |
Options for ones time were numerous on Friday. Orgone laid down another great set culminating in one of the covers of JC 10 a blistering run through Funkadelics Cosmic Slop and almost certainly securing passage on future jaunts. Railroad Earth were less intimate than their theatre set on Tuesday but still provided a fitting score for globe trotters and dreamers of the road. A pool party was a blast with a rotating cast of musicians, including Marco Benevento, who practically lived in the pool with his family all week, his ever-present smile lending one to believe he knows something about life we dont but might pick up from his music. Marco later played the final solo piano performance in the evening, a sprightly affair that swept up bits of Phish, boogie ditties and lots more accompanied by his dancing little ones, stars in their own right by this point. During the day, one might have taken in a Song Making Workshop with George Porter Jr., Nathan Moore and others, attended a funky ad hoc game show with the members of Dr. Klaw and Orgone, or been serenaded in a lovely, singer-songwriterly way by Ryan Montbleau or Brock Butler – that is if you missed one of Brocks impromptu, category defying pre-dawn pool deck hootenannys, an unofficial but essential part of Jam Cruise in the past few years.
In fact, its often the unplanned moments that delight one the most, occurrences that arise out of a need to put notes into the air and just see if anyone is snagged by them. For all our premeditation, Jam Cruise evolves each year in ways that cant be pinned down beforehand. This point was epitomized by The Everyone Orchestra, whose kinda-brilliant mastermind Matt Butler led the proceedings in a swanky new open-third-eye conducting jacket and hat gifted to him by on-board painter Lebo. The annual EO concert is a thank you celebration for the direct-impact efforts of Positive Legacy, which this year offset carbon emissions, brought much needed socks and shoes to Haiti, raised funds for building schools and a long list of other worthy achievements that sharply differentiate Jam Cruise from the usual swath-of-consumption that marks cruise ship culture. Yes, we have a good time but theres a faction within Jam Cruise that puts muscle and imagination into leaving a positive footprint wherever this ship sails. Its something different and so is Matt Butler and his endlessly shifting Orchestra, who put on one of the most musically cohesive and revelatory performances Ive seen in my 20 or so times witnessing EO.
 The Everyone Orchestra 01.13.12 – by Brad Hodge |
The initial lineup onstage for the sound check was staggering: Anders Beck (Greensky Bluegrass) on dobro, Roosevelt (The Lee Boys) on vocals, That 1 Guy as part of the rhythm section with Andrew Barr (The Slip, Barr Brothers, SMMD) on drums and Pete Shand (The New Mastersounds) on bass, a horn section comprised of Jessica Lurie, Brad Houser and Sue Orfield (Tiptons Saxophone Quartet), Brad Barr and Steve Kimock on guitars, Mike Dillon on vibraphone and Luke Quaranta (Toubab Krewe) on percussion. Others would join them while some departed as the segments of this particular EO unfolded, notably some more-soul-than-is-fair vocals from Zach Deputy , spicy harmonica from Matt Hubbard (7 Walkers), and stinging guitar from EO first-timer Anders Osborne, whose presence and playing stirred up some gospel energies that eventually prompted the crowd to their feet. In many respects, this EO session showed off the musical (and even human) potential of Jam Cruise, particularly with Butlers near-unerring knack for picking participants, mingling neophytes with EO vets in ways that keep things fresh but increasingly stable and outright musical. Whats going on with EO is a lusty drive towards engagement, listening, participation, entertainment and enlightenment that tumbles, sprints and saunters in ways that help everyone involved out of their constrictions. Butler is an instigator in the finest sense of the word, easing us out of our comfort zones, tentatively at first but with more force and sureness with each step until were lovingly French kissing the moment. If you took the full ride at this years Positive Legacy performance you surely left feeling youd experienced something and not just another concert, a journey that dabbled its toes in the Ganges and raged dirty blues style, screamed about being positive and skipped like carefree children, everything intense and lovely and real as it gets. More thoughts on Butler and his improvised orchestras in the months to come as he prepares to release the first studio EO album in 2012, but suffice it to say I told him hes a genius after this set, and genius is a word I withhold for very special people only, a descriptor earned through extraordinary talent and dedication to ones vision. Matt has more than earned it after what I witnessed on Jam Cruise this year..
