I had waited long enough. It was time to see Eggy.
One of my closest and oldest friends had an extra ticket to the Connecticut quartet’s May 2 show in Hartford, and he said it was mine for the taking. I know well enough to not miss a show in the Nutmeg State’s capital, where bands tend to throw down hard both historically (see: basically any Grateful Dead show there, but why not start with 5/28/77) and in my recent experience (see: Dead & Company on 9/5/21 & 7/2/22, the Disco Biscuits on 10/25/23, moe. on 9/4/25, Bob Dylan on 9/6/25, Spafford on 3/15/26). I also saw that Eggy was playing a sober benefit festival for the Divided Sky Foundation, the drug rehab center established by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, at a ski resort in Ludlow, Vermont, on May 16 – the ideal way to experience New England jam band music in the warmer months. Given my pal’s long track record of putting me on to quality stuff, I accepted his generous offer to the show on the 2nd, gripped a ticket to the 16th, and prepared for my entry to Eggy the only way I knew how: setting up an interview with an Eggman for Shakedown Beat.
Eggy’s approach to jamming rests on a foundation of mellow, sunny pop rock, songs with hooks that you can bring home to the parents, knowing they’ll charm the whole table before swirling up some deep improv with distinct zones that tell a full story. Beneath that sweet shell, there’s a teeming world of complicated and interesting ideas that Eggy has the patience and ability to fully mine before bringing it all back home. Their star has risen considerably since 2016. The crowds keep growing, and it seems like everyone wants to work with them.
I asked the aforementioned ol’ buddy to try and articulate his burgeoning Eggy appreciation in a quote for the article:
“What I like about Eggy is that they are not afraid to move at their own pace. That feels extremely refreshing in a world where young bands are often compelled to repeat or recreate the same motions as their jam band elders. Listening to Eggy feels like getting a glimpse into a slowly unfurling universe filled with everything from pop-forward originals, Train covers and melted improvisations.”
Well said, anonymous friendo!
Eggy is made up of four fellows: Bassist Mike Goodman, drummer Alex Bailey, guitarist Jake Brownstein, and keyboardist Dani Battat. All of them sing.
Alongside their songbook of originals, Eggy’s repertoire of covers includes tunes by the Dead, CSNY, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, the Band, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Kacey Musgraves, Little Feat, Big Thief, Keith Jarrett, and Wilco. Nice!
I got Battat on the phone in April while the band was posted up in Las Vegas for a pair of Phish aftershows during the Vermont band’s much hyped second residency at Sphere, the glowing orb in a vast desert where jam dreams are transmuted into towering visions.
***
WAMC: Let's get right to this cool moment for you guys. As I understand it, you're in Vegas right now playing some aftershows for the first weekend of the Phish sphere run. Give us the scene report of watching Phish heads and jam band enthusiasts take over Sin City.
BATTAT: Well, I got the opportunity to go with my bandmate, Jake, to the Sphere last night, courtesy of one of our friends who took us out. Got to catch the first set, and myself and the rest of the band have been big fans of Phish, very significant part of our musical upbringing. We've seen a lot of Phish concerts together. Every time going to see the band, it always taps into that source material, really taps into the core, underlining a, this is kind of why we do it sort of feeling. And getting to go out there and witness the band that I've seen in various different places, this time in the Sphere, and seeing fans just continue to have great experiences with the band is very inspiring. Only a band that's kind of been doing it for 40 years can provide this sort of an experience that's like at such a grand level, but also that there's such emphasis on details and allowing people to connect with those little things. As I'm walking around, as you said, Sin City, there’s a lot of fans everywhere. It's kind of funny to be in a place that would otherwise feel so foreign to me, but feel actually very, very much like home. Everywhere you look, there's a T-shirt for a band you recognize, and sometimes that band happens to be an Eggy t-shirt, which is very cool to see. Definitely got to have some chats with a lot of fans along the way as we were walking around the city and going into the show, and people that were going to come out to our show last night, some people that are coming out to our show tonight. The vibe is high, the weather is great, it's not too hot. It's really cool. I've never been out here for- We did the Phish after party a couple of years ago, but didn't really get to immerse in quite a similar way. So it's been a lot of fun so far, and just gearing up to do it again tonight.
Is it hard to not imagine what the Eggy Sphere show would be like when you watch a band like Phish do it? I mean, you guys are ambitious, you've been playing like absolute animals for the last few years. Can you imagine a world where Eggy takes to the Sphere stage – or anti-stage, so to speak – and puts on something with that kind of scope?
