Team Friendly

"We must dance with the dead, we must dance with the living
we must join together our song"

Team Friendly is all the dedicated Jambay fans. As Joe Rigney writes in this very enjoyable essay - which is the only bit of Jambay history I have ever found online:

....out of this state of self-induced chaos rose Team Friendly. Anyone who wants to be a member can be... all it requires is love and respect for those who share the experience of Here We All Are Now, So Let's Have Some Fun.

(This essay is a great read for anyone who was into the band back in the day, and may be of interest to latecomers as well, I couldn't say)

The vibe at the Jambay shows I attended was the highest and most ecstatic I have ever experienced in a life dedicated to the pursuit of such moments. I attribute that in part to the infectious Team Friendly vibe.

Now, most of those shows were at the WOW Hall, which is quite the unique venue. In the mid 90s, it was home to its own partisan band of highly evolved freak-dancers, spinners in both tribal-shamanic and sophisticated Sufi styles, Wiccans across the triune spectrum from beauty to crone, lysergic and mycological adventurers, bucolic horticulturalists of crops both legal and otherwise, tree-sitting radicals, mindblown, bug-eyed college kids, grizzled and roadburned Dead tour veterans, young Phish fans looking for an alternate fix, Kesey family Pranksters and their shenangians, and a vast and sundry array of unclassifiable individuals drawn, via karma or happenstance, into the orbit of this potent and storied structure. This gang came out in force whenever Jambay was in town, joined by Friendly travelers from all of the band's various hometowns and histories. So it's possible that my sample of personal experiences was drawn from an atypical subset of the overall spectrum of shows.

A rumor persists to this day that the man in the Hobbes suit and the Disco Wizard of Love are simply alternate incarnations of the same ascended Friendly being. We may never know for sure.

If more is to be said about Team Friendly, it can be said by Team Friendly itself. If you have something to add, please do so.

Lastly, everything in these pages is dedicated to the memory of Marie. We lost her a while back. She loved music, Jambay specifically, as much as or more than anyone I've ever known. She was great.

You find yourself wondering how the music was born

"Hey, we're Jambay, we play a type of music we call 'Jambay.'"

Jambay was a 4-piece rock band, formed in 1989, that created a unique and remarkable blend of complex post-progressive-rock composition, lyrically and conceptually sophisticated songwriting, intricately conversational improvisation, and blistering hard-rock performance. They also performed on all acoustic instruments as the "Lazy Porch Dogs," their own opening act. They built up a catalog in the neighborhood of 150 songs over the years, and used them to melt faces (as the kids call it these days) up and down the West Coast. They were a smart, funny, soulful band with kickass chops and some truly great songs.

Jambay was:

Chris Haugen performing on electric and acoustic guitars, sustain, lap steel guitar, mandolin, earnest authenticity, more sustain, and vocals.

Mike Sugar commanding electric and acoustic basses, mandolin, oblique and quirky constructions, some kind of pennywhistle or recorder or something, sundry found objects, and vocals.

Shelley Doty inhabiting electric and acoustic guitars, witty banter, mandolin, charisma, syncopated staccato phrasing, spirit, and vocals.

Matt Butler driving the drums and percussion, and providing laconic commentary. And, yes, vocals.

The original lineup split in late 1996 not long after completing their first full national tour. The general interpretation among fans was that they were simply worn out from being the best band no one had ever heard of (or paid) for so long. The actual reasons are nobody's business but theirs. A couple years later the three guys re-formed Jambay as a trio, and the quartet performs reunion shows from time to time.

All four band members continue to make worthy music both together and apart. There are links to their current projects in the little linky box over yonder -->. This site is about the original lineup.