January 5, 2010

Day Two of Jam Cruise consists of a “day at sea” which essentially means music morning, noon and night. You’d think one would get sick of so much music, but with all the creature comforts of home and a slew of the most talented musicians on the planet, you will never run out of bands to see.

[All photos by Dave Vann]

The day started with a Ryan Montbleau Band set on the Pool Deck. Montbleau and his ensemble won themselves plenty of new fans thanks to a high-energy performance that featured most of the classic songs in the band’s repertoire and a bouncy cover of Bob Marley’s Bend Down Low. Keyboardist Jason Cohen took full advantage of the stage’s Hammond B3 and Larry Scudder tore many strands on the bow he was using to play viola because he was jamming so hard.

Zach Deputy joined the Montbleau Band for a tune before rockin’ his own set on the Solar Stage which is essentially a small stage near the Pool Deck. The afternoon brought a couple of once-in-a-lifetime workshops with Robert Randolph leading the Slide Workshop and Maceo Parker fronting Sax Syntax. Who did Maceo invite to play Sax Syntax with him? How about Stanton Moore, George Porter Jr., Jeff Coffin and Karl Denson. Now there’s something you don’t see everyday.

Later in the afternoon came an amazing trifecta of Railroad Earth > Brock Butler > The Motet plays the Talking Heads. Keith Mosley of String Cheese Incident filled in admirably for bassist Johnny Grubb during Railroad Earth’s bluegrass-tinged set as Grubb played his last show with RRE on New Year’s Eve. Butler performed a heady mix of covers on acoustic including a tender The Golden Age (Beck), Fool In The Rain (Led Zeppelin) and Helpless (Neil Young). READ ON for more from Scotty on Day Two of Jam Cruise…

I’ll get my full report on Day Two of Jam Cruise 8 at 5PM, but I just wanted to tell you all about the insane OHMphrey set that took place last night.

OHMphrey rocked the pool stage from 10PM – 12:15AM and it was an amazing performance. Jake Cinninger, Joel Cummins and Kris Myers of Umphrey’s teamed up with Chris Poland (Megadeath, OHM) and Robertino “Pags” Pagliari to form OHMphrey in Jan. ’08. These guys slid from the head of one tune on their album to the next with massive jams in between. Cinninger was clearly in heaven getting to play with one of his idols (Poland.)

[All photos by Dave Vann]

There was so much communication going on between all of the members throughout and you would’ve thought Jake, Kris and Joel had been playing with Pags and Poland for years. I’d say at the first your typical Jam Cruise crowd seemed a bit freaked out by the heaviness and free-form nature of the music, but folks came around pretty quickly as they moved from light to heavy jams with ease.

Towards the end of the set, Pags stepped to the mic and delivered a Spoonful that would’ve made Jack Bruce proud. It was crazy to hear Kris play a straight blues beat. He was such a whirl of motion all set long but really laid into the straight Spoonful beat. As with every song, each member of the band took a solo in Spoonful. READ ON for more on OHMphrey…

Words: Alex Borsody

Images: Rob Chapman

Bustle In Your Hedgerow continues to win fans with their sporadic gigging since coming together in 2003. Formed off the solid core of Joe Russo and Marco Benevento, they brought in friends Dave Dreiwitz on bass and Scott Metzger on guitar to form an epic Led Zeppelin cover band. The catch is that they play the songs in a completely new way, incorporating organ funk and jazz to create unique renditions of familiar rock standards. I got a chance to check them out at Brooklyn Bowl, a venue that sits in the heart of Williamsburg, across the street from a famous street art installation.

[All photos by Rob Chapman]

The show was 21 and up, as are many of the shows at the venue featuring jazz or funk influences and the place was still full of people. Over The Hills And Far Away was one of the highlights of the first set and featured an intro with Russo on vocals. These were the only vocals of the night and segued into Benevento’s melodic organ playing followed by one of the longest jams of the first set.

The set break saw hipster liaison Marco Benevento introducing the band, saying “if there was a magazine called Jersey’s Finest we would all be on the cover every month,” referring to the band’s Garden State origins.

Ramble On has perhaps one of the most memorable and melodic bass lines of all time. It is difficult to keep the melody and rhythm in sync and it took Dave Dreiwitz a little while to find the groove to the song. To his credit trying to keep up with John Paul Jones is not easy. The song climaxed with a solo from Benevento. You Shook Me was very bluesy and saw the guitar replacing Jimmy Page’s vocals. The five minute drum solo on Moby Dick, had Russo doing his best John Bonham.

READ ON for more from Alex on Bustle In Your Hedgerow…