I turn 54 in month and some days, and have had a probably unwarranted weird negative reaction to jam bands in my span of years. No good reason for that I suppose, other than conditioned to enjoy the general contours or a 4-minute or less song. Then again, I never did make it to a Dead concert, never went to see Phish or Panic (in their heydey), and any of the other assorted luminaries from that genre, so never saw them in their element - which is live.
In any event, this is to say, randomly, at the other side of the hill of my time on this earth, I acknowledge I may have been seriously missing out, because I ended up at Billy Strings last night at CFG - drawn because he was doing a special Halloween set built around the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and there were some genuine musical luminaries joining him (Jerry Douglas!) - and had no clue that he's assuming the next gen of jam band place at the top of that mountain - so...holy shit. What a fucking amazing experience that was. I guess he's bluegrass based at heart, but that was a bluegrass/blues/rock/psychedelic fusion of unreal awesome for over three hours (they closed with an absolutely transcendent When the Levee Breaks). They are still in Balt for another show tonight and if you stumble across a ticket you should go (it's a hard sellout). Or, hell, if you have the funds and need to let it all go for several hours, grab one on the secondary market and go.
I wish I could make tonight's show too.
Good way to turn off the noise for a bit (whether you alter like half the crowd did last night or keep it sober) - the music was that good. Even if you don't think you vibe with that genre, I bet you would with them, for a few hours.
Peace, friends. Have a good Friday.
Aaron