Bona Fide and ulu will be jamming out all day to their eclectic sounds and livening up the high standards of college-type hippies. Taking a gander at their live CDs, it's interesting to know what kind of fundamental elements make up these bands and what separates the two.
Ulu is a quartet with a bluesy, jazz-like, Phish quality. Their sound is an excellent montage of many new sounds of the jam band community today, with intricate Dave Matthews-like solos and instrumentals. The CD,What's the Deal, recorded live at Lilli's in Sommerville, Mass., is slightly devoid of stereotypical roars of the crowd.
The cheering throngs are noticeable in the first few tracks, but after a while the crowd seems to have busied themselves with other \extracurricular"" activities. Overall though, ulu seems to hold up its end of the bargain and delivers a decent set of intense instrumental compilations.
Bona Fide has a much different sound. The CD, Psychedelic Breakfast, has a better live-album feeling to it. The instrumentals are better orchestrated the crowd seems to be more focused on the show. The sound that emanates from the band is a rich mix of Zeppelin-like guitar riffs mixed with crazy Phish harmonic lyrics. The songs have an up-tempo liveliness to them that is associated with great jam bands of the past. With songs like ""Great Big Fiery Ball in the Sky,"" surely one will see some evidence of jam band music at its finest.
