Columns

That it’s been a heady year for John Kadlecik is a safe bet: it’s not often that your main band consistently knocks it out of the park, you get a chance to play in a brand new ensemble with the heroes that inspired that main band, and well, you court a little controversy along the way.

[All photos by Adam Kaufman]

Earlier this year, Kadlecik was invited to take part in a new Phil Lesh/Bob Weir project called Furthur, that combined Kadlecik — long having “played Jerry” in the ever-resilient Dark Star Orchestra — with Lesh, Weir, Ratdog’s Jay Lane and Jeff Chimenti, and the Joe half of the Benevento/Russo Duo. By all accounts — listen to the boots — Furthur’s inaugural run at the Fox Theater in Oakland in September was a barn burner, and the band has more shows coming up, including five northeast dates in early December and a pair of New Year’s soirees back out West.

And that’s a little bit of where the controversy starts — and where we freely admit we’re a little guilty of stoking it. With Kadlecik giving more of his time to Furthur, Dark Star has had to move forward, and has recruited Zen Tricksters stalwart Jeff Mattson to spell Kadlecik for many of DSO’s remaining 2009 dates. There’s nothing to suggest the members of DSO don’t support Kadlecik’s decisions — they held back on announcing Mattson while Furthur finalized its end of year plans, for example — but it’s clear Kadlecik and the band face a number of tough decisions ahead. Decisions that may have been made already, that is, even if no one’s talking about them.

READ ON for our chat with John Kadlecik of the Dark Star Orchestra…

With the MSC Poesia scheduled to set sail from Fort Lauderdale two months from today, there’s been plenty of news about Jam Cruise 8 to share. First off, the schedule

Umphrey’s, the little band that could from the Midwest, is still out 100 plus days a year throwing rock shows peppered with excellent covers and chops galore. This is how

Mule and Phish weren’t the only bands performing on Halloween as there was plenty of action all over the country from our favorite bands. We’ll have extended takes on most of these shows over the next few days, but for now let’s take a look at what went down on October 31st…

Umphrey’s McGee

Day of the Dead IV, Las Tortugas

Set I: JaJunk* > 2 × 2 > Q*bert > 2 × 2, Cemetery Walk, Padgett’s Profile**, Cemetery Walk (part II), Sweet Sunglasses#

Set II: Jazz Odyssey > Nothing Too Fancy > Hangover > Night Gambler## > Nothing Too Fancy, FF > Professor Wormbog^ > JaJunk, Mulche’s Odyssey, Land of Wappy^^

Enc: 40’s Theme, Nemo’s Fat Bottomed Good Times%

Notes: * With “Smooth Criminal” (Michael Jackson) and “Heartbreaker” (Led Zeppelin) teases. ** With “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” (Michael Jackson) tease. # Mash-up of “Sweet Dreams” (Eurythmics), “Sunglasses at Night” (Corey Hart), and “Electric Feel” (MGMT). ## Mash-up of “The Gambler” (Kenny Rogers), “Night Fever” (The Bee Gees), and “Rapper’s Delight” (Sugarhill Gang). ^ With Bill Kreutzman on drums. ^^ Mash-up of “Wappy Sprayberry,” “Land of Confusion” (Genesis), and “Seek and Destroy” (Metallica). % Mash-up of “Nemo,” “Fat Bottomed Girls” (Queen), and “Good Times, Bad Times” (Led Zeppelin).

Source: Umphreys.com via Jambands.com Box Scores

Umphrey’s continued what’s becoming an annual tradition by mashing up some of their originals and their favorite covers in innovative ways at the Dance of the Dead IV festival in Las Tortugas – Groveland, CA. Besides mashing up such tunes as Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler with The Bee Gees’ Night Fever and The Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight, the band also welcomed Bill Kreutzmann of The Dead to sit in on Professor Wormbog.

We can’t wait for video and audio to surface.

READ ON for a quick look at a few other band’s Halloween shows…

One of the more intriguing jams of the weekend at Phish’s Festival 8 came out of the title track from 2004’s Undermind. Take a look… Phish – Undermind (live @

If we remember nothing else about Halloween 2009, maybe we’ll at least recall it was the night that two of the world’s marquee jambands both turned in ace renditions of the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street obscurity Ventilator Blues. Stranger things have happened, right? Right? Bueller?

[All Photos by Heath Robson from Mule.Net]

On a smaller scale than some marginal little festival happening out West, Gov’t Mule brought the Mick and Keef goods to Philly on All Hallow’s Eve, playing an oddly selected, strangely paced and yet remarkably satisfying set of Stones material. Would love to have been in on these planning meetings: 14 Stones songs, many well-known, several obscure, from a wide-but-not-too-wide swath of Stones albums, and all but two of those songs in the first-time-played designation, with no attention paid to several Stones covers (Sympathy for the Devil, Dead Flowers, 2000 Light Years From Home, Let’s Spend the Night Together) that the Mule’s had success with in the past. So be it, dudes.

It had the makings of formless hodgepodge, but for all the era-shuffling and seeming randomness of the selections, it felt like a buoyant Mule set: heavy with blues and slippery slide but hardly tied to those things, and for the most part, rollickingly good rock ‘n’ roll with occasionally great spots of brilliant havoc (a rampaging Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’, a pummeling Monkey Man and an out-of-left field Slave) and tender interlude (Angie, Wild Horses). There was balls-out hilarity, as well: at one point, Danny Louis grabbed Jorgen Carlsson’s bass, Carlsson replaced Matt Abts on the kit, and the band launched into Shattered — with Abts running out to center stage and proceeding to sing/shout his ass off, complete with patented Jagger peacock strut. READ ON for more from Chad on Mule-O-Ween…