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Monday, August 13, 2001

By John Young

The name of the tour is So Many Roads: Traveling Furthur. The question raised by the tour's arrival at the Post-Gazette Pavilion Sunday night was why so few jam-band fans were interested in hearing groups like Bob Weir's post-Dead outfit Rat Dog and Pittsburgh-born Rusted Root. Only 5,630 traveled the roads to Burgettstown for the five-act festival.

The unfaithful should be kicking themselves for missing the rare show that lived up to its name. Every act defied musical stereotyping while pushing the boundaries of whatever genre it might be most identified with.

As the show opener and a bridge between other performances, DJ Logic turned his two turntables into true instruments. Blending jazz, funk and dance records, Logic turned the pavilion into a hip, hopping lounge.

DJ Logic also flashed his scratching skills, taking solos no less, when he joined Karl Denson's Tiny Universe for about half of the group's set. The seven-piece unit might loosely be called a jazz band, but the group's music stood on deep, danceable funk underpinnings. Denson's clear, rich tenor sax tone, David Veith's retro organ and electric piano sounds, and Brian Jordan's growling guitar work dominated the six lengthy, intense pieces in the Universe's show.

Reflecting both where the band has been and where it's going, Rusted Root's set couldn't have been more dichotomous. Largely ignoring the "Remember" and "Rusted Root" albums, the band delighted fans-in-long-standing with songs from their local club days. "Ecstasy," "Cat Turned Blue," "Back to Earth" and their breakthrough hit, "Send Me On My Way," framed the band's set.

The middle of the show, however, was dominated by songs from a forthcoming album. The new material sounded more musically eclectic and song-oriented than the Root's grooving, world beat-flavored early work. Liz Berlin sang the lilting, lightly reggaefied "Too Much," while returning member Jenn Wertz borrowed the pop-funk feel of Prince's "Cream" for her vocal showcase. Other songs ranged from a David Gray-like acoustic pop tune to a straight-ahead, wave-your-arms-and-lighter rock ballad and seemed to signal exciting new growth.

Singer/guitarist Keller Williams proved to be a genuine one-man band by using electronics and a mixing board to create vocal loops and rhythms to play over and against. Williams is a distinctive, virtuoso instrumentalist, but his songs were cloying, pseudo-witty experiments sung in a gratingly nasal voice.

Rat Dog mixed original songs, covers and radical reinterpretations of Grateful Dead pieces for a distinctive, surprisingly tuneful set.

Often sounding like "Bitches Brew"-era Miles Davis interrupted by bluesy folk and rock songs, Rat Dog's flowing stream of music sparkled. One highlight was a vocal-harmony-fueled version of the Dead's "Corrina" that alternated between restrained verses and joyous refrains. Karl Denson also joined the band to add a searing sax coda to an already lush, beautifully reverent "Dear Prudence."

All of the night's music added up to much more than noodle dancing and mindless good vibes. The acts on this year's So Many Roads tour truly took their music "furthur" than even dedicated listeners might have expected.

John Young is a free-lance writer.