Words: Tim Hara
Images: Matt Speck

Everyone inside the Auditorium Theatre knew that they were in for a special night. It was the first time that Philadelphia’s Disco Biscuits were playing a Halloween show in Chicago. This was a big deal.

The venue was absolutely stunning - an old opera house that has been open for almost 120 years. Huge murals are painted on the walls that are surrounded by intricate, ornamental carvings. The sound is loud and crisp and there are great sightlines from virtually every seat in the house. There are multiple balconies with the highest one making the performers look like ants on stage. No fans ventured that high unless they wanted to. The orchestra level and first balcony were completely filled with kids in their wildest costumes. They anxiously awaited what tricks and treats the Disco Biscuits had up their sleeves for the night.

After Holy F*ck and The Glitch Mob opened things up with some early dance parties, the Biscuits took the stage dressed as “classy zombies,” with their costumes complete with suits and lots of fake blood. As they looked out over the crowd, it seemed as though even they were amazed that they were playing in such an awesome venue. The group opened the show with a stand-alone instrumental, Strobelights and Martinis, which seemed very appropriate with its dark theme. This version was solid, but straightforward without much of a jam.

READ ON for more from the Disco Biscuits’ Halloween show…

That it’s been a heady year for John Kadlecik is a safe bet: it’s not often that your main band consistently knocks it out of the park, you get a chance to play in a brand new ensemble with the heroes that inspired that main band, and well, you court a little controversy along the way.

[All photos by Adam Kaufman]

Earlier this year, Kadlecik was invited to take part in a new Phil Lesh/Bob Weir project called Furthur, that combined Kadlecik — long having “played Jerry” in the ever-resilient Dark Star Orchestra — with Lesh, Weir, Ratdog’s Jay Lane and Jeff Chimenti, and the Joe half of the Benevento/Russo Duo. By all accounts — listen to the boots — Furthur’s inaugural run at the Fox Theater in Oakland in September was a barn burner, and the band has more shows coming up, including five northeast dates in early December and a pair of New Year’s soirees back out West.

And that’s a little bit of where the controversy starts — and where we freely admit we’re a little guilty of stoking it. With Kadlecik giving more of his time to Furthur, Dark Star has had to move forward, and has recruited Zen Tricksters stalwart Jeff Mattson to spell Kadlecik for many of DSO’s remaining 2009 dates. There’s nothing to suggest the members of DSO don’t support Kadlecik’s decisions — they held back on announcing Mattson while Furthur finalized its end of year plans, for example — but it’s clear Kadlecik and the band face a number of tough decisions ahead. Decisions that may have been made already, that is, even if no one’s talking about them.

READ ON for our chat with John Kadlecik of the Dark Star Orchestra…

If we remember nothing else about Halloween 2009, maybe we’ll at least recall it was the night that two of the world’s marquee jambands both turned in ace renditions of the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street obscurity Ventilator Blues. Stranger things have happened, right? Right? Bueller?

[All Photos by Heath Robson from Mule.Net]

On a smaller scale than some marginal little festival happening out West, Gov’t Mule brought the Mick and Keef goods to Philly on All Hallow’s Eve, playing an oddly selected, strangely paced and yet remarkably satisfying set of Stones material. Would love to have been in on these planning meetings: 14 Stones songs, many well-known, several obscure, from a wide-but-not-too-wide swath of Stones albums, and all but two of those songs in the first-time-played designation, with no attention paid to several Stones covers (Sympathy for the Devil, Dead Flowers, 2000 Light Years From Home, Let’s Spend the Night Together) that the Mule’s had success with in the past. So be it, dudes.

It had the makings of formless hodgepodge, but for all the era-shuffling and seeming randomness of the selections, it felt like a buoyant Mule set: heavy with blues and slippery slide but hardly tied to those things, and for the most part, rollickingly good rock ‘n’ roll with occasionally great spots of brilliant havoc (a rampaging Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’, a pummeling Monkey Man and an out-of-left field Slave) and tender interlude (Angie, Wild Horses). There was balls-out hilarity, as well: at one point, Danny Louis grabbed Jorgen Carlsson’s bass, Carlsson replaced Matt Abts on the kit, and the band launched into Shattered — with Abts running out to center stage and proceeding to sing/shout his ass off, complete with patented Jagger peacock strut. READ ON for more from Chad on Mule-O-Ween…

Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of The Rolling Stones. Certainly don’t hate them, but they’re not at the top of any lists for me. None of that mattered when it became clear just a few tunes into set two, Phish’s full performance of Exile On Main Street, that this would be the most tightly performed Phish set in recent history.

