Photo by Dean Budnick

As it turns out, the true “interlocking” moment happened just before 3:45pm on the Ridge Stage.

Shortly before the end of Del McCoury Band’s lovely, late-afternoon spot, the members of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, emerged from the wings and joined the first family of bluegrass for the tail end of their performance. Then, without flinching, the two acts assumed their second-line positions, paraded behind a wall of gear—and musician onlookers—and marched next door to the Oak Stage for Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s set. The recent studio collaborators—who have done more than most modern collectives to keep traditional American music relevant in the age of indie-rock, EDM and jambands—riffed on a number of heritage favorites like “I’ll Fly Away,” before the members of Del McCoury Band faded away, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band launched into their set (which included a number of selections from their first album of all-original material, 2013’s That’s It!).

The stage swap completed a circle that Lockn’ co-founder Dave Frey started way back on the first night of his first great festival, H.O.R.D.E., in 1992. On that evening in Portland, Maine, opening act Aquarium Rescue Unit made the best use of their time by segueing directly into Widespread Panic set. The transition worked and proved that jamband festivals are more about unique live moments and ego-less collaborations than individual band showcases.

It is perhaps the sentiment that differentiates Lockn’ from so many other large-scale music festivals this summer. At a time when most multi-band music gatherings favor eclecticism over unity, almost every band on the Lockn’ lineup can trance their roots back to the origins of live, improvisational music or organic, classic rock. Yet, Friday’s lineup still displayed modern jam-rock’s full, rich kaleidoscope.

As fans filtered in on Friday morning, the noticeably larger crowd gathered for an afternoon of new sounds like the blues-meets-Modest-Mouse-inspired crunch of People’s Blues of Richmond, the 21st century Appalachian strings of Cabinet and the post-jam, jazzy turns of Tauk, who turned in an instrumental take on The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” After Del McCoury Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s mostly acoustic tango, Drive-By Truckers brought a bit of alt-country grit to the festival’s main stage.Virginia-hero Keller Williams also warmed up the crowd over on the Triangle stage with the first of three “earlier-riser” shows. This time, he ran through a set of reworked Dead songs as Grateful Grass with the help of former Yonder Mountain String Band mandolinist Jeff Austin, Del McCoury Band fiddler Jason Carter, String Cheese Incident bassist Keith Moseley and dobro ace Jay Starling, who has proved his versatility by also playing with Williams in Grunge Grass.

Lockn’ alums The String Cheese Incident, on the eve of their most extensive East Coast tour in almost a decade, kicked off their first set of the day with a number by keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth—who was clad in a colorful cat shirt—from SCI’s new album Song In My Head, “Can’t Wait Another Day.”Though the tune’s rolling, breezy vibe was in many ways the opposite of the Truckers’ punk grit, the transition worked, largely because at the end of the day the groups still share many of the same original reference points. Never ones to stay stationary stylistically, SCI’s setlist ran the gamut, including the groovy “Pygmy Pony,” the Indian-inspired trance-fiddle tune “Bollymunster” and the Grateful Dead-indebted “Way Back Home.” During the jam out of “Way Back Home,” they also nodded to Thursday’s Kool & The Gang tribute set with a pronounced “Celebration” tease while newgrass pioneer Sam Bush emerged to add some tasty fiddle during one of the band’s best new numbers, Bill Nershi’s “Colorado Bluebird Sky.”

Photo by Stuart Levine

For many the evening’s most anticipated set was Bill Kreutzmann’s Locknstep Allstars.

Literally stepping in for his Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir when he cancelled, Kreutzmann rounded up an all-star band that consisted of Disco Biscuits keyboardist Aron Magner, with whom he recently collaborated at Gathering of the Vibes, as well as American Babies/Brothers Past guitarist Tom Hamilton, longtime Grateful Dead family associate and guitarist Steve Kimock, Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, and an assortment of special guests. Having recently proved his command of the Dead catalog through his role in Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Hamilton led the ensemble through the evening’s first two songs, “Let the Good Times Roll” and “Big Railroad Blues,” both of which aligned stylistically with the bluesy Americana he explores in American Babies. Helping guide the jams, Magner remained faithful to the songs’ intended arrangements, adding lush organ fills to the material instead of pushing the band into the trance-fusion sounds his band is best known for. Their decision to open with “Let the Good Times Roll” completed yet another circle: In the wee hours of the morning, the Locknstep Allstars encored with the same tune during their set in the Super VIP tent.

