Could you recommend some good - i.e., musically talented - jam bands?

BartonFink — Sun, 11 May 2008 11:42:54 -0800

Could you recommend some good - i.e., musically talented - jam bands? And some specific recordings to get my feet (ears?) wet? Some caveats: I love the Allman Brothers, and cut my teeth to the Live at Fillmore East record back in '71.

I never cared for the Dead.

What I'm looking for is bands that improvise during their live performances, stretching their recorded work to new heights of musical inspiration. I have no problem with self-indulgence and excess when it comes to soloing.

Well, that's just, like, your OPINION, man.

scrump — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:47:19 -0800

Help me appreciate the artistic talents of jam bands. I am on a crusade to try to find merit in jam bands like the Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, The String Cheese Incident, etc. I've always more or less out of habit derided this brand of music as noodling, and this is unfair.

(In my defense, the cultural baggage of the Dead and Phish, in particular, contributed to this opinion: you can only take so many repetitions of "dude, they're awesome musicians" from someone so baked they're practically a strudel before you start getting a little tetchy.)

So, I want to find merit in these bands. On the other hand, I really don't have the free time or the exhaustion threshold to trawl through the entire catalog of various jam bands looking for diamonds (plus, I'd like to not hate this genre), and I'm more or less certain that there are authorities who read AskMe. So hope me, lazyweb!

What are the moments of artistic glory that best represent the musicianship of these bands? Video/audio is preferred, of course, but even more awesome would be video or audio with a jonmc-style explanation of what makes the particular moment(s) you're highlighting notable.

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Could you recommend some good - i.e., musically talented - jam bands?

Well, that's just, like, your OPINION, man.