All Good Now Makes Jam History: Sit-ins, Debuts and Covers from Goose, The String Cheese Incident, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and More
Credit: Adam Berta
Over the weekend, the jam community came together at Columbia, Md.’s esteemed Merriweather Post Pavilion to celebrate All Good Now, the highly anticipated resurrection of All Good Music Festival. Since the beloved scene staple was formally retired in 2015, the genre’s landscape has changed substantially, but the packed bill from June 14 and 15 was a testament to the All Good’s legacy and renewed role in bridging the favorites of its heyday with the rising stars of 2025.
All Good Now welcomed 14 top-tier acts that span generations of jam, pairing formative innovators with the torchbearers of the new guard under headliners Goose, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and The String Cheese Incident. The festivities rolled in on Saturday, June 14 with early performances on the Chrysalis side stage from Cris Jacobs’ former band The Bridge, who’d taken the stage last at 2012’s All Good Music Festival, Dogs In A Pile and Neal Francis, who debuted a cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher” in honor of the late bandleader Sly Stone.
In the mid-afternoon, The Disco Biscuits opened up the hallowed Pavilion Stage with an explosive engagement that followed their electrifying TRACTORBEAM set on the first and only day of this year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. The jamtronica outfit’s opener with the nearly three-decade setlist staple Mulberry’s Dream established an early emphasis on shredding from Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig, which endured through the group’s ensuing four-track medley. Back on the Chrysalis stage, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway offered a change of pace with some masterful and sensitive bluegrass, including a solo cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Standing on the Moon” and full-band treatment of The Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden.”
The String Cheese Incident stormed the main stage from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. as the first evening’s penultimate act, following a standout Friday, June 13 show at Swanzey, N.H.’s Northlands Festival with sit-ins from Holly Bowling and Kanika Moore on The Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post.” The essential three-decade progressive bluegrass ensemble raised the stakes on Saturday and honored their long history with All Good with a sprawling single set featuring Molly Tuttle on a quick-picking cover of Townes Van Zandt’s White Freight Liner Blues. Premier Grateful Dead cover ensemble Joe Russo’s Almost Dead closed out day one with an immense headline, including a debut cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s infectious “Fortunate Son.”
On Sunday, All Good Now’s second day of music rolled in with a set from festival veteran Keller Williams’ Grateful Gospel project, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country and Eggy, who shared a rare cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Baltimore, Md.’s own Pigeons Playing Ping Pong opened the Pavilion stage, and their return to All Good felt to frontman Greg Ormont like a renewed rite of passage. “All Good was the mecca for the mid-Atlantic music scene for years,” he wrote when the festival was first announced. “It was our North Star as a rising band and a dream come true to finally play it in 2015. There was simply nothing like All Good Festival… until All Good Now!”
To mark this special occasion, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong packed their performance with surprises, including a live debut of the new original “Love Trap,” a ripping cover of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and a sit-in from Goose’s Peter Anspach on “Show Me.”
Following cooking sets from moe. and Lawrence, Goose finally stepped onto the main stage for All Good Now’s culminating headline performance. The indie-groove titans issued two sets over the course of three hours, making up for a regrettable cancelled set at Bonnaroo with ripping renditions of old favorites. Among the greatest highlights of the engagement were an adventurous rendition of the Everything Must Go standout “Your Direction” which led into the concluding phrase of “Same Old Shenanigans,” the electrifying first frame finale of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and a seamless second set, including record-setting 20+ minute treatments of “Factory Fiction” and “fast:slow.”
In all, All Good Now was both a triumphant return for a cornerstone of the ‘90s and ‘00s jam scene and a promising measure of the community’s current talents and intergenerational admiration. Learn more about the festival at https://allgoodpresentslivemusic.com/, and read up on All Good’s history and road to revival in the interview with founder Tim Walther from the most recent issue of Relix.