Keller Williams—an avid Deadhead who played with Kreutzmann in The Rhythm Devils—sat in on a sweet-voiced version of “Bird Song,” before Taj Mahal emerged for the blues classic “Further On Down The Road” and “Stagger Lee.” That sequence set the stage for one of the night’s best improvisational pockets, a run from “Help on the Way” through “Wharf Rat,”“Slipknot” and, finally, a show-closing “Franklin’s Tower.”

During the opening jam, Magner touched on some of the light ‘Disco Dead’ flourishes the Biscuits explored with Kreutzmann at Gathering of the Vibes, and sequence also briefly drifted into “Dark Star,” the signature late-‘60s number which they jammed on for 45 minutes in the festivals VIP tent late Thursday night. Meanwhile, New Orleans singer Papa Mali, perhaps the drummer’s closet collaborator in recent years, added to the group’s haunting take on “Wharf Rat.” The set also featured a cross-stage interlocking collaboration as Kreutzmann sat by himself on the Ridge Stage while over on the Oak Stage, EOTO’s Michael Travis and Jason Hann emerged and the three musicians interacted via an audio feed.

As The Locknstep Allstars wrapped up, the String Cheese launched into their second set. The sextet stacked their second set mostly with psychedelic-fueled, dance numbers like “Rosie,” “Song in My Head” and a run from “Joyful Sound” into “It It What It Is.” The colorfully dressed crowd was a fitting reflection of the band’s onstage energy. They closed with “Texas,” one of String Cheese Incident’s best know numbers, but uncoiled the song into a loose, funk jam that referenced a bit of Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless.” (The set’s other teases included another Kool & the Gang favorite, “Get Down On It.”)

The only pause in music took place before Phil Lesh & Friends took the stage for the night’s headlining performance. The bassist’s band featured some of the biggest names from his recent Friends lineups: Furthur/Duo drummer Joe Russo, Medeski Martin & Wood keyboardist John Medeski, legendary jazz guitarist John Scofield and Gov’t Mule/Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes, who has clocked in thousands of miles on the road with Lesh thanks to his time in The Dead and the definitive Phil Lesh Quintet. As is Phil &Friends tradition, Lesh and his group started with a swell of improvisational music before the set proper kicked off with “China Cat Sunflower.”

In an odd turn of events, though most the day’s performers looked to the Dead for inspiration in one form or another, Lesh peppered his setlist with an unexpected mix of covers. Most notably, he scooped Saturday Lockn’ performer Steve Winwood and played two of his Traffic classics, “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” and “Dear Mr. Fantasy”—with Haynes singing both selections. Lesh also charged through a memorable version of Ryan Adams’ Cold Roses single “Let It Ride,” a holdover from the indie singer-songwriter’s brief Friend tenure after the 2005 Jammys. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Phil & Friends chucked in Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” one of the first true hits by an improvisational rock band, near the end of their two-hour performance.

The rest of the set relied mostly on classic Grateful Dead songbook material. The earlier portion of Lesh’s set focused on slower, spacey jams, especially during a lengthy “Unbroken Chain” that moved into “Mountain of The Moon” and “The Other One.” With Scofield and Medeski, who often perform together with MSMW, functioning as something of a band within a band—and Russo patiently locking in with Lesh and Haynes—the group stretched into the ether on more than one occasion. (It is worth noting that Scofield actually saw the Dead perform in their infancy in the ‘60s, long before he made his name on the jazz circuit, played individually with Haynes and Medeski and laid the groundwork for the jazz-fusion scene that helped launch Russo’s career.)

The quintet sped things up at the end of the night, though, blasting through a greatest hits checklist that included an electric “Friend of the Devil,” a funky “Shakedown Street” and a version of “Box of Rain” that hugged “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Franklin’s Tower.” (A song both founding members of the Dead played yesterday.)

Though Lesh’s set closed Lockn’s mainstage festivities, music continued into the night. Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi offered a rare acoustic show on the Triangle Stage, with members of their band rotating in to join the pair, while Chris Robinson Brotherhood played an hour of psychedelic cowboy music on the Shakedown/Relix Stage. Lesh also entertained fans who purchased Super VIP tickets with the help of Russo, Furthur’s John Kadlecik and Terrapin Family Band’s Ross James.