The Beginner’s Guide to Jam by Corey J. Feldman photos by Jared Bronze Early last August, at Limestone, Maine’s Loring Air Force Base, far and away from civilization in the northeastern-most corner of the U.S., about 70,000 people arrived with one thing in common: Phish. The now-20-year-old jam band ended their 2003 summer tour with a giant festival called “IT,” playing 12 hours of music amidst 48 hours of non-stop parties and good vibes.

For some of the festival-goers, IT started with days of traffic, so I consider myself lucky I only waited a few hours. Once camp was set up, a solid day of shopping, eating, drinking, exploring, and debauchery was at hand. We explored Shakedown Street where all the official vendors were set up: clothing, djembe drums, didgeridoos, tapestries, posters, food, drinks, and some of the most amazing glassware you’ll ever see, all for sale and all pretty cheap. There was even a booth in the center town (yes, a town was created for this festival) where professional glass blowers created pipes in front of your very eyes.

The entrance to the concert field was a thick layer of mud leftover from seven inches of rain that arrived just before the IT audience did, but it didn’t dampen the spirit of the giant neon green sign with red letters that warmly welcomed, “OUR INTENT IS ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHT.” True to their words, Phish had a team of creative minds devise the delightful “Sunken City,” a project using about 10,000 rolls of masking tape to create a city half sunk underneath a forest. There was also a light show that had to please 70,000 people, and did so with breathtaking ease.

Phish even dazzled some fans with a 2 a.m. set from the top of the air traffic control tower, which was accented by an astonishing show of lights and music in and around the tower. At one point, several men in white jumpsuits repelled off the side of the tower, hanging from ropes, dancing and pushing off the vertical walls to amuse the crowd of several thousand that had gathered.

With a total of 7 sets, they played numerous favorites including “Birds of a Feather,” “Reba,” “Lawn Boy,” “You Enjoy Myself,” “Down With Disease,” “Julius” and many more. The show ended with a fireworks extravaganza that had the crowd pushing a climactic energy to its peak. This was the first festival since Phish’s 2 year hiatus, which was officially over at the 2003 New Years Eve show at Madison Square Garden. There are very few bands (or other musical artists) today that can attract people like Phish can, and there are even fewer bands whose individual members can each attract a significant audience as well. Last Memorial Day, Phish’s singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio played with his solo project for two shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The latter of the two shows was my first true jam experience, and it had me hooked from the beginning. Trey works with a bassist, drummer, percussionist, keyboard player and a host of horns to create the fullness of his sound.

At moments during his performance he would take his guitar off and devote all his focus on improvisational conducting for the horns. The jams were windy but upbeat with Trey always in front bouncing along with the rhythm of his songs. He dipped into the Phish songbook a couple times, but I was more impressed by “Mozambique” and his version of “Sultans of Swing.” I immediately purchased his double live album “Plasma” only to learn recently that it was nominated for a Jammy award. No surprise, honestly.

Phish’s pianist/keyboardist, Page McConnell has been working with his own solo act called Vida Blue. This act was originally just a trio with a bassist and drummer, but was recently extended to include the DJ Spam Allstars who took the Vida Blue sound to a completely new level. In their most recent performance, the three original members of the band were supplemented with several percussionists, horns, a guitarist, and DJ Le Spam who spun and scratched throughout the various funky, tribal, and melodic jams. While Page and Trey seem to have similar setups for their solo acts, they really accentuate two completely different types of jams.

When you give a bassist a solo act, you could very well be asking for something…different. And that is exactly what Mike Gordon did with his first album and tour. In August, Gordon released Inside In, the spark for his fall tour (which hit Irving Plaza in October.) His band, unlike Trey’s and Page’s, featured a tap dancer and a pedal steel guitar player, along with horns and a rhythm section, creating something much different from what his other bandmates are doing. In an interview last summer, Gordon described his album as “Purple-y.. even though it had an orange-y cover.” His show was nothing short of amazing with mellow, funky songs like “Soulfood Man,” “Gatekeeper,” and “Beltless Buckler.” The show hit its peak during the encore when Gordon and his tap dancer battled rhythm for rhythm flawlessly. Adding a tap dancer never seemed so intuitive.

