05/12/09 Chris Barron, John Popper, Mike Gordon & Joe Russo @ National Underground, New York NY

Acting on an tip from Phantasy Tour, I hightailed it to the Lower East Side and walked in just in time to see Joe Russo and Mike Gordon jam with Chris Barron of 1990s downtown jam darlings The Spin Doctors. Later on, John Popper of fellow radio-friendly jammers Blues Traveler sat in on the Doctors' ubiquitous "Two Princes." Not bad for a Tuesday night.

03/19/08 Scotty Hard Benefit @ Highline Ballroom, New York, NY

The early months of 2008 turned out to be quite fertile in terms of epic concert events. Just a couple months after a "best show ever" contender, came this viable canidate.

This was a benefit for a prolific producer who happened to have worked with nearly all of my favorite local musicians, so the night featured the creme de la creme of New York City's venerable jazz and jam scene.

The night was a bit of a blur, with the stand outs being Bill Laswells dirty dub bass bombs and Antibalas' high energy late night set to a nearly empty venue.

Various ensembles throughout the evening featured permutations of NYC luminaries like MMW, Soulive, Sex Mob and the Benevento/Russo Duo.

Jazz licks by John Scofield and Vijay Iyer punctuated the jams.

There was even a bit of indie thrown in the mix.

All in all, it was a stirring testament to the cameraderie, vitality, and abundant talent of NYC's always stellar music scene.

12/31/07 The Join w/Marco Benevento & Joe Russo @ Highline Ballroom, New York, NY

I almost skipped this show and I wish I had.

With the combination of the Benevento/Russo Duo and two thirds of The New Deal, this should have been a great show, but it had so many factors going against it. This incarnation of The Join was unfortuantely lesser than the sum of its parts. I guess their styles just did not mesh.

To add insult to inury, tickets were pretty expensive, which is to be expected on New Year's Eve in New York City, but still a con. We arrived late and missed the first set, which was our fault, but still on the list. Finally, the show ended at 12:30 on the dot, way too early for a New Year's Eve show. At least there was a nice balloon drop at midnight.

Despite all that, the night managed to be one for the books, thanks almost entirely to the events that transpired after this debacle of a show.

01/12/07 Joe Russo, Erik Deutsch, Jonathan Goldberger @ Tonic, New York, NY

Nearly recovered from mono, I caught one of my favorite NYC drummers at one of my favorite NYC venues in a barely belated birthday celebration.

08/28/06 Bustle In Your Hedgerow @ Temptress ROCC, New York, NY

One of my best friends from back in Rockland got married, so I took her and her husband on a Rocks Off cruise. They just made it before the boat left the dock.

BIYH is a Led Zeppelin cover band consisting of the Benevento/Russo Duo, Scott Metzger of Rana and Dave Dreiwetz of Ween.

My friends enjoyed the cruise, but wished there were vocals.

07/01/06 Phil Lesh & Friends/GRAB @ PNC Bank Arts Center, Homdel, NJ

Phil Lesh & Friends
Set 1: Jam> Truckin'> Cumberland Blues1 > Big River1 > Stagger Lee, Sugaree2
Set 2 : Playing In The Band> Eyes Of The World> Magnolia Mountain > Turn On Your Lovelight, Help On The Way> Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower3
Encore: Donor Rap/Intros, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad3
1with Mike Gordon (electric banjo)
2no Osby
3with Trey Anastasio (guitar, vocals)
Band: Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), John Molo (drums), Rob Barraco (keys), Greg Osby (sax), Joan Osborne (vocals), Barry Sless (pedal steel), Larry Campbell (guitar, fiddle, mando+)

GRAB
Set 1: Plasma, Drifting, Mud City, Trouble, Goodbye Head > Sleep Again, Get Back (The Beatles), Shine, Suskind Hotel, Coming Up Roses (Elliot Smith), Host Across The Potomac > Mr. Completely > Dragonfly, Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin)
Encore: Tuesday

This was a rare occasion when I was able to convince my friend to drive out to Jersey for a show.

Sadly, I remember very little of what went down due to another friend providing some Klonopin. If you ever want to not remember a show, take benzos.

From what I can recall, Trey and Mike with the Benevento Russo Duo was decidedly lesser than the sum of its parts. No Phish. Very little Duo. Mike and the Duo would've been much better. Later we would learn that Trey was on quite a bit of pills himself during this interstitial period.

I vaguely recall falling asleep on the lawn during Help>Slip>Frank and I have no recollection of any sit-ins.

10/23/05 Brian Haas & Friends @ Blue Note, New York, NY

10/23/05, The Blue Note, New York, NY
Brian Haas, Jason Fratecelli & Mark Southerland
Davey's Purple Power Line1, The Spark that Bled1, I Mean You1, Monks Mood2, Peace, Epistrophy3, Dino Perucci Birthday Improv3, Rhythm-a-Ning34
1 Haas solo
2 w/Southerland
3 w/M.Benevento, J.Russo, J.Tomsovic
4 w/Becky tease

This was one in series of Blue Note Late Night Groove Series shows I hit up in late 2005. I guess the post-jam scene of the day was intersecting squarely with the illegitimate stepchildren of the early 1990s NYC downtown jazz scene or something.

The groove ruled early on in the late night show with smooth piano jazz licks, but the Benevento Russo Duo came in halfway and stepped it up a notch, certainly not the first or last time those two have taken an already enjoyable musical affair to the next level.

