02/07/09 Soulive @ The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY

Seeing a favorite band in a smaller, brand new venue is always a treat. This night started at a friends' Park Slope apartment and took an adventurous turn to local funk ensemble HeyLady's practice space for a drunk and disorderly jam session after party. LISTEN HERE!

09/05/08 Soulive/Lettuce @ Highline Ballroom, New York, NY

This late summer throwdown featured two of my favorite modern funk jambands, with enough shared members and collaborators so as to be neatly interchangeable. Throw in the Shady Horns and it's always a dance party.

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.

09/??/07 Soulive @ Temptress ROCC, New York, NY

This Concert Cruise was my first time witnessing the unimpressive pairing of the trio with the vocalist Toussaint, who would later briefly join the group.

On the bright side, the underrated underground emcee Breez Evahflowin joined in for some freestyling. Also, there was a Zeppelin cover.

04/21/06 Toots & The Maytals/Soulive @ Nokia Theatre, New York, NY

This was a stellar pairing of my favorite jazz funk trio and one of the founding fathers of reggae, who actually coined the term in his 1968 single, "Do the Reggay."

Soulive's set was highlighted by the predictable, yet effective Zeppelin cover and voice box "California" jam. "New York city knows how to party!"

06/24/05 Soulive/Antibalas @ Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn, NY

This was my second free show at Proscpect park in the span of a week.

Antibalas carries the Afrobeat torch of Fela Kuti; they're even the house band for the current musical about Fela. Their brass-laden afrobeat jams, like Fela's, have a decidedly political slant, which fit in well with the disillusionment a lot of the country was beginning to feel towards the ineptitude of the Bush administration. The highlight was "Indictment" which called out every guilty politician for crimes against humanity followed by a burst of brass and the rallying cry, "INDICTMENT!"

Soulive delivered the best performance I've seen them play. I was raging up front solo. A middle-aged gentleman passed me a joint. Kras melted my face with Hendrix licks. Neil laid down some nasty organ and Alan held down the groove. They closed with a scorching rendition of the Jimi Hendrix classic "Crosstown Traffic."

03/31/05 Fantastic Four @ Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY

For the first quarter of 2005, I was busy saving money to move to the city and commuting to Queens College from Rockland, so I didn't see much live music. The relatively low number of shows must have been the reason why the few shows I did see in the early part of the year were all super groups comprised of the best elements of my favorite regular groups.

This was the first show I saw after I moved to an apartment in Flushing, Queens. The proximity of my place to the Long island Expressway made it easy to drive to shows all over the five boroughs, but for my first musical experience as a resident of New York City, I chose a fairly far flung locale - Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The band featured Soulive's Eric Krasno on guitar, man about town Cheme Gastelum on sax, drum wunderkind Adam Deitch and organ grinder Robert Walter.

The venue is one of the nicer ones in the city, even though I haven't returned since.

The show was a predictable mix of exhilirating exploratory funk jams. The second set opened with Kras on bass for a few tunes.

On the way home, I got hopelessly lost in South Brooklyn for nearly two hours.

07/30/04 Soulive w/Supernatural @ Tribeca Rock Club, New York, NY

This was my first time seeing Soulive in a club setting. They were one of my favorite band at the time and this was a smaller club than they normally played - the now defunct Tribeca Rock Club.

They played a two night stand and sold "Instant Live" CDs of the show. Of course, this being way back in 2004, I didn't receive the discs until a few weeks after the fact.

The show was sold out by the time we got there, but we were able to catch the second set.

The most memorable part of the show was when Supernatural came out for some freestyling and "Tabasco." For some reason, the crowd was not especially receptive to the hip hop element and he heard some scattered boos. When I listened to the tape, I could hear my friend yelling that "They don't understand."

