The three-headed jam monster of Twiddle, Kung Fu and American Babies took to the stage Friday night, May 16th, at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia for the Jam On The River kickoff bash. The show was part of a co-headlining tour for Twiddle and Kung Fu, during which the bands alternated headlining duties.

American Babies kicked things off with a solid set of their genre-melding rock and roll, led by the ever-busy Tom Hamilton. The highlight of the set was their brilliant cover of Philadelphia’s own War on Drugs’ “Red Eyes.” American Babies recently played an entire show of Americana covers, thrown by Live For Live Music, that included the tune.

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After a short break, the funk was kicked into gear. Kung Fu drummer Adrian Tramontano and Twiddle drummer Brook Jordan came out to kick things off with dueling drum solos. From there they were joined on stage by bassists Chris DeAngelis (Kung Fu) and Zdenek Gubb (Twiddle). The bands’ bassists challenged each other to back-and-forth bass rifts much to the crowd’s delight.

The sound kept multiplying as keyboardists Todd Stoops (Kung Fu) and Ryan Dempsey (Twiddle) joined the fray for their turn. Lead guitarists Tim Palmeiri (Kung Fu) and Mihali Savoulidis (Twiddle) followed next with Kung Fu tenor sax player and lead vocalist Robert Somerville leading to a 20-minute jam session that was, without question, the highlight of the night. These two bands are perfect complements to each other and it leads to some interesting things on stage at the same time.

The guys from Twiddle left the stage to allow Kung Fu to bring the Philly crowd to its knees with their patented funk tunes that rival anyone this side of Lettuce. Kung Fu’s hour on stage provided various opportunities for their members to shine, including Todd Stoops performing an incredible double keyboard solo that was as mesmerizing visually as it was audibly. Kung Fu has become a well-oiled machine over the past couple years and they showed it off last night.

Kung Fu’s set ended just how it began, as Twiddle came back out to jam with them again. The co-headlining show format is great because of the lack of set breaks. As the bands played together and Kung Fu’s time ended, they left and Twiddle kept right on playing working right into their set seamlessly.

As Kung Fu maintained their patented funk-focused sound, Twiddle was a bit more malleable. They took elements of funk, reggae, and killer guitar rock and fused them together into an entertaining set that was a great balance to Kung Fu. Savoulidis’ solo work at lead guitar was unearthly as he ripped though portions of the Twiddle set. The crowd was fully on board, as they erupted in sing-a-longs during the majority of Twiddle’s tunes.

We weren’t yet done seeing Kung Fu though, as they returned to close out the show with their tour counterparts for another all-New England jam extravaganza. This time it was a little more meaningful though, as they played “The Thrill is Gone” as a tribute to B.B. King who passed away the day prior. These guys obviously loved playing with each other and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them tour together again in the future.

Check out fan-shot video of the BB King cover, courtesy of YouTube user 215Music:

[Words by Adam Furtado, Photos by Katherine Dey]