Review: SteelJam Festival – Bethlehem, PA – 9/2, 9/4

As you arrive to the SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem PA, you immediately understand the origin of its name. Part of the venue has historic features, but it’s only been a music venue since April of 2011. The ArtsQuest center contains multiple floors with balconies, more venues, offices, movie theaters, TVs, gift shops, private party rooms, and more. Outside, a pavilion sits in front of five steel stacks which were built in the 1850′s and stopped production in 1995. The contrast between buildings from the mid 1800′s, and a new live-music mega-playhouse, really says a lot about the SteelStacks.

The Steeljam festival featured a handful of the best local and national touring jam bands in a more intimate setting. Spanning four days over labor day weekend, it brought out a decent amount of people for its inaugural year. Unfortunately, I was only able to experience the tail ends of Friday and Sunday, but, both times gave me the urge to come back the following day.

Beginning with Friday, I made my way into the lobby, obtained my credentials, and headed up for a psychedelic-rock trio known as Flux Capacitor. The venue ended up being three flights of stairs up, with a perfect view of the steel stacks as a backdrop for the stage. A bar on each side and a private balcony completed the small club atmosphere, which you would swear was in a nice part of Williamsburg, had it not been for the view of industrial history behind the band. With a name that is already appealing, Flux Capacitor’s organic vicious jam style fills the room with head banging hippies, but manages to stray from being your typical jam band due to their heavy rock personality. Even without a bassist, the keyboardist managed to keep the drummer in time, while the guitarist noodled away with ease. I didn’t notice them taking more than a few breaks, moving from pure rock-and-roll to electronic Disco Biscuit style jamming in the blink of an eye, and they gave little to not time for applause when they did stop.

Following Flux Capacitor came Americana-jam band Railroad Earth, whose hometown, Sparta, NJ, is an hour or so drive from Bethlehem. Railroad Earth’s set contained swift bluegrass picking to exploration in the form of their prog-grass side, which is a big appeal to their jam band fans. A song could be anywhere from five minutes, to fifteen minutes, and feature a different lineup of instruments as the band features almost all multi-instrumentalists, though some change their instruments more often, while others may only do so for one song. By the end of the night, the crowd had done their share of twirling, and the magic had taken its tiring toll on everyone.

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Railroad Earth - Steel Jam (Photo: Tyler Curtis [Shakedown Blog

As Sunday came around, I was excited to catch From Good Homes. Their self acclaimed style, known as “Hick-Pop” isn’t found anywhere else in music, and has been the main reason their fan base has supported them for twenty plus years (even including a 10 year hiatus from 1999 to 2009). Guitarist Todd Sheaffer is also the singer-songwriter in Friday’s band Railroad Earth, even sharing some of the same songs in both band’s catalogs, but in different arrangements.Their ability to jam came through on pretty much every song, but, showed moments of enchanting lyrics and emotion enriched songwriting as well. Showing the community aspect of the band, they brought up fan and musician Brian Colbourn for a rowdy rendition of their celtic-pop themed “Maybe We Will.”

From Good Homes at Steel Jam (Photo: Tyler Curtis)

The final band on Sunday was prog-rock-jammers, Umphrey’s Mcgee. Their set featured consistently amusing jamming, (aka noodling that has a direction), in the manner of progressive-rock and metal. Their fourteen years as a band has paid off to the point that their live shows are consistently held in high regard, and typically with a heavy turnout of a younger crowd. They’ve been known to play funk-pop songs, like Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough,” but, their only cover was The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus,” which has a darker spin on it, considering the artist who’s covering it. The communication between the band was apparent, featuring hand signals and eye contact that leads their layers to be consistently mind blowing. They finished the night up with “Mulches Odyssey,” which was a twisted dark metal frenzy, displaying a colorful light show courtesy of light director Jefferson Waful.

Umphrey's Mcgee at Steeljam (Photo: Tyler Curtis)

Overall, I’d expect much more to go on at the SteelStacks, that will appeal to a wide audience. The staff there seems to have everything under control, and knows what they’re doing. The venue alone should bring you to any artist or performance you enjoy, because any show seems to be much more energetic and special there than most other places in the area.