Kick out the Jams

Hippie rock fans gear up for pair of weekend shows

Courtesy of traders@umich.edu

Pass the mics: The taper section at a 1998 Phish concert at Indiana's Deer Creek outdoor amphitheatre.

By Christian Hoard

Daily Arts Writer

Near the end of "Almost Famous," Cameron Crowe's newly-released paean to rock 'n roll fandom, a young and slightly obsessed groupie notes wistfully that very few people have any idea what it's like to love, cherish and dote upon a "little piece of music" so much that it hurts.

The members of traders@umich.edu, an electronic mailing list and sanctuary for live music junkies, might empathize. The group, which includes more than 100 members, most of them University students, dedicates itself to the discussion (and sometimes dissection) of live music, with special attention to the "jam band" genre. Though jam kings Phish are the most common topic of debate, members' tastes gravitate toward improvisers everywhere, from certifiable, new-school jam bands like The String Cheese Incident to jazz artists and rootsier trad-rock acts such as Merle Saunders and the Allman Brothers Band.

As its name implies, traders@umich.edu also functions as a trading post for live recordings, many of which are the fruits of the labor of several of the group's audio tapers. For many list members, just one or even 10 audio recordings (don't call them "bootlegs," members advise) won't satisfy the aural fixation; only a closet-full of tapes, each with a set list tucked into its case, will do.

But while a high-quality copy of last month's Phish show in Chicago might be no more than an e-mail away, getting the tapes in the first place isn't always so easy. Local taper and list member Dave Schall said it takes the right combination of good equipment and technical know-how to come away from a show with a high-quality live recording. Anyone with illusions of sneaking into the Blind Pig with a walkman and a cheap microphone and coming away with a decent tape should take a gander at Schall's current equipment list: Neumann U-87Ai condensers, a pair of Neumann km-184 condensers, a Mackie 1202vlz and a Sony D8 and a Tascam DA-30mk.

As complicated an endeavor as it may seem to an outsider, Schall says that taping has gotten increasingly popular over the past decade, with equipment costs tapering off and trading becoming more and more widespread. "It's become affordable, and there are millions of things to tape," Schall said. "I actually found myself recording a hail storm outside my apartment this summer. Also, people are more informed through the internet."

List members, of course, aren't content just to sit at home and soak up the jams via their tape decks and CD players. Like many of the nomadic obsessives who have helped fuel the jam band phenomenon, most list members spend hundreds of dollars a year on concert tickets and are fixtures at local concert venues whenever a decent jam band is in town - which, in recent years, has been pretty often. "This town is huge for jam bands," list member Jeff Patton said. "I see several of the same faces over and over again at shows I go to."

Some list members, however, aren't so sanguine about the jam band craze. Many, like Reilly Brennan, prefer to keep their critical distance, saving their rapt attention for only a select few among the noodling masses. "There are just too many sucky jam bands out there," Brennan said. "Nobody ever complains about overcrowding when it comes to ridiculously hot women. If jam bands were like women, there would be three or four that you'd give your right testicle to sleep with and about 1,000 that even a freshly disavowed priest wouldn't chase."

Anyone interested in joining the list is invited to e-mail - you guessed it - traders@umich.edu.