Phish – Darien Jam #1

I was just thinking that the first set of this show (200-09-14) was pretty lackluster for a Live Phish release (#3), outside of an interesting Reba. This is a historic-level jam out of Suzy, though

Download

Two-fer

moe. has always rocked Atlanta, even long before they graduated to the Tabernacle. This Buster takes a while to get going but the middle is smoking:

Buster

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In other news, it’s no secret that I love special guests, superjams, and other impromptu collaborations. Here’s a tasty cherce from The Jammy’s 2008, I mean, look at that freaking lineup! That’s a Murderer’s Row:

The HeadCount All Stars (bass Marc Brownstein, guitar Jon Gutwillig (Disco Biscuits) keyboards Kyle Hollingsworth (The String Cheese Incident), guitar Jake Cinninger (Umphrey’s McGee), Drummer Sir Joe Russo (The Duo) — Run Like an Antelope

moe. 1998-10-24 Rebubula> Time Is Free Jam> Rebubula

Ripping Rebub from when time period when moe. shows first begin to get listenable (though there are a few choice bits from even earlier years). I started to talk myself into the midsection-jam being “Gil’s Theme”, then I decided it was a Grateful Dead jam, though I couldn’t remember the name. After a little research, turns out that what I was thinking was Mind Left Body Jam, but what this probably is is a Time Is Free Jam.

Anyway, listening to early shows from bands like moe., phish, etc., is always a mixed bag. The audio quality is worse, the band’s chops just aren’t as developed, and the vocals are often harsh. But the youthful energy can often overcome all these deficits, and that’s the case here. Find yourself a free half hour and give it a listen.

moe1998-10-24-t14-mp3

In Defense of Type I Jamming

This seemed a lot more profound when I was driving to work last week and thought of it. But this draft isn’t going to get any better, so I’m posting it.

I think some of us don’t give great type I jamming enough credit. Type I jamming is referential–when listening to a jamband, the fan is constantly comparing each note being played to every prior version they can remember. To the uninitiated, there’s no difference between type I and type II jamming, because they don’t know the songs well enough to do this comparison and think “oh, they’re doing something different with this section” or “whoa, this is something entirely new.” See 2009-06-14 AC/DC Bag for an example of great Type I full band improvisation.

I know when I was really into Pgroove, I kept asking for them to start exploring type II jams. In retrospect, the spacier they got the less I enjoyed the shows. I really miss the tight, focused sound of their Last Call days. Sometimes the middle ground between Bela Fleck and the Flecktones’ “every note of this song will be the same tomorrow” and Phish at their spaciest is sweet. Pgroove used to inhabit the happy middle, so did AOD, so does DMB, in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when Phish spontaneously plucks a bit of joy out of the ether, but you’ve got to endure a lot of bad with the good to get there. I’m not always down for that.

Backwards Down the Number Line is the new Down with Disease

Phish 6/19/2009 -Backwards Down the Number Line- opener

Discuss.

The Grateful Dead – The Eleven (1969-02-27)

Furious jamming:

The Grateful Dead – The Eleven (1969-02-27)

I heard this on The Garcia Discs, but it’s also available on The Fillmore West: Complete Recordings.

The Grateful Dead are, of course, the archetypal jamband. They were capable of alternating fiery, thunderous improvisation and spine tingling, captivatingly sweet melodies. They also were susceptible to drug-addled, endless noodling without substance, throw away short tunes, or just generally sloppiness. So they periodically fall in and out of my playlists.

One of the very interesting things about The Dead is the degree to which their sound fluctuated over the course of three decades of touring. ’69 Dead vs. ’72 Dead can sound wildly different, let alone 80’s or 90’s shows. On the whole this is a good thing, since you can picks tracks/shows from different eras to match the style you’re looking.