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River Hits Bend, Breaks Up: Rats Left Homeless

by Bryan Adeline

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We never saw it coming.

After years of heavy touring Athens based band Day by the River decided to break up. A few months ago when I wrote the article on this band that appeared here in Jambands.com, hell a few DAYS ago, I would never have conceived of the possibility that this group that finally seemed on the brink of crossing over into that so-called "next level" would instead be ending their run as among the most sweet and ferocious of live acts. I've been watching them for years and have been astounded at the musical advances they've been making, not to mention the technological risks involved in their all live mp3 CD Watermarks. Everything was building to a higher plateau, not a peak that had been past. Hadn't it? Apparently not. The music made by this group was not easily manufactured. The fluidity that allowed them to move easily from sweet ballads like "Feet Down" to thunderous rockers like "Taking Over" to latin-funk-jazz freakouts like "Doctor" came over years that for some them stretched back to early childhood. On the back of years of hard touring through the southeast with occasional forays into the northeast and midwest, it was time to conquer the west and see what was there. Their management had relocated to Boulder to lay the groundwork and now finally the time had come. The show in Boulder was a beautiful rejoining of separated family and was shared by Michael Kang of SCI and Jeff Sipe of Leftover Salmon. Great portents of great things to come.

Followed by a couple of shows in Wyoming and two opening for Karl Denson in Tahoe, the band was wailing full throttle by the time they got on top of the mountain to play at the fabled High Sierra Music Festival. Little did they know that a self-motivated advance team of Avocado-addled River Rats (Rattus groovicus) had arrived en masse from the east about 30 strong, together with a bevy of semi-locals from LA and San Francisco in the location they dubbed Kamp Groove all spreading the words of DBR's impending Saturday Showcase Stage set by word of mouth and mixed-media multi-dimensional notices that couldn't help but be noticed letting folks know where they oughta be during the few times when there wasn't any music coming from the Main Stage. Was that a buzz in the crowd or was that the sound of our collective minds? Was there a difference? Could the boys measure up to the hype? Oh yeah! It was hugeness at the peak of the fest as the packed-in crowd expressed varying degrees of their freedom and shimmied to the big sound produced by the big band on stage when the audience REFUSED to take "thank you" as enough until the promoter in his wisdom and observation that "this is getting out of conTROL!!!" allowed them back for an unprecedented encore that almost never happens at HSMF.

Then it was down the mountain for an overflowed Mick's Lounge in SF, the same at 14 Below in LA, then San Diego, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, a left turn at Albuquerque, back into Colorado, KC, then . . . finally . . . home ¾ to get a few weeks off and revel in the glow of the light of the "next level" up ahead, a quickie northeast run, then a bunch of long awaited shows in front of the home crowd in the south. Energy seemed incredibly high, the future visible. The center of the northeast trip was at the Berkfest in Massachusetts. By all accounts, that set, as were the preceding shows, was met with the same enthusiastic response as the shows out west. All was rendered irrelevant though when, on the way out to the next gig in Worcester, in bad weather, over a hill, a curve, and a heavily laden van and trailer, tires failed to grip asphalt, a slide then a slam into a utility pole. The accident destroyed the van, threw lead guitarist Jason Rabineau out a window, severely broke singer/guitarist Ted Lahey's left upper arm, spread other cuts and bruises among the other bandmembers, but most devastatingly, killed soundman Lee Laurence who took the brunt of the force of the crash.

Within hours the news posted to the DBR newsgroup and began to spread rapidly amongst fans, friends, family, and the entire jamband community. Shock gave way to sadness then an unexpected and beautiful outpouring of concern and tribute to this man who was only with the band a short time but had a significant and positive impact on everyone he came in contact with during that time. The massive number of posts came from everywhere, many of which have been collected and remain for viewing at the Day by the River website.By all accounts, the wake, funeral and following gatherings were marked primarily for the celebration of family and a life well-lived rather than the pain of sudden loss.

Following the funeral, thoughts slowly began to turn to what form the future would now take with the band, physically and emotionally injured, immobile without the van, and obviously financially strapped. Despite these challenges, the sense was that before too long, Day by the River would be back on track to spread their music around the country to their growing numbers of fans.

Then on August 27th, the second bomb dropped. A post from manager Reis Baron announced that due to a variety of reasons, Day by the River decided to disband. Initially lost in the surprise of the announcement was that the decision was made three days BEFORE the accident and so was not in any way implicated as a cause of the breakup. What the accident did do was hasten the announcement. Apparently the plan was to finish out booked gigs for the remainder of '99 and perhaps take the time to fully assess if breakup was the right decision. The accident, injuries, and loss of the van forced the band to make the announcement when it did to forestall the appreciated and generous offers of various types of assistance that were coming in from supporters throughout the community.

The question asked when it became clear that this was decided prior to the accident was simply "Why?" Why after so much hard work by the musicians, the management, and so many of their friends and fans to create, publicize, and spread this music was the band calling it quits right when they appeared to be on the verge of moving to that "next level?" Especially after the resounding success of the western tour with so many big events, the Magnolia Fest in particular, just a short time away? And then why not clue folks in about it?

The fabled specter of "artistic differences" doesn't really play a role in this breakup. One bandmember offered his explanation that frankly did little more than incite, shall we say, heated responses because of the sheer incongruity of the view from the stage. Another member more or less summed it up (and in the process made sense of the earlier explanation) with a simple admission of burnout from the accumulated hassles of the road and managing a life and supporting an existence that come with being in a rock band.

This a BIG country. Going from gig to gig often entails seemingly endless hours of travel that can't be enjoyed like a tourist. The night before involved getting to the gig, loading in, setting up, getting the sound together, finding decent eats, getting ready for and playing the gig, then loading out, winding down, dealing with the night's rest, and getting back out early enough the next day to get to the next gig way down the road. The show puts the musician at the center of everyone else's party for that night and sometimes it's hard to remember that for most of the audience it's just a one-night-stand with all the potential hedonistic excesses that can be indulged. Life on the road in a band means absorbing the energy of that crowd and trying to reflect it back. The highs of the party atmosphere of the gig followed by the grind of the travel, the lousy sleeping accommodations, the loss of sleep, poor eating habits, the temptation of drink and drugs and other distractions, being stuck in claustrophobic vehicles, in strange places, far from home, poorly attended gigs, constant money issues, can bring down the attitude of the most focused musician. Adversity on the road is easy to find. How people deal with adversity is one of the things that distinguishes us from each other. When faced with adversity do you push through, wait and consider the possibilities, or turn and walk away?

Sixty years after Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads, the problems of life on the road as a musician should not come as any surprise. Those problems are accepted in exchange for the possibility of the transcendent moment; when the connection between musicians and their instruments and each other and the audience and the very air around them increases the power of electricity running through their playing and their minds and their hearts. At once collective and individual, it is that central human experience which is the essence of the concept of the jamband. It is something that those who have had the chance to see and hear Day by the River have been privileged to know on a regular basis. Separately, the members of that band have the talent to do great things with music. But together they were sweetness and thunder. Whether disappointed, disgruntled, or understanding of this decision taken by five guys regarding their thing, we wish them well and look forward to seeing them again wherever and whenever it happens in music, out of music, but always in friendship.

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Bryan Adeline looks forward to hearing thoughts, comments, refutations, rants, raves, gripes, protestations, exaltations, expostulations, and of course, detailed corrections at: ba2@mindspring.com whereupon he will immediately print them out and make paper airplanes to fling around and amuse himself inside his rubber-walled room.