Another journal entry from European jam fan Josh Bogen in Amsterdam…

Jam In The Dam 2012: moe., Mike Gordon, Lotus, Keller Williams and Dark Star Orchestra

Thursday, March 15

Our omen for the day was served with at breakfast, in the form of a “LOTUS” inscribed biscuit to accompany coffee, or maybe it was just a coincidence. The weather had improved and I was finally able to take out my shades, for a perfect day to see more of the city.

[All Photos by Jon Derow]

One should realize that Jam In The Dam is not Phish at Merriweather with the band’s fans taking over the city. Amsterdam is a major city and the festival is small. Add to that the fact that Amsterdam has more than its share of resident bohemians and backpack slinging tourists, as well as lower temperatures which keep the tie-dyes covered up by jackets, and it’s hard to even notice that we are here. It’s also possible that with the shows ending around 2 am, people are just barely managing to get up in time for the next night’s festivities. However, when you do arrive at the Milky Way, you are met by an unmistakable jam band crowd, tie-dyes bared and more than few over the top outfits.

Entrance has been smooth into the venue, so it’s really just a lot of old and new friends hanging out in the vicinity. Today, however, the line stretched out into the street an hour before the start time, as cardboard tube-wielding fans waited to get their official posters signed by their favorite artists. This is one of the perks, I guess, of an intimate destination festival like Jam In The Dam (try that at Bonnaroo; the line would stretch to the next state). All of DSO and moe. were on hand, as well as Keller. Lotus was still busy with soundcheck, and Mike Gordon’s crew didn’t seem to have made it.(In their defense, they did have the latest start time of the night and I am sure most of the festival-goers can sympathize that getting anywhere on time here is a struggle after a late night out.)

READ ON

Joshua Bogen of JamBandsEurope doesn’t get to catch many jam acts in action as a European resident, so he’s taking full advantage of Jam In The Dam. Each day he’ll provide a diary of his experience in Amsterdam watching DSO, Mike Gordon, Lotus, Keller and moe.

After a busy day on Tuesday I woke up late, which I think will pretty much be the case for the duration of Jam In The Dam. The weather has been unchanged, overcast but not uncomfortable, with more than a touch of grey. A quick breakfast/lunch and off I went into the city to actually see something today. We were now relatively oriented and it did not take too long to arrive at the Van Gogh museum, probably the can’t miss sight for Amsterdam. An amazing collection, well organized to make the tour really easy to follow. And in the middle, we discovered a little gem, an oil painting by Van Gogh titled Skull of A Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. If you haven’t seen it, here it is…

[Public Domain Image]

Yet another good omen for the festival, and possible evidence that Van Gogh himself may have attended the earliest incarnations of Jam In The Dam. After that, and despite a drawn out quest to try what are apparently considered possibly the best french fries in the world, which ended in failure as the place was closed, we made it the Melkweg on time.

At this point I should mention that the Jam In The Dam schedule is printed out in what, for me, is a completely backwards way. For each day’s schedule the times for the “headliner” of the day, the last band to go on, is printed first, and the start and end times for the “opener,” the first band to play, is printed at the bottom, with the other bands’ time slots listed in reverse order. If you can follow me, that means that the first time you see on the schedule is when the last band goes on, a set at midnight, and the last time you see, at the bottom, is the time that the first band is supposed to finish their set, at 9:30 PM. However, when I first glanced at the schedule, reading in a logical fashion, i got the idea into my head that each night started at 12 midnight and ended at 9:30 in the morning. (which actually if you think about it, would be quite convenient for the people coming over from the U.S., who would basically never have to adjust to European time). Thankfully, that is not the case, and the festival got rolling right on time at 8 PM.

READ ON

Today marks the first day of Jam In The Dam 2012 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. Earlier this afternoon we posted Joshua Bogen’s Jam In The Dam Diary about his arrival in Holland and last night’s pre-party. We expect to have his journal entry and Jon Derow’s photos from Day One up tomorrow, but in the mean time we wanted to fill our readers in on Mike Gordon’s first set of 2012.