Where one washes up for the final hours of Jam Cruise depends a lot on their personality and how tenaciously theyre holding onto the party vibe. On the main stages, the final sets were covered by guest filled performances from Galactic, who served the funk faithful well in the theatre, The Heavy Pets, who riled up the next generation of jam band fans in the Zebra Bar, or best, in my opinion, Toubab Krewe on the pool deck, throwing a wide, strong net over the world and pulling in shimmering pieces of Africa, Brazil, South America and more to a foundation that is unmistakably American, the blues and rock dancing with these new partners in original ways and inspiring some of the sweetest guest turns all cruise from members of Larry Keel, members of Railroad Earth and more. The playfulness and willingness to embrace mistakes and stumbles made Toubabs set wonderful punctuation on the official programmed music this year. Not everything need to be perfect in order for it to work, and Toubab was daring and intriguing right up until the very end, an ideal band for an adventure built around taking chances.
 The Spot 01.13.12 – by Dennis Cook |
The costumed, grasp-every-last-dance folks shook it madly in the disco with DJ Logic or splashed around in groove in the Jam Room, where The New Mastersounds Snidely Whiplash-mustachioed guitarist Eddie Roberts held court, starting off with his new trio with all-stars Adam Dietch (drums) and Robert Walter (keys) who I gave the new nickname The Pimp this year for so many reasons – and eventually letting scores of New Orleans killers and others join in on their fun, keeping the bar packed and buckwildin lively until nearly sunrise. However, if one were feeling a bit more reflective, The Spot – the extremely loose pickin party on the deck outside the Jam Room hosted by Nathan Moore – was a natural fit. Singing unifying tunes like Stand By Me and My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean, the ebbing and flowing crowd gathered around the core musicians sitting on the deck, Moore joined by Spot regulars Brad Barr, RREs Tim Carbone, Greenskys Paul Hoffman and Anders Beck. Amidst cicada conversational chatter and a lot of boozy huggin n kissin, the musicians off-handedly tossed out songs that one was welcome to listen to or join in on, not caring all that much about focused attention, aware that these final hours were about cementing connections and simply savoring the journey wed experienced together. Wet eyes and big smiles were all around, and the best summation came to me from a new friend Id made the previous year on his first Jam Cruise, a snippet attributed to Dr. Seuss but not found in his writings that balms the sting of letting something this amazing go:
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
 The Spot 01.13.12 – by Dennis Cook |
Most of us cried anyway but happy tears, most leaving a bit more loved and a bit more loving, vowing to return same time next year to do it again with even greater gusto, increasingly aware each time we step on-board of how our own level of engagement and enthusiasm ripples out to others. Yes, Jam Cruise is a music festival a damn fine one at that but what makes it singular is how it presents a host of humanity at their best and offers each of us inspiration to be a little better than our past, a little kinder and more giving, a bit more ready to accept differences and recognize shared traits. Much as I love a good metal pounding or punk rock boot to the head, Jam Cruise has become my standard for what a music gathering can do in ones life. If one sluffs off their cynicism and embraces the energies of this trip the potential ramifications in ones life are huge. As in past years, I ended this journey ready to go out in the world and get things done, armed in subtle ways to battle fear and doubt, psyched to make the world a better and more tuneful place, and anxious to write some poetry of my own and help others build their stanzas, too. I can think of a no more rejuvenating way to start a year if music is the key one uses to unlock the universe. Jam Cruise places a golden lock un-scrambler in our hands and gives us a friendly push to step through doors that have been closed to us in the past. Yes, a LOT of great music transpired, but perhaps more importantly, we tasted greatness in the larger sense and left with an appetite for more, better people than when we set out on Monday, and for this my gratitude knows no bounds for the many hard working Cloud 9 staff, MSC Poesia crew, technical support and musicians who made this possible. Jam Cruise is a gift that keeps on giving, especially if one answers the call inside that sounds as we docked again in Ft. Lauderdale – weary, bleary and thoughtful but knowing one has been in the embrace of people at their brightest and best.