Jon Fishman, Phish’s drummer, played drums for the Jazz Mandolin Project, who recently opened for Vida Blue.His solo contribution seems to express more of his taste in music than anything else. The softer, jazzier sound of the JMP speaks to Fishman’s more recent drum work on Phish’s album Round Room, which many fans found to be a little less aggressive than some of their past albums.

Of course, there are plenty of others contributing greatly to the jam scene that aren’t Trey, Page, Mike or Jon. For those who don’t know about moe., you should download the songs “32 Things” and “Nebraska” right away. This band makes the most out of every battling solo between their two guitarists, Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey. Even without a pianist, their sound often ventures into melodic heaven, with flawless harmonized guitar riffs all over their pseudo-bluegrass and funk jam grooves.

Umphrey’s McGee is probably the most underrated jam band out there. They’re a relatively new addition to the scene, coming out of Chicago as early as four years ago. Umphrey’s brings together the sounds that Phish and moe. have managed to achieve by jamming with two unbelievable guitarists, a creative keyboardist, a funky bassist, and rock-solid percussion. The band picks great covers (I’ve heard Pink Floyd and the Beatles), and their melodic changes give each musician their time in the sun. All of the guitar harmony, all of the funk, all of those crazy synth sounds you know a keyboardist is capable of, and the complicated yet driving beats you know the best drummers can muster. Their jams range from metal to funk, from free-style to jazz. All I know is that the show I saw in November took up 2.5 CD’s worth of space, and I listened to them each about 50 times. I’d never done that before, and probably never will again. Seeing what this band has created since 2000 makes me wonder where they’ll be in five years, and they’re certainly not getting smaller.

Robert Randolph is the premiere pedal-steel guitar player in today’s jam scene. He plays with the Family Band (a keyboardist, a bassist, and a drummer), and his show is just like a huge party on stage and off. He loves to bring guests up at his shows: musicians, friends, family members, and all the female fans that the stage can comfortably fit. When I went to see him play for a packed Roseland Ballroom in November, one of my friends, this cute, curly blonde girl, ended up being the first of about three dozen girls dancing on stage with him as he ripped on his pedal-steel, making emotion-filled expressions on his face with each note. Kaki King, who opened on Mike Gordon’s solo tour, is one of the most creative acoustic guitar players I have ever seen. After watching her live show and listening to her album Everybody Loves You, I realized this young woman has been screwing around on a guitar for a really, really long time. All 10 of her fingers dash across the fret-board at every angle, and at every magnitude.

Her entire show is instrumental, and I’m not sure whether lyrics would help her music, but it certainly doesn’t need anything more. She creates the most amazing melodies with a completely unorthodox technique of fret-fingering. Although using nothing more than her digits and an acoustic guitar, her sound is nothing short of beautiful.

There’s one other solo jam artist out there who has made a deep impression on me, and his name is Keller Williams. Working with looper pedals, various instruments, and a plethora of effects, he manages to lay down funky beatbox samples layered with bass and guitar riffs that just make you want to be him. He’s a one-man-jam-band with catchy, fun songs that really make you forget he’s alone on the stage.

While I called Phish the core of the jam scene today, I think it’s safe to say that The Grateful Dead are the original inspiration behind this genre of music, and they still play as “The Dead” without their beloved Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead had more of a folk influence than today’s jam bands, but they certainly created “the jam.” With songs like “Good Lovin’,” “Uncle John’s Band,” and “Alabama Getaway,” their music is the real influence behind every jam band, including Phish.

If you want to dive headfirst into the jam scene, Bonnaroo might be the answer. Bonnaroo is a giant music festival held in Tennessee (June 11-13) featuring an outright ridiculous number of jam bands and other alternative artists: Trey, Vida Blue, The Dead, moe., Umphrey’s, Ani DiFranco, Bob Dylan, the list goes on. There will be more music there than anyone can hope to experience, and I think that’s the point. There are so many bands out there, it’s hard to know which to see, which you may like, and which you may fall in love with. And while Phish can run a festival for 70,000 that features just themselves, Bonnaroo gives you a taste of everything. Every fan seems to have three favorite jam bands, and while one of them is usually Phish, there’s dozens of other great bands to choose from to fill the other two slots.