[via @Mike_Gordon]

According to our friend Jen Bernstein of Nycjamgal Live Music, Cactus and his five-piece band played a 90-minute set that included the group’s first-ever cover of Jim Croce’s You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, the title track from the late singer-songwriter’s top-selling 1972 album. Cover-wise, the quintet also tackled Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes, Emotional Railroad from guitarist Scott Murawski’s band Max Creek, Meat by Phish, War’s River Niger and The Band’s version of Don’t Do It. Mike also dipped into his solo repertoire for Horizon Line, Voices, Dig Further Down and Idea.

Set: Horizon Line > Voices, Sailin’ Shoes, Emotional Railroad, Meat, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim*, Dig Further Down, Don’t Do It, River Niger, Idea

* – First Time Played (Jim Croce)

[via Jen Bernstein]

Here’s a clip of the Mike Gordon debut of You Don’t Mess With Jim thanks to JB…

Mike Gordon – You Don’t Mess Around With Jim

And here’s Idea…

Mike Gordon – Idea

Roughly two and a half years ago we reported that Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt), Jim James (MMJ) and Will Johnson (Centro-matic) had headed into the studio to a record a new batch of songs inspired by Woody Guthrie’s unrecorded lyrics, a la Billy Bragg and Wilco’s amazing Mermaid Avenue records. According to Paste, the trio were personally invited by Guthrie’s granddaughter, Nora, to sift through the songwriter’s notebooks and scratch pads to gain insight on the artist and his unfinished work.

On February 28, the trio will help celebrate Guthrie’s 100th birthday, which will be celebrated all throughout 2012, with the release of Multitudes. The majority of the lyrics of the twelve-track set were “culled from Woody’s times in L.A…it’s a part of the story that is still mostly unknown. From Woody’s experiences on LA’s skid row to his later years in Topanga Canyon, they are uniquely intimate, and relate two distinctly emotional periods in his life.”

• List Time: Stereogum’s 50+ Most Anticipated Albums Of 2012
• Patrick Carney will produce Rolling Stone contest winner The Sheepdogs
• Cover Alert: The Flaming Lips tackle The Beatles
• Jack White to appear on an upcoming episode of American Pickers
• Download This: Jefferson Airplane, SUNY Stony Brook – 5/1/1970
• Bonnie Raitt to release her first new album in seven years this April

Finally, tomorrow marks the opening night of the New York Guitar Festival. To kick off the event, which runs from January 6 – 29 at venues across Manhattan, a free program paying tribute to Brian Eno’s landmark Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks will take place at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden downtown. The album, which came out 30 years ago, was originally commissioned as the soundtrack to Al Reinhardt’s Oscar nominated documentary, For All Mankind. Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Levon Helm musical director Larry Campbell, David Torn, Noveller and Tortoise’s Jeff Parker will join Brooklyn ambient ensemble Itsnotyouitsme in offering their live interpretation of the album. For more, be sure to read Sam Davis’s interview with NY Guitar Festival producer David Spelman on Relix.com.

Almost 14 years to the day after the December 13, 1997 version of Mike’s Song where the members of Phish yelled about bringing in “The Dude” at the nearby Knickerbocker Arena, Steve “Dude of Life” Pollak took the stage with Mike Gordon’s other band last night for a Suzy Greenberg encore that brought the Phish bassist’s solo tour to a close at The Egg in Albany.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon from March]

The quintet also offered plenty of covers throughout the two sets, attempting another Don’t Do It, a cover of Little Feat’s Skin It Back, their second take on Gillian Welch’s The Way It Goes and the first Won’t Get Fooled Again of the weekend. Sugar Shack was also performed last night, though unlike Friday’s version this one was a standalone version.

Here’s the setlist…

Set 1: Horizon Line, Only A Dream, I’m Deranged, The Way It Goes, Just a Rose, Voices, River Niger,Don’t Do It > Horizon Line

Set 2: Funky Bitch, Sugar Shack, Hand in My Pocket, Dig Further Down, Crumblin’ Bones, Skin It Back, Hap-Nappy, Won’t Get Fooled Again

Encore: Suzy Greenberg^[1]

[1] Mike Gordon debut, with Steve Pollak on vocals.

Notes: ”Suzy Greenberg” was a Mike Gordon debut and featured Steve Pollak (The Dude of Life) on vocals.

[via Phish.net and Mike-Gordon.com]

Next up for Gordon is four Phish shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City to end the year. He’ll take his solo band abroad in March for Jam In The Dam 2012.