06/11-13/04 Bonnaroo @ Manchester, TN

Dave Matthews & Friends
06/11/04 (Fri) Bonnaroo Music Festival @ Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN
Set 1: Dodo, Trouble, Up and Away, Solsbury Hill, Stay Or Leave, Save Me, Oh, Up On Cripple Creek, Some Devil, Dancing Nancies, Thing, Tell Me Something Good, Grave Digger, Grey Blue Eyes, So Damn Lucky, Too High, Fire, Hey Bulldog
E: Waste, Everyday, Bathtub Gin, Drums and Bass jam
Lineup: Dave Matthews and Friends: Dave Matthews, Trey Anastasio, Brady Blade, Tony Hall, Ray Paczkowski and Tim Reynolds

Bob Dylan
06/11/04 (Fri) Bonnaroo Music Festival @ Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN
Set 1: Down Along The Cove, Tell Me That It Isn't True, Samson & Delilah, Watching The River Flow, You Win Again, Cold Irons Bound, Sing Me Back Home, Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine), Highway 61, Pancho & Lefty, Seeing The Real You At Last, Blind Willie McTell, Honest With Me, Don't Think Twice It's Alright, Summer Days
E: Cat's In The Well, Like A Rolling Stone
Lineup: Larry Campbell - guitars, slide, pedal steel, cittern; Bob Dylan - vocals, keyboards, mouth harp; Stu Kimball - electric guitar; Tony Garnier - bass, standup bass; George Recile - drums

Umphrey's McGee
06/11/04 (Fri)
Set I: Walletsworth, Resolution> Jazz Odyssey, Wife Soup, Nothing too Fancy, Bright Lights> Jazz Odyssey> Prowler> Glory> Ocean Billy> The Triple Wide> Jam1> moe. switch1> Jam1> And Justice For All, Bridgeless, Push the Pig> March of the S.O.D.> Hurt Bird Bath, In the Kitchen, 40's Theme, Nemo, I Ran, JaJunk2
Encore: Miss Tinkle's Overture> Mulche's Odyssey
1 the members of moe. came out one-by-one and took over for Umphrey's for a "set break"; moe.'s set was Recreational Chemistry > Brent Black > Enter Sandman; Michael Travis (String Cheese Incident) was on percussion for Brent Black and Enter Sandman; for Enter Sandman, Vince Iwinski was on lead vocals, a la James Hetfield
2 with Norwegian Wood jam and My Name is Mud tease

Praxis
06/11/04 (Fri)
Set 1: Bernie Intro (pop goes the weasal > That's All > Ants go marching..), Seven Laws of Woo?, Crash Victim/Black Science Navigator, Interworld and the New Innocence > Bernie and Lili Haydn Jam, (Phase 1) Brain Laswell & Buckethead Jam, (Phase 2) Praxis Jam, (Phase 3) Drum n Bass Jam, (Phase 4) Praxis Jam
Set 2: Buckethead Breakdance solo > Herbie, Brain drum solo, Buckethead solo - Big Sur Moon > shred solo > Pure Imagination > Pirates life for me > Machine Gun, Praxis Jam > Bernie Worrell Solo, Maggot Brain ft. Lili Haydn, Drum n Bass Jam, E: Night of the Slunk, Praxis Jam > ft. Lili Haydn, Praxis Jam > ft. Lili Haydn, Praxis Jam, Praxis Jam
Lineup: Bill Laswell - Bass, Buckethead - Guitar, Brain - Drums Bernie Worrell - Keys, Lilly Hayden - Violin

Vida Blue
06/11/04 (Fri)
Set 1: Most Events Aren't Planned, Pick Up the Pieces, Ochimini, Get Ready, Who's Laughing Now, Where's Popeyes > Just Kissed My Baby, Electra Glide, Fresh Tube, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Sheep, Little Miami (Reputation), Cisco Kid, CJ3
E: Russell's Tune, Cars Trucks Buses

Galactic
06/12/04 (Sat)
Set 1: Shibuya, Never Called You Crazy, Bittersweet, The Moil, Bongo Joe, Crazyhorse Mongoose *, All Behind You Now, Heart of Steel, Bakers Dozen +, Sympathy for the Devil ^, Tiger Roll, Space Headz March, Doublewide, Whole Lotta Love
^ with J.J. Grey
+ with Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
* with Eric Krasno

The Dead
06/12/04 (Sat)
Set 1: Tennessee Jed > Good Lovin > Self Defense, The Weight, Me & Bobbie McGee, Mr Charlie > Jack Straw > Casey Jones
Set 2: St Stephen > William Tell Bridge > The Eleven > Dark Star > Shine On You Crazy Diamond > Dark Star > Drums > Space > Morning Dew, Help On the Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower > Lovelight
E1: One More Saturday Night
E2: Box Of Rain