JamBase | Well Traveled
Go See Live Music!
Tags: big, night, ocean, party, Shine, sky, stars, tuesday, view, words
January 12, 2012 in 09, 10, 11, 12, 17, 2, 27, 28, 29, 2b, 3, 30, 31, 9, 99, a, acoustic, after, Again, age, aka, Alive, all, Also, am, American, an, and, Are, around, as, at, awareness, ban, band, Bass, beach, bite, blue, Bluegrass, blues, book, Bowie, Burn, but, by, ca, can, cat, cats, center, close, Col., color, comes, cream, Crowd, dance, dancing, David, Day, dead, didn't, does, dog, down, Edit, en, end, eq, Eve, expo, fall, FEAT, fee, festival, fi, final, fire, First, FOR, Free, Friend, From, Funk, gain, George, get, gin, give, Good, Grape, grateful, great, Groove, ground, guide, Guitar, Gus, hampton, hd, hi, high, home, How, ice, in, into, intro, is, IT, jam, jam band, jamaica, jazz, John, Joy, Jr, key, Keyboard, kids, King, know, las, Last, late, Laugh, Led, lesson, let, life, light, lights, Like, live, long, love, lz, MA, machine, Made, Main, makeup, marathon, mash, mass, MI, midnight, miles, mod, moon, mouth, Much, Music, My, Nat, nate, nc, New, News, night, NJ, no, nothing, NV, ny, of, on, one, op, Open, organ, out, PA, Part, party, Paul, Phish, photos, picking, play, player, Pop, Pot, pro, Pt, rad, rage, rare, RCA, read, relief, return, rock, room, row, rs, run, Sand, Say, SC, sci, set, shield, show, Sky, Smoke, So, Something, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, St, stage, stars, start, Steam, steve, story, super, tab, talk, Taste, That, the, theatre, Thursday, times, to, Too, track, two, us, va, van, WA, Walk, war, water, Way, ways, we, Wednesday, Ween, with, words, You, Your |
Words by: Dennis Cook
More photos from Wednesday and Thursday coming tomorrow!
Wednesday was a day no one wanted to end. As the main action died down, a strange gravity pulled many towards the Jam Room and the informal picking party just outside on the deck that’s come to be known as “The Spot” since it began last year when Nathan Moore joined the Jam Cruise family. While a ragin’ range of high energy music prevailed in the Jam Room more on that in a minute Moore, Greensky Bluegrass‘ mandolinist Paul Hoffman and a rotating cast of pros and passengers sat on the deck, pulled tunes, often delivered with a sloppy, one-toke-over-the-line bravura, from the ether, many Moore originals that uniformly charmed ears new and old, but also ditties from the Great American Songbook (“Fly Me To The Moon,” “Salty Dog,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”). Makeshift rhythm devices, acoustic guitars, kazoos and more added their homespun charm as folks talked softly, laughed loudly or sat quietly in a close circle with the musicians, a feeling so happy and natural and unspeakably beautiful washing over us as the MSC Poesia stirred up white water en route to Falmouth, Jamaica.