Yeah, I think definitely. I mean, like I had mentioned before – and I don't think I could really spread the butter too much about how important Phish has been in our journey. I have so many memories of being 18, 19, years old, going to see the band, and just being like, that's what the heck I want to do, from the perspective of an artist. But I also just love- Like, I took a bunch of photos last night, and my favorite photo is when I turned around – and I was on the floor – I took a fisheye of the whole crowd just watching. And the ability of that band to be able to keep providing a very fan forward experience, I think, is testament to that journey, and it's something that we think about all the time. And, yeah, I mean, I can only hope that in 20 or so – I mean, I don't want to put, I'm going to say 20 years, because I see the amount of experience and lore and history that a stage that large would celebrate – but yeah, it's hard not to imagine being on the other end. And getting to watch the awe of the band when they're performing there- It's what it's all about. They're certainly not phoning it in. It's funny, because sometimes we go to play after parties, and we've done after parties for Phish, and we said to ourselves, we can't go to the show, we're going to go watch them and just try and do their thing, and you never want to sound exactly like anybody else. But I then had a very different experience this time going to the show and being like, I honestly don't want to sound like them, but I want to have that drive, that spirit, that ability to connect people. I think about how many friends I've made from just that connection of being a fan of the band and how many different lives interweave because of it. It’s like, oh, I want that though, I want to channel that spirit. So it's easy to dream, yeah.
People in the jam band world love to think about the different eras and zones of long running acts that are doing so much improv like you guys are doing. When you think about this era of Eggy over a decade into your existence, what kind of zone do you guys find yourselves in right now? How would you describe it?
I’d say the zone that we're in right now is trying to marry a couple of different influences that we have and desires that we have. A motto of the band has always been, we want to write the best songs that we can, and want to improvise at the highest level that we can. And that continues to change, especially as we’ve had, as you said, different eras. You do something for long enough you want to start naturally tweaking that thing, or you want to find something different that you can express yourself through and so right now, I would say we've been writing some of our favorite songs ever, and we're trying to introduce things into our improv that are new and exciting to us. More recently, we did the “Ballad of Blucifer,” which was our sort of rock opera, if you will, for our Halloween show back in October in Denver. And in doing so, we wrote ten songs. For example, I got a new keyboard specifically for the writing process. That keyboard had the ability to do some really cool things with arpeggiators, and that introduced a different thing that we can do, both in song but also in the improv. And now I'm trying to figure out how to sync up an arpeggiator to be able to create different sonic landscapes. And, Jake is an absolute tone junkie. He's always looking to find a new pedal, something else that can provide a different texture in the improv. Our band is more akin to water, so it's very flowing. It’s not always such a hard, now we're all playing one particular way, but we're definitely at this stage where we're trying to introduce things as different tools of expression. We listen to a lot of contemporary music and a lot of modern music, and so we're trying to kind of marry some of those more 2026, influences, with some of our tradition of that has been set before us, from the Dead, Phish, the entire jam world and whatever book is is being written there, and just trying to blend what feels like
our way of having it all come through us, because there's a lot of different influences happening. So, yeah, I don't know- I would say right now we're certainly having a moment, and then I think sometimes it takes a few more chapters to realize exactly what that moment is.
The last year, year and a half has been a particularly fascinating time for the band trying out different collaborations, different iterations of what Eggy is. While you guys went on tour with moe. last year and your bassist Mike was taking time off the road for some mental health stuff, you had this opportunity to play with one of the longest running institutions in the jam band scene. I mean, that must have been fascinating. What did you guys get out of that experience of playing alongside one of the heavy hitters in the Northeast for such a nice run there?
The first feeling we got from them was family. And I think that's such a testament to what the jam scene is. It's kind of like we've all been afflicted with this thing. It's like, oh, did you get the snake bites? Everyone's kind of got the same underlying respect and understanding for one another. And I mean, we showed up, and- I just want to give some huge credit to Mike, our bass player, for recognizing that he needed to take some time to really address some things about himself, and took that time and has come back stronger and continuing to be stronger than ever. And we were able to continue on it as a trio, as we felt like that was the best way to express the band as a band, rather than trying to find any sort of substitute or anything. And the moe. guys right away were just like all hugs, hey, anything you guys need from us, if you want us to sit in, if you just need somebody to talk to, they were there the whole time. Couldn't be a sweeter bunch of guys. And we resonated with them so hard, because these are people that are just brothers. That's how we feel with one another, is, we're brothers, and they have their brotherhood and their family, and they're introducing us to their wives, and the crew is this tight knit thing, and they just made the experience such a joy for us. And in what could have otherwise been a fairly low time for us, they just kept us elevated and they kept us going. Playing with them was the icing on the cake, because we've been fans of them for so long, and really admire what they do. But it was that warmth that they met us with- It just made you excited to show up for work every day.