Bassist Mike Gordon and his solo band returned to Northampton, Massachusetts tonight, the town where the quintet played their first gig on June 30, 2008. This evening’s show took place at the Calvin Theatre, just down the block from the scene of  the group’s debut performance – the Iron Horse Music Hall. Cactus paid tribute to bassist Rick Danko, who passed away twelve years ago today, in a roundabout way by covering the Holland/Dozier/Holland-penned Baby Don’t You Do It, a staple of The Band’s live repertoire that was first recorded by Marvin Gaye.

[Photo by @thinlizzy17]

In the middle of the first set, Mike’s band unveiled a pair of debuts in Barika, which shares a name with the Vermont-based band that percussionist Craig Myers fronts, and the aforementioned Baby Don’t You Do It. In an interview which will be published on HT early this week, Myers explains that in West Africa the Arabic word “barika” (pronounced body-kah) means “praise-giving, thanksgiving and giving respect.” Myers, who penned the song Barika, named his seven-piece band Barika as those three qualities are part of the group’s vision. As he does in the band Barika, Myers employed the African harp known as the Kamel N’goni on the song Barika. The opening stanza also featured the group’s take on the Phish classic Meat and their second version of Sideways, a tune Gordon described to our Brian Bavosa

as “a simple, haunting little ditty about the world on its side” in a recent interview. A cover of Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes came towards the end of the set between two gems from 2003′s Inside In – Beltless Buckler and Soulfood Man.

Set 1: Dig Further Down, Sideways, Willow Tree, Meat, Andelman’s Yard, Barika*, Don’t Do It*, Beltless Buckler^ > Sailin’ Shoes, Soulfood Man**

Set 2: Couch Lady, Jones > Down To The Nightclub > Can’t Stand Still, Be Good and You’ll Be Lonely > Sound, What Things Seem, Black Tambourine**, Another Door

Encore: Things That Make You Go Hmmm

* – First Time Played
** – w/ Chameleon (Herbie Hancock) Tease
^ – w/ Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From The Godfather) Tease

[via @bizarchive]

Couch Lady kicked off set two continuing the love for Inside In. The spotlight shined on guitarist Scott Murawski for the five-piece’s take on Jones by Max Creek and on keyboardist Tom Cleary for his own Be Good and You’ll Be Lonely later in the set. Can’t Stand Still and What Things Seem, two of the best songs from Gordon’s most recent album, Moss, also saw action in the second set as did a cover of Beck’s Black Tambourine. According to Scott Marks, when Gordon returned for the encore he asked the audience if they would prefer to hear “a jazzy tune or something uptempo.” As Marks noted, apparently uptempo won out since C&C Music Factory’s Things That Make You Go Hmmm filled the encore slot. The group’s last show of the year takes place tomorrow night at The Egg in Albany.

• Previously on HT: Mike Gordon @ The Met – Setlist and Recap, Catching Up With Mike Gordon

Phish bassist Mike Gordon returned to the road for the second half of his Weekend Warrior Tour last night, where Cactus led his five-piece through two segue-filled sets at The Met in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Gordon and his band spent the majority of the opening stanza weaving in and out of Traveled Too Far and Sugar Shack, while the majority of the second set was a Susskind Hotel sandwich.

[File Photo by Joe Ringus]

For the encore, Gordon unveiled his solo band’s version of Clone – a song Cactus originally recorded with Leo Kottke and the title track of the pair’s 2002 release. Covers played on this night were J.J. Cale’s Ain’t Love Funny, the group’s fast-paced version of Cities by Talking Heads, No One Receiving by Brian Eno and a take on The Beatles’ She Said, She Said that featured quotes of Swingtown.

Mike Gordon – Clone

Here’s the setlist from last night’s show…
READ ON

After a pair of solo shows in November that have fans abuzz about the world and playing of Mike Gordon, today we present the second installment [Part One Here] of Brian Bavosa’s chat with the Phish bass player, leading up to his final three solo performances of the year. Gordon and his five-piece band are set to perform at The Met Cafe in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on Friday, The Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Mass. on Saturday and The Egg in Albany on Sunday.

