Rolling Stone: Top 10 Best Jam Bands
Rolling Stone recently polled their readers to see what the general consensus was on the best jam bands. Some of our classic favorites like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Led Zeppelin didn’t make the cut because of their lack of improvisation on stage. Let us know what you think!
The sudden end of the Grateful Dead left a lot of jam band fans without a group to follow around the country. This pushed Phish toward becoming a juggernaut of the road, but it also helped out smaller acts like Moe. The five-piece, which formed at the University of Buffalo in 1989, started seeing attendance swell at their shows around the mid-1990s. They go to great lengths to make sure every set is unique, mixing in originals with covers like “The Weight” and “Blister in the Sun.”
We were initially unsure about counting Pink Floyd as a jam band. Their concerts from 1973 onward were fairly rehearsed, even if songs like “Dogs” and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” ran for nearly 30 minutes. But during the Ummagumma period things were different, and in the Syd Barrett era they’d play marathon, improvisatory sets around London. They moved far away from this, but jamming remains in their DNA.
Jam bands and prog groups have some of the most passionate fans in music. This six-piece from Indiana offers a perfect combination of the two genres, meaning they have a die-hard cult of supporters that allows them to play huge venues like Red Rocks even though most people have never heard of them. The unconverted simply need to see them live: Their Live at the Beacon Theater LP contains jaw-dropping renditions of “Where Is My Mind” by the Pixies and “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos.
If they ever get around to making a Jam Band Hall of Fame, Warren Haynes really deserves his own wing. The guitarist not only stepped into Duane Allman’s Allman Brothers role in 1989, but in 2004 he essentially took on the Jerry role in the Dead. For a few incredible years he divided his time between both acts, and in spare moments he has toured and recorded with Gov’t Mule. The group merges many of the best aspects of the Dead and the Allman Brothers, and they only seem to get better every year.
There might be two kinds of people in this world: Those who are absolutely obsessed with Widespread Panic and count down the days until their next Red Rocks shows – and those who are barely aware such a band even exists. The group, which has been touring regularly for the past three decades, has never had anything resembling a hit, but their legendary live sets have made them one of the most successful touring bands of the past 20 years. Tragedy struck in 2002 when guitarist Michael Houser died of cancer, but Jimmy Herring joined in 2006 and has done an excellent job carrying on the legacy.
The Dave Matthews Band exist slightly outside the world of traditional jam bands. They had huge radio hits, a presence on MTV and, at least back in the 1990s, a huge audience of teenage girls. Many people come to their shows anxious to hear tunes like “Crash” and “The Space Between” and have little appetite for long moments of improv. But that is part of the DMB experience: The group works hard to make sure every show is unique and even the same songs are played differently from night to night. The amount of money they’ve made on the road over the past 20 years is just staggering, and it’s easy to imagine that 20 years from now they’ll still be at it.
The term “jam band” didn’t really exist during Cream’s brief run in the 1960s, but listen to their 17-minute rendition of “Spoonful” or their 16-minute version of “Toad” on Wheels of Fire. By any definition, those are jams: If the tapes had been running on a different night, they would have sounded different. Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker were all virtuosos at their instruments and their concerts remain the stuff of legend. They broke up in 1968, but in 2005 they briefly reunited for a series of shows in London and New York. The death of Jack Bruce ended any chance of more activity.
Creating this list involved a couple of judgement calls, but not when it came to Phish. They are the dictionary definition of a jam band. Indeed, since the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, they have emerged as the premier jam band on the planet. They’re so massive they throw their own three-day festivals where they are the only group on the bill. Phans follow them all over the country, obsessing over old tapes and rumors of upcoming gigs. Trey Anastasio is going to spend a week or two this summer fronting the Dead at their final shows, which is really the ultimate honor in the jam band universe.
The Allman Brothers were such a powerful force that one of the two brothers died in 1971 and the group still lasted another 43 years. Duane may have been missed the vast majority of their run, but he laid the groundwork for everything that followed. Just listen to At Fillmore East: Live music just doesn’t get much better than those insanely jammed-out versions of “Whipping Post” and “Mountain Jam.” The lineup shifted around a bit, but fans flocked to New York every March to see the group’s annual stand at the Beacon Theater. The whole thing ended last October, but Gregg Allman continues to play the music at his solo shows. Come check him out at Telluride Blues & Brews Festival!
Could any other band have conceivably won this poll? Back when most rock groups played the same carefully rehearsed 25-minute show over and over for months on end, the Grateful Dead were playing two-hour sets that changed wildly from night to night. They often didn’t even have a set list, choosing to simply walk onstage and see where the music took them. Jerry Garcia has been dead for nearly 20 years, but the surviving members have played together in various permutations ever since. It all ends this July at Chicago’s Soldier Field, though the guys will surely be playing this music on their own until they drop.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-jam-bands-20150325#ixzz3lqLnYpIv
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