[All Photos by Regan Teti Marscher]

If Phish played their catalog as cleanly and precisely as they did these eighteen tracks, it would be scary. And all the while they made these songs their own often times in the way they would jam out the outros. I was trying to place what Phish/Trey song the Torn & Frayed outro sounded like when ScottyB chimed in and let me know it was Drifting - and it was awesome. Guest vocalists and horn players Sharon Jones, David Guy, Tony Jarvis, David Smith, and Saunda Williams blended extremely tastefully into the background never overshadowing or drawing attention away from either the songs or the performance.

It was nice to see Jon Fishman singing lead on Happy without it being a novelty cover song that lead to a vacuum solo. Fish did a great job when it was his time and all around it seemed like the right decisions were made on how they divided up the lead vocals duties. The backup singers interplay with Trey and the rest of the guys on Ventilator Blues/I Just Want To See His Face was superb, this was my biggest surprise - I knew Phish would knock Tumbling Dice, Shine A Light, etc. out of the park, but the Ventilator Blues > I Just Want To See His Face was really really smooth.

READ ON for more about Phish’s Halloween performance at F8…

Each month, HT Contributor Ben Wiser will take a closer look at notable performances of Dark Star. If you have any favorite Stars you would like him to cover, send the date over to darkstarstories@yahoo.com

Last month I touched on the great Halloween night Dark Star from the Oakland Coliseum Arena back in 1991. That was the night Ken Kesey showed up and delivered his eulogy to Bill Graham. He recited some e.e. cummings and gave us the great line - “In any given situation there are always going to be more dumb people than smart people – we aint’ many.”

In honor of that and in honor everyone’s favorite holiday - here is a trick or treat bag of seminal October Dark Stars -

10/9/89 “Formerly the Warlocks!”

It’s been twenty years since Virginia heads got a treat when the boys played two hastily-planned nights at Hampton billed as “Formerly the Warlocks”. The first night featured the return of Help on the Way > Slipknot!, but the second night, whew.

READ ON for the rest of this month’s Dark Star Stories…

In general, when I arrive at a show and learn that I am walking in on an opening act that I was not aware of - I’m not very pleased. I had a timeline in my head of what I thought set times were going to be and realized that now, all of a sudden, every thing had been pushed back an hour. Sunday night however, it only took about five minutes for me to realize that I was going to be catching a great set of music from Clare & The Reasons, a band I had never heard of - in fact I did not know the name of the group until after their set was over and I swung by the merch table.

Clare & The Reasons touring band are a quartet, fronted by Clare Manchon and all four musicians are multi-instrumentalists. There was fiddle, trombone, clarinet, keyboards, guitars and basses constantly being passed around amongst all the members of the band, and while there was no percussionist…Clare had a foot-tambourine setup that added a little extra punch in the choruses of some songs.

They played the majority of their brand new album Arrow including the first-ever performance of the “Japanese Bonus Track”. As her set came to a close, Manchon announced that “You will all know this song” and launched into a great arrangement of That’s All (which is also on the album Arrow). With the signature piano line being played on a clarinet, the crowd - of unfortunately only dozens of people - let out an audible laugh and Clare quickly explained, “It’s not funny” into the microphone. This band is opening for Vic Chesnutt through November 7th, I highly recommend arriving early to check them out. Manchon’s gentle voice is a perfect fit for their type of music which borders somewhere between Twee Pop and gypsy street musicians. As my friend Indie Dan said, “Even though there wasn’t an accordion onstage, I totally could see them having one.”

Here is their music video for the song All The Wine:

READ ON for more from Dave including a review of Vic Chesnutt’s new band and to see the hilarious infomercial for Clare & The Reasons New Album…

This week’s edition was not written by a Wolfman. He’ll deny it, but…

The Eight Legged Beast moves as one brain-twisted entity like a Group Mind flailing around in the dark until all is silent—terrified, befuddled, looped, and not alone in these sinister thoughts. Suddenly, a voice, a series of whispered voices, echo through the cavernous depths. A Wolfman jogs Loaded up ahead, a pied Piper has some worm-y legs, and a Ghost appears and disappears—run asunder by bad acid, or a sign near the cave entrance that reads: “Turn Back! Beware! This is the Beginning of the End!”

Meanwhile, I direct my eyes forward, and turn down the Brother from Another Planet. How can I feel stoned, high, drunk, and out in deep ecstatic space even though I’m clean?

Saw IT & Esther again, and a Sleeping Monkey with 8 legs & 4 heads eating 1 PHISH!