[Photo by Parker Harrington]

Continuing onward about his solo career, and his newest role, fatherhood, Gordon opens up about not only the future of his career, but about his songwriting process and the days of G.R.A.B. in 2006, where he played with fellow Phish bandmate Trey Anastasio, along with Joe Russo and Marco Benevento. So dig in and enjoy, as Gordon prepares to hit the road with his solo band before finishing out 2011 with four Phish shows at Madison Square Garden.

Brian Bavosa: Your band played two shows in November, how did it go?

Mike Gordon:  It was a whirlwind of activity getting ready and hitting the road for our first weekend in six months. There was a certain smoothness of intention which felt great in the first set – like instead of the music playing itself, our souls played themselves, or at least mine did. That may sound strange but that’s how it felt. There was a relaxedness and a tightness despite it being fresh, and it was also great to have a few new songs, including an epic cover and a new original, Sideways. That one in particular felt smooooth – it’s almost reggaeish, and yet dimented enough such that I don’t know what it is… A simple, haunting little ditty about the world on its side. Or something… Very cool to rehearse something and try so many subtle variations of groove and approach – tight vs. loose, repeating vs. improvised – and then remembering that it’s only on stage that the final element walks in the door – the magic.

READ ON

When you live in a small town, there’s something incredibly gratifying about having a musician or band come and play there. It’s a date night, a relaxing event, the exact opposite of a 3+ hour drive to a venue while needing to work the next morning. So on Saturday, Mike Gordon made his second visit to the Portsmouth Music Hall, a venue that clearly has a place in his heart, as displayed in the onstage kudos and the praise for the artistry and architecture of the lobby bathrooms.

[via TMS Architects, Portsmouth NH]

My only previous experience with seeing this incarnation of Mike Gordon live was in this very same room two years ago. I left that show impressed with the range and vibrancy of the music. It just felt so decidedly perfect and “Mike.” In seeing them a second time, they could have left the stage after the first song and I would have been thoroughly blown away. The show-opening Horizon Line was a perfect example of the talent found within this group.

READ ON

Phish bassist Mike Gordon’s five-piece returned to the road over the weekend for a pair of performances in New Hampshire. We’ll have a review of Saturday’s show up later today, but for now we wanted to share audio of the one original debuted in The Granite State. Written by Gordon and longtime collaborator Joe Linitz, check out Sideways from Sunday night in Lebanon.

We particularly dig Mike’s use of an envelope filter during the brief jam segment. You can download audio of the entire show from bt.etree.org.

Here’s the setlist from both Mike Gordon shows:

Mike Gordon, Saturday, 11/12/2011
The Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH

Set 1: Horizon Line, Spiral, Exit Wound, The Walls of Time, Hand in My Pocket, Fire From a Stick, The Walls of Time, Crumblin’ Bones, Couch Lady, Susskind Hotel

Set 2: Dig Further Down, Skin It Back, Willow Tree, Can’t Stand Still, Be Good and You’ll Be Lonely, Time (The Revelator), Traveled Too Far, Won’t Get Fooled Again[1]

Encore: Hap-Nappy, Down to the Nightclub

[1] Mike Gordon debut.

Notes: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (The Who) was a Mike Gordon debut.

Mike Gordon: Sun, Nov 13, 2011
Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, NH

Set 1: Another Door, Cruel World, Sideways[1], The Way It Goes[2], What Things Seem, I Miss My Mind, River Niger, Things That Make You Go Hmmm…, Babylon Baby

Set 2: Sailin’ Shoes, Just a Rose, Black Tambourine, Andelmans’ Yard, Meat, Sound, Sugar Shack, Idea

Encore: Funky Bitch, Won’t Get Fooled Again

[1] Debut.
[2] Mike Gordon debut.
Notes: This performance featured the debut of “Sideways” (Gordon, Linitz) and the Mike Gordon debut of “The Way It Goes” (Gillian Welch).

[via Phish.net]

Bassist Mike Gordon has been taking advantage of the off-again, on-again touring schedule Phish has adapted since their return in 2009 by scheduling shows with his five-piece band during the breaks in addition to spending time with his family. For instance, the Massachusetts native will be playing five shows over two weekends in November and December with his solo band. Gordon was gracious enough to chat with us last week about the upcoming shows, fatherhood, and the current state of Phish, among other topics. Today, we present the first half of the interview with the second installment to follow early next month.