I think it may have been my first time at this legendary jazz haunt, and I snagged a seat right in front of the stage.

WATCH VIDEO HERE!

09/13/05 Disco Biscuits/Sir Joe Russo's Flying Circus/Danjaboots @ Spirit, New York, NY

09/13/05 Spirit Nightclub, New York, NY
Hurricane Katrina Relief Concert
Set I: Voices Insane1, Little Shimmy In A Conga Line1, Svenghali1 2, Confrontation2, Three Wishes2, Helicopters2
Encore: Bazaar Escape1
1 with Mike Greenfield on drums
2 with Joe Russo on drums

The Disco Biscuits were in a period of turmoil in 2005. This seems to be the case more often than not with the group, but it was especially true in the fall of 2005. Their drummer, Sammy "The Professor" Altman, had played his last gigs with the band at the annual festival, Camp Bisco, and a replacement had not yet been named.

Despite their uncertain future, after the devastating destruction of Hurricaine Katrina, The Disco Biscuits sprang to action and put together a benefit concert on short notice, abetted by some friends from the jam community.

I think the show was announced the day before. I was pretty low on funds, but I figured it was a worthy cause. As it turned out, I ended up with a free ticket from some friends I ran into outside. I still wanted to contribute, so I bought some raffle tickets.

Scotty "Boom Boom" Metzger and Sir Joe Russo opened the night with their short-lived acoustic guitar country duo Danjaboots. There were covers of Ween and Bob Dylan and a rather profane ode to big record companies.

Another Russo/Metzger collab was next, this one dubbed Flying Circus and featuring the musicians on their regular instruments, drums and electric guitar respectively. They were augmented by Aron and Marc of the Biscuits and Kevin Kendricks on the 1's and 2's. The music tended towards the electronic improv of Biscuits' side project, Electron. The highlight was a tease of Phish's "Maze," appropriate since their unofficial fifth member, Chris "CK5" Kuroda, was running the lights for the evening.

Finally the Disco Biscuits took the stage for a set augmented by The Ally's Mike Greenfield and the omnipresent Russo. The set looks nice on paper in retrospect, but I remember very little of it. It was fun watching from the second floor lounge overlooking the dance floor and stage area.

It's always nice to catch a line-up of this magnitude at a relatively small venue on such short notice.

One thing that sticks out is the "Smoking Allowed" signs in the back of the club, a relic of a bygone era now, as smoking would be officially banned from all NYC clubs by the end of that year.

04/26/05 Umphrey's McGee @ BB King's Blues Club, New York, NY

04/26/05 B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York, NY
Official Post-Jammy's Show
Set I: Jazz Odyssey> In the Kitchen, Push the Pig, Resolution1, Soul Food I2, Bad Is Bad2 3, Heart and Soul2, Believe the Lie, Glory, The Bottom Half, Women Wine and Song> Hurt Bird Bath> Jam4> Jam4 5> Jam4 5> Hurt Bird Bath
Set II: Making Flippy Floppy> Jam6, Pay the Snucka, Miss Tinkle's Overture7, Thin Air, Bright Lights
Encore: Plunger
1 with Hysteria tease
2 with Huey Lewis on harmonica and vocals
3 first time played (Huey Lewis and the News)
4 with Aron Magner with Joel on keys and Marc Brownstein replacing Ryan on bass
5 with Joe Russo replacing Kris on drums
6 "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" jam; with Nellie McKay on vocals
7 with Thunderstruck jam

This was an official after party for the Jammys, which is the jam scene's take on the Grammys, with a heavy focus on pairing musicians haphazardly with often captivating results.

As such, there were many guests in the house.

The higlights were Huey Lewis jamming on a few tunes, some Biscuits and Joe Russo jamming on another and some of my favorite Umphrey's originals: "In the Kitchen," "Women Wine and Song," "Miss Tinkle's Overture," "Bright Lights" and "Plunger."

There was also a Talking Heads cover and a peculiar vocal take on "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" by Nellie McKay.

All in all, it was a very jammy affair.

01/01/05 L. Cool Trio w/Mike Gordon @ Knitting Factory, New York, NY

After a uneventful New Year's Eve spent at a friend's parent's house party, this was a nice New Year's Day treat.

The original Knitting Factory on Houston was known, in conjunction with the aforementioned Tonic, as the center of downtown's early 1990s underground alternative jazz scene that spawned such vaunted cats as Medeski Martin & Wood and Steve Bernstein's various projects.

The new location expanded the pallette to include everything from punk to funk, often simultaneously held in any of the venue's three separate performance spaces.

I believe this may have been my first time at the club.

The line-up was a supergroup of sorts comprised of Mark Brownstein of the Disco Biscuits on bass, Jamie Shields of The New Deal on keys and Joe Russo of Benevento Russo Duo on drums. These were (and still are) some of my favorite musicians from some of my favorite bands.

The vibe in the crowd was fairly laid back, fully understandable for the night after the biggest party night of the year.

We secured a spot in the balcony and danced our way through the improvised electronic grooves that the trio laid down in the first set.

At the start of the second set, a familiar face emerged on stage.

It was none other than Mike Gordon, bassist for recently disbanded Phish, who just happened to live in an apartment above the club.

Since Brownie was already holding down the low end, Cactus tried his hand at guitar, capably strumming along to the L. Cool concoctions for the duration of the show.