 George Porter Jr. by Brad Hodge |
Inside, an undulating, revitalizing groove that began at midnight was going strong as 6 am approached, a living thing spun into being by gutbucket sage Col. Bruce Hampton, who long ago had turned in for the night, safe in the knowledge that potent torchbearers like George Porter Jr. would carry on the breathing, cavorting history lesson he’d started. For anyone who may have thought this jam thing was a relatively recent thing, this ever-shifting room of seasoned vets and excited, promising newcomers threw lines back to jump blues, hot jazz, backwater blues, and the initial 60s rise of contemporary rock. In its early stages, the Colonel guided and coaxed a group of ultra pros that included Brad Houser, a good chunk of the Runnin’ Pardners, and RRE’s Tim Carbone, who showed off his Sugarcane Harris side standing shoulder to shoulder with a constantly fluctuating horn section featuring Jessica Lurie (a powerhouse superb additive all week in her artist-at-large role) and loads of unfamiliar faces that played so damn well it made one want to track them down to find out their story. The launch pad sequence for this seven hour marathon offered us an assortment only the wired-different-than-the-rest Colonel could come up with dotted by spontaneous interjections by the players. Cream’s “Glad” was inter-cut with a bit of Creedence’s “Fortunate Son,” which then led into “Smokestack Lightning” mingled with Sun Ra’s “Rocket No. 9″ and “Space Is The Place” (which had a roomful of folks pointing skyward and pondering the planets). Only the Colonel seemed to know the “Compared To What” he got started but after a tiny meander something essential and right about these unrehearsed convocations things banged into place again as Hampton introduced George Porter Jr. with, “The King has arrived.” His majesty then interpolated improvised lines about Jam Cruise, “Caledonia, Sly’s “Dance To The Music” and a teeny weeny bit of love. The sound was massive and gracious and full of surprises to their fellow musicians, many of whom whispered their new regard after a segment ended AND then introduced themselves. This history lesson with a fast pulse would later morph into the more traditional funk and soul based Jam Room vibe, though spiced up by new Cruiser Brad Barr, who left a ton of stunned new fans in his wake, a true original on guitar that made a strong impression last night, including a guest spot with the Dead Kenny Gs.
 Jam Cruisers by Brad Hodge |
These two spaces – “The Spot” and the Jam Room were an encapsulation of why this experience is different than any other festival. Cruising the high seas, well fed, and blessed with one of the greatest pools of talent on God’s green earth, this bit of shipboard geography was an endless stream of one-time-only moments, music dancing in recombinant splendor, mash-ups of players that will never happen again. While a tiny amount of premeditation informs the early stages of the Jam Room and “The Spot” – a cover considered, a pairing or two conjectured what actually happens cannot be planned. Better still, it is driven by a love of music and playing it for people eager to hear it. Nothing else is behind what one encounters, and divorced from the omnipresent commercial nature of most contemporary music, one comes face-to-face with a pure thing, hearts and spirits let fly in the open air, the musicians unafraid to be so exposed at least after getting their toes in the warm water and reconnected with what stirred them to pick up an instrument or let voice fly in the first place. And we lucky co-conspirators, too, find our own appreciation for all of music’s potentials and purposes is reawakened and prompted to soft shoe giddily amongst the notes. It made one happy to be alive, and happy beyond words that this experience exists at all – this vessel of adventure, generator of tales, builder of bonds, lifter of spirits.
All this high-minded reverie was preceded by a toes in the sand beach party with Zach Deputy and Toubab Krewe and relief efforts and charitable outreach in Haiti. Even though the ports are mostly pure cruise ship culture where passengers are regarded as friendly ATM machines, Jam Cruise’s organizers make a real effort to do some good for places we visit, acknowledging that the bounteous blessings we possess on board are not the reality for most of the world. It speaks to the extremes of care and love that hover over this journey like holy spirits.
 Jam Cruisers by Brad Hodge |
Come nightfall, steaming over wobbly seas, the tribe adorned themselves in every manner of green one could imagine for this evening’s Go Green theme. Emerald haired Oompa Loompas boogied with giant bunches of grapes with human beings inside them, and one was struck by how normal this manner of free-form play becomes after three days of nothing else. One doesn’t even blink as Sasquatch or Popeye and Olive Oil shimmy by, and the longer one does this the more one feels compelled to add their own beneficent madness, a hopping cavalcade of non sequiturs that makes the world larger and more colorful. It’s a visible sign of the way many, if not most, attending Jam Cruise tap into wells of childlike wonder, a readiness for amusement and adventure that the working week lives we left ashore simply cannot allow.