Brian Bavosa: First off, thanks for taking a couple of minutes. We will jump right in here. Why are you only playing a couple of shows based around select weekends this time around?

Mike Gordon: It started with some commitments that the band members had, but what ended up happening was with that being the case and with Phish having some time off from touring, I started to see this as an excellent writing phase, writing era. But I love to play gigs, too [Laughs]. So I thought that it was good compromise to do a little bit and keep a lot of attention on writing at the same time. The fact that there are just certain select gigs may mean that we will feel really loose and crazy and let anything go and let anything happen because it’s not a tour, because it’s a special situation.

READ ON

Phish bassist Mike Gordon has been making the most of his time off from touring by sitting in with jam stalwarts the Spin Doctors, Jackie Greene and now old pal Marco Benevento within the past few weeks in his hometown of Burlington. Marco, along with bassist Dave Dreiwitz and drummer Andy Borger, is smack dab in the middle of a four-week residency at Burlington’s Radio Bean coffeehouse and invited Cactus out for the start of the second set. Gordon replaced Dreiwitz for a jazzy version of Green Onions (Booker T. and the MGs) and Benevento’s intense cover of Deerhoof’s Twin Killers that included teases of Rhapsody In Blue and Bathtub Gin.

Marco  Benevento Trio @ Radio Bean – Set 2 (Set 1 Here)

Thankfully, the folks behind the VTLiveMusic UStream channel captured the whole show and after giving it a play this afternoon, we can’t suggest watching both sets highly enough. Dreiwitz and Borger are both incredibly talented, but let Marco lead the way and follow his many whims with a quickness. There’s two more gigs left on Marco’s Radio Bean residency – Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, while the keyboardist performs his score for The House of Usher on October 29 at Flynn Space.

Phish bassist Mike Gordon has sure made the rounds with performers at Higher Ground of late. In addition to his guest spot with the Spin Doctors on Sunday, Cactus sat in with the Jackie Greene band for a gorgeous take on the Grateful Dead classic Sugaree last Tuesday at the Burlington venue. Gordon pays tribute to Phil Lesh’s bass part while still adding in a few ridiculous licks of his own.

Jackie Greene & Mike Gordon – Sugaree 

Last night, Higher Ground saw a mini H.O.R.D.E. reunion of sorts as Phish bassist sat in with the Spin Doctors for the Pocket Full of Kryptonite track Refrigerator Car at the South Burlington club. Both Phish and the Spin Doctors were part of the first H.O.R.D.E. tour in 1992. Singer Chris Barron let the cat out of the bag that Gordon would guest at the Spin’s Burlington area Pocket Full of Kryptonite 20th Anniversary Tour stop via Twitter on Saturday.

Looks like Mike Gordon from Phish is sitting in with the Spin Doctors in Burlington...

Saturday, October 15, 2011 9:32 pm via txtReplyRetweetFavorite

@thechrisbarron

Chris Barron

While we weren’t on hand to catch the show, the venue reports Cactus was “killingit.” The Spin Doctors perform their classic album in its entirety at each gig on this tour. The Pocket Full of Kryptonite Tour moves to Portland, Maine’s Port City Music Hall tomorrow.

Mike Gordon sitting in with the Spin Doctors right now. #killingit

Sunday, October 16, 2011 10:35 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@HigherGroundVT

Higher Ground

Since forming in 2008, Mike Gordon’s still unnamed solo band hasn’t gone much longer than nine months without playing a set of shows, so you got the feeling, with Phish off the road this fall, that the five-piece would announce some dates. Five shows wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, but we’ll take what we can get.

The MGB will return to action on November 12 at the Portsmouth Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and heads to the Lebanon Opera House in Lebanon, New Hampshire on the 13th. After a few weeks off, Mike and his band will perform at The Met Cafe in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on December 9, Northhampton, Mass.’s Calvin Theatre on the 10th and the impressive Egg in Albany on the 11th. A pre-sale for tickets to all the shows but Northampton (pre-sale here) has started now at Mike’s ticketing site. Tickets for the general public go on sale Friday for every show except for Portsmouth, which goes on sale October 8 at Noon ET.