Monday, July 14, 2008

The Bridge Jam With Mike Gordon At All Good

Baltimore's #1 band and burgeoning national force, The Bridge, played the All Good Music Festival in Masontown, WV last Saturday night in a set sandwiched at 1:15 AM between Widespread Panic and the Dark Star Orchestra. They have consistently taken advantage of their opportunities to play this festival by delivering high energy sets that overshadow performances of much more well known acts. This year, they had the pleasure of inviting one of their idols to perform on stage with them, bass player extraordinaire, Mr. Mike Gordon of Phish. Mike was on hand to perform with his own band earlier in the day. As I understand the story, Bridge guitar player Cris Jacobs approached Mike sometime during the day and asked him to sit in with his band during their late-night time slot. Without receiving a definitive yes or no, it was unclear whether the collaboration would happen. As the band was performing, Mike was noticed side stage by Cris, taking in his band's performance. During a break in the action, Cris approached Mike and asked him to join his band mates, with regular bass player Dave Markowitz stepping aside for the jam band hero. Mike participated in a jam that segued out of the band's 'Bad Locomotive'. The rest as they say is history.

I am a huge fan of the Bridge. I have known a couple of the guys in the band for over 15 years and I am honest in saying that I would rather seen them perform live than a huge number of other bands that I would consider myself to be a fan of. They keep getting better and better every time I see them and I was thrilled to read this news of their being able to play with someone that I know they have looked up to for many many years.

Leaving All Good, The Bridge will go on to play Camp Bisco on 7/19, The Gathering of the Vibes on 8/1 (another festival featuring Mike Gordon and his band), and moe.down on 8/31. Keep an eye out for these guys as I expect they will be playing your town soon.

Check out a short video of Mike sitting in with The Bridge:



Thanks to troylaur for uploading the video.

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