Cover tunes are a huge part of the musical makeup of Jam Cruise a common watering hole for the musicians to gather around that’s valuable given the spontaneity of so many pairings – and yesterday was especially satisfying example of this aspect. Amongst the standouts was the closing section of The Omega Moos‘ set, where John Oates joined The New Deal‘s Darren Shearer and Jamie Shields and Umphrey’s McGee‘s Brendan Bayliss and Ryan Stasik for their 80s pop celebration. Cynicism was set aside as a packed pool deck sang-along to “Maneater,” “Out of Touch,” and “I Can’t Go For That” with non-ironic gusto. Oates thanked us during his sit-in and said he was having one of the times of his life. Even superstars recognize this isn’t like anything else they’ve ever been involved in.
Late night, Perpetual Groove showed off future forward momentum with one of the most sonically fascinating and interesting sets of the cruise so far. Where PGroove seems to be headed
with the recent return of keyboardist Matt McDonald is a darker place, and for my own tastes, it’s a positive move, making the band seem not only contemporary but highlighting the visionary tendencies of this group that’s way more than a “jam band,” a dumb soundbite that ignores what strong songwriting and modern rock awareness this band has always possessed. A thick, growling cover of the David Bowie/Trent Reznor dark horse “I’m Afraid of Americans” early in the set reminded one how much deeper into the collective song bag Brock Butler and his mates dig, and many of the instrumental sections of the set reflected a denser atmosphere than the Pgroove of old, who ultimately surfaced in the final numbers asking “Where Are Your Friends Tonight?” (a perfect marriage of place and song) and pouring us a shot of sweet oblivious cheer before sending us out into the night. I may be wrong about where this band wants to go, and moreover, it may not be where some core fans want them to go, but my instincts say that if they pull off this evolution we’re in for the best music yet from them.
 Jam Cruisers by Brad Hodge |
The crowning glory for cover tunes has to go to Soulive, whose theatre set included a centerpiece, trio-only Beatles section that was unbelievably good. In ever single instance, Eric Krasno, Neal and Alan Evans offered tasty, insightful and downright original new spins on “Come Together,” “Something,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” respecting the original melodies just enough for easy recognition but presenting us with takes that made the tunes seem new. For all the funk and soul-jazz grounded music on Jam Cruise this year (and every year), Soulive was the strongest, coolest set of it I’ve seen this year. Every note these cats laid down was worth one’s attention, and that didn’t change even when they integrated The Shady Horns, who clearly vibed off the indestructible flow at work – a feeling that existed in both the fast paced ragers and the quiet interludes they were brave enough to include in an environment that loves its shock ‘n’ awe. Personally, it was the keyboard sublimity of Neal Evans that left me most floored with his ability to lay down THE illest bass lines and paint with such expressive color simultaneously. Take note, Soulive is on fire right now, kids.
Some of the most powerful emotions conjured up this night happened on the pool deck with 7 Walkers, who served up a healthier share than usual dose of the Grateful Dead material that was clearly hungered for by the massive crowd. A tear-stirring guest turn by Papa Mali‘s son Miles, some of the most animated Steve Kimock playing I’ve ever witnessed, and a set closing “Eyes of the World” that made one feel they might just be the song that the morning sings were but a few of the highlights.
It was a day no here could have expected and won’t likely ever be forgotten. Magic – a word I use with real caution – of this kind is rare indeed, and one shuffled off at day’s end feeling grateful and slightly stuffed with joy, weary for all the right reasons and ready for the next chapter with barely contained anticipation.
Tags: cream, crowd, david, dead, lesson, miles, party, Phish