Ahhh…yes, Vegas. We were somewhere outside Lemonwheel when the chaos took hold. In the Court of the Crimson King as Big Red bends our collective noodles, I turn down:

Wolfman’s Brother> – 10/31/98 – and the LAST Halloween show until…

Yes, until now. I had no great need for the almighty Bug to Come. But here, HERE, I find it appropriate to nod at Halloween as we check out this week’s Hidden Flick, Eight Legged Freaks, and an homage to all that is unholy about old school horror cinema.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick - Eight Legged Freaks…

It’s no secret that many of our readers have had plenty of spirited discussions over the last few months, or maybe years, discussing what classic album Phish would cover at the next Halloween show. The concept of this live “Musical Costume” was launched by Phish on Halloween in 1994 when they performed The Beatles White Album in its entirety. Errr, except Good Night which was played over the PA system. And while Phish has done it three additional times - and a fourth if you include Dark Side Of The Moon on November 2nd, 1998 in Utah - they have also inspired many other bands to follow suit.

This week’s B List takes a look at ten other bands that have taken on the assignment of covering another band’s album in the live setting.

1. Jiggle The Handle covered Paul Simon - Graceland
8-12-2000 - Berkfest, Great Barrington MA

Leading off this B List we’ve got one of my favorite small jambands of all time, Boston’s Jiggle The Handle. This complete album performance was announced in advance. Well, it was announced they’d be performing AN album, and the choices were out there, it was between Graceland, Rift, Sgt. Pepper’s and Animals.

Humorously, the band started and ended their full performance of Graceland with teases of the opening tracks from the three albums not chosen, and a Jiggle The Handle tune - Walk Right Out Your Door. They bring on a little extra help from a number of other Boston-area-bands calling on: Dan Rockett, the horn section from Addison Groove Project and both Andrew & Brad Barr from The Slip.

Selected Audio: Teases > The Boy In The Bubble

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READ ON for nine more bands that have tackled live full album covers…

In less than three months Jam Cruise 8 will set sail from Ft. Lauderdale filled to the brim with amazing artists and the band fans who love them. Today kicks off our bi-weekly Jam Cruise Files column which profiles a band or musician scheduled to perform on the MSC Poesia between January 3 & 8. Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee is the subject of our first Jam Cruise Files.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

Name: Joel Cummins - OHMphrey
Bands: Umphrey’s McGee, OHMphrey, North Indiana Allstars, Kick The McGee
Past JC Experience: 5 - JC1 (UM), JC3 (UM), JC4 (UM), JC5 (UM), JC7 (Yacht Rock)
2009: Umphrey’s released Mantis, OHMphrey released self-titled debut

Scott Bernstein: How much has JamCruise changed from your first cruise to last year’s cruise?

Joel Cummins: Anyone who was there the first year in 2004 remembers that wreck of a ship we were on. It was like a modern day old ironsides, just barely managing to still float. I know I almost took out the FOH console one night when the relatively small ship was getting tossed back and forth in the Caribbean. With the larger boat now, it’s generally a little more tolerable. I loved when it got to the point that we could build a real stage and production for the main stage. I think that makes the outdoor performance area hard to beat. Honestly though, there is a lot about JamCruise that is the same in that everyone is there to get down, have a great time and see some beautiful islands in the Caribbean during the coldest part of the year in the U.S. It’s a great feeling setting sail from Ft. Lauderdale and knowing that you’ve got five days of sunshine in your future.

READ ON for more of Scotty’s chat with Joel Cummins…

It was a beautiful fall day in October. The Chicago skyline sprawled out around the UIC Pavilion welcoming back its prodigal band from a long tour. One bus remained outside the venue as the band bus was sent back to the shop as most of the band lives in Chicago. All the gear would go back to The Loft soon and Wilco would bid America a dieu after an amazing slew of shows all over the world, and what better place to do it than their home city.

[all photos via Wilcoworld]

Wilco has grown exponentially as a band and touring machine over the years. From the Jay Bennett exploratory era to the burning guitar wizardry of Nels Cline, the band has changed in vibe and presence time and time again. Fans will side with one version or another as their favorite but will continue to support them in all they do. Today they would wait outside an arena to get a spot on the rail to witness the live phenomenon that is Wilco. However, today both the band and audience would find out that this was one step the band could not take.

Sound check, as you could imagine, was a family affair. The wives and children ,all of whom are beautiful, gathered around the empty arena exchanging hugs. Tweedy, donning a Bears hat on football Sunday, watched his son Spencer play with a toy cylinder suspended between two sticks and a length of twine. The look on his face was that of pure joy. He looked on as his son drew a crowd around him throwing the cylinder in the air and performing a variety of tricks. He was being upstaged by the fruit of his loins and he couldn’t have been happier. This humble moment set the tone for the two final US shows of the year. READ ON for more on Wilco in Chicago…