Slipping all the way to the bank

The Slip

Rex Theater

Sept. 24

All ages

$12 at the door

… The Slip

Rex Theater

Sept. 24

All ages

$12 at the door

Jam bands could make a pretty handsome wad of cash if they wised up a little. After all, those burn-out college kids that venture out to the record store to pick up a Phish disc are, more often than not, the same who stock up on various forms of stoner paraphernalia.

Imagine if a jam band put out a record and it came with a complimentary set of EZ Wider rolling papers. Cha-ching! EZ Wider sells the album and the album sells EZ Widers. The band gets richer and the audience gets stoned. A little cross promotion never hurt anybody.

As amusing as this idea may be, it’ll probably never happen. But the imaginative feasibility of this scheme is indicative of what jam bands have unfortunately become: a cheesy college cliche. And although the musicianship and talent within these groups is rarely subpar, too much of it serves to ape jam band royalty – Phish.

So we find genre-defying New England trio The Slip. With a basic guitar-bass-drums setup, The Slip combines a variety of styles to create a smorgasbord of jazz, rock, funk and folk. The band’s official Web site presents them as “constantly working to achieve a universal sound – a sound that can’t be defined in any specific genre, culture or label.”

On their latest record, Angels Come on Time, The Slip has put together some pretty impressive arrangements, the better of which are brilliant jazzy instrumentals, and the worse of which sound like you-know-who. The record was actually recorded in Phish’s Vermont farm house, during the dead of winter. The correlation is too strong to ignore.

Even if The Slip would like to imagine themselves free of a musical genre, they’ve done more than enough to establish themselves among the jam band community. Their days on the road have most recently found them sharing a stage with the likes of Les Claypool, Chris Wood (of Medeski, Martin and Wood) and Phish keyboardist’s band Vida Blue.

If for some reason you stumble into Rex Theater on Tuesday night phor The Slip’s set, expect a reserved yet elaborate perphormance. The band’s reputation is certainly not unphounded. But be prepared to meet a sea of bloodshot eyes and hemp necklaces.