Primus
06/12/04 (Sat)
Set 1: To Defy the Laws of Tradition, American Life, The Toys Go Winding Down, Groundhog's Day, My Friend Fats, Jerry was a Racecar Driver, Over the Electric Grapevine, De Anza Jig, Mr. Krinkle, YYZ, Those Damn Blue-Collar Tweekers, THELA HUN GINJEET, Frizzle Fry, Harold of the Rocks, Tommy the Cat

Addison Groove Project
06/13/04 (Sun)
Set 1: 11 Headed > Neo Geo > Crullers > Neo Geo > Juniper, Beantown, Love and Happiness ^, My Apartment, Have a Cigar, Reverend *
^ With Andy Moroz, Jenifer Hartswick, Dave Grippo
* with Cattle from Camper Von Beethoven on Trombone

Medeski, Martin and Wood
06/13/04 (Sun)
Set 1: Curtis > New Planet, Toy Dancing*, Down On Me*, New Planet*, Shine It > Improv > Queen Bee > Lonely Ave+
* with Cyro Baptista
+ with Robert Randolph

Trey Anastasio
06/13/04 (Sun) Bonnaroo Music Festival @ Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN
Set 1: All Things Reconsidered, Coming To, No Name, No Name, The Inlaw Josie Wales*, Another Trey Tune Unnamed+, Guyute, Flock Of Words^
Set 2: Mr. Completely > Sing a Song, Simple Twist Up Dave, Alive Again > Night Speaks To A Woman, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Curlew's Call, Sultans of Swing, Push On Til the Day, Small Axe, Last Tube, Ether Sunday, Black Dog, E: First Tube
*Trey on acoustic
+Trey on electric
^Trey on acoustic & vocals, Jennifer Hartswick on Vocals.

This was my first festival in the U.S. I owed my friend some money so I bought him a ticket to Bonnaroo instead so he'd be forced to drive us. The ticket was a little more than I owed him, so I called the remainder a birthday present, since he'd be turning 21 during the fest.

As it turned out, a Toyota Celica was not the ideal vehicle to take three guys plus gear on a 15 hour trip to central Tennessee. That doesn't even take into account the 12 hour wait to get in the festival gates.

When, we finally got in, the festival was well underway. We were completely drained and had to take in Dave Matthews & Friends and Bob Dylan from our campsite. We set up our tent and promptly fell soundly asleep for several hours.

We woke up to an incredibly stacked late night line up. In a span of a few hours we hopped from stage to stage taking in the diverse sights and sounds. We started with Umphrey's McGee and Jack Daniels. This set would become legendary and catapult UM to a modicum of jam stardom, but it was just starting, as was our night and fest.

Next, we caught the Bill Laswell's supergroup Praxis featuring P-Funk organ grinder Bernie Worrell and masked fried chicken enthusiast Buckethead, who led the group through a haunting rendition of "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

We caught the end of Chairman of the Board Page McConnell's Vida Blue project with Allman Brother Oteil Burbridge and funky Meter Russel Batiste, before getting back to Umphrey's McGee, still going hours later. They had completed a full band segue with moe. and were tearing up the Flock of Seagulls classic "I Ran." This set hooked me on UM for a while, but I never again saw them capture the energy of that late night set.

The next day we barbecued and lounged and made it to the concert area some time in the late afternoon for some footbaggery.

Galactic's set featured a crackling lightening bolt at an opportune moment in a jam and shortly thereafter the heavens opened.

We sought refuge at a Maceo Parker funk throwdown.

The rain put a damper on the rest of the night's activities. We stood in the pouring rain for hours waiting for The Dead. This was my first Dead experience with the remaining original band members.

Finally, they took the stage and burst into the sunny "Tennessee Jed" featuring the affirmation, "Ain't no place I'd rather be!"

I had to leave after second set to catch Primus, another all time favorite group, for the first time. Their set was also delayed, but thankfully there were dry seats. The stage set was simply three gigantic balloons with eerie eyeball projections. Sadly, I had little energy to fully appreciate the bass onlaught.

The next day, I caught a slew of my favorite jazzy funky groups like Soulive, Addison Groove Project and Medeski Martin and Wood.

Phish's Trey Anastasio closed out the fest with his other band, but after a long weekend of rain, sweat and tears, the Nashville Youth Orchestra was not the type of music we were looking for, so we slowly drifted into the grounds to soak up the rest of Trey's set amid distant fireworks.

Then, we had another 15 hour drive back home to digest the festivities.

Looking back at setlists, I would have loved to catch David Byrne and Ween, among others, but that's Bonnaroo.