I bet it was similarly exciting to play with Bruce Hornsby. I can imagine that everyone you know has been asking you about this, because for people who understand exactly how special Bruce Hornsby is- talk about a living legend, Especially as a fellow keys player, what was it like being alongside Bruce on the road? He's such an intelligent, interesting guy- What did you soak up from him?
Man. It’s interesting. They say, don't meet your heroes. There's always that old adage. The main thing that I soaked up from him was his energy and care about his craft, and that he's very intentional about everything that he does. He takes his work very seriously, but he's an absolute prankster, and just really modeled that ethos of you’ve got to take your craft seriously, but maybe take yourself a little less seriously when you're actually doing the thing. We were all a bit intimidated at first- We were like, man, what if this, what if that? Because we've heralded Bruce as our hero. I mean, we've gone on record countless times saying that he's literally our favorite artist of all time. All of us love Bruce to the core. And just immediately, he eliminated that barrier for us. We were like, Hey, we're so so happy to be here, we're so honored to be here. He goes, Okay, guys- enough of that. Let's play. We're here as contemporaries. We're not here by accident. We just felt immediate warmth from him, his entire band. Everyone was so encouraging. It was actually surreal. And getting to hang out after the shows and have Bruce play us music that he liked and tell us stories and just joke around, it was one of those moments in your life where you just kind of knew you were on the right path. I still keep in touch with Bruce, and it’s been fun just thinking that relationship has just begun to flower, when in our heads, all we ever wanted was for him to know how much we liked his music. And for him to regard us in a very similar way- I mean, I wanted to chat his ear off about piano and keyboards and stuff. But I feel like that would have just been all surface level, because, really, the meat of it was so much deeper, and it was just all about the intention and all about the attitude. He had us up playing- I remember Jake and I sat in on one of the first songs of the night, and you could see that he thought we could hang a little bit. And he was like, Alright, stay up. He called another tune. He's like, you know “Preacher In The Ring, Pt. II?” I was like, not how to play it. He goes, alright, and just calls out the chords. And he just cared more that you tried. And I think that was one of the biggest things too. At one point he had asked us to sit in on “Mandolin Rain,” to sing it. We're like, Dude, we don't know the harmonies to this song. He's like, I don't care if it sounds like s***, and his band reaffirm that- He just wants to see you get out there, and just take that leap of faith, trust in yourself. And if you don't execute, it's like, well, at least you tried. And I think that was one of the more revelatory parts of that too. It wasn't about, are you as good as Bruce Hornsby? Can you keep up? It was like, are you confident in yourself? Do you believe in yourself? Are you here for the the mission of just making music together? And it was just really a surreal experience. I’m definitely so grateful that we had that opportunity.
I want to turn to a crucial New England question. It seems like for a long time, the hierarchy of the New England jam scene has been Phish, maybe followed by Twiddle for some time- So essentially, a long dominance of Vermont in the jam scene up here. We're watching what I can only describe as some sort of insurrection from Connecticut…
Ha!
...With bands like Eggy and Goose and the guys in Big Shrimp, for example. It seems like there's this growing swell coming out of Connecticut that is really trying to topple the Vermont dominance that we've experienced for decades now. Can you speak to that? Is there a concerted effort from the Nutmeg State’s jammers to get on top of the pyramid?
What is it about the water in Connecticut? It's a very good question. Well, so you're a Connecticut guy-
I'm a Massachusetts guy, for the record.
You're a Massachusetts guy, OK. Well, then you're familiar enough with the Gathering of the Vibes, I presume.
Oh, and Max Creek, of course, they're a Connecticut band.
Yeah, well, so, the Gathering of the Vibes was our upbringing, you know? 18 years old, going to Gathering the Vibes- I think I went to four or five of them in a row. I bumped into everybody I knew that was ever in a band going there to see, as we mentioned, Hornsby would always be there, Phil Lesh & Friends, Further. You could go see Dark Star Orchestra. You'd get to see Levon Helm, although I missed him because I didn't even know who The Band was when I was 18. But you could go see all of these incredible acts, especially the ones that were doing it at the time too. You could go see Twiddle and RatDog and Soulive and Lettuce and The Nth Power, and it was all in your backyard. And, I mean, that was where I learned about this entire scene of music, and where so many of us really learned about it. And so I think that through that, there was a really beautiful moment when I was coming up, when the band was coming up, where there were some venues in New Haven, Connecticut, and in Bridgeport that were really just cultivating scenes- Pacific Standard Tavern in New Haven, BRIAC down in in Bridgeport, and the Acoustic in Bridgeport, too, there on Fairfield Avenue. There was just this scene that was happening. You can tell it was alive. You could just go out on any given night, and you would be surrounded with this live music scene that had some incredible players. I mean, I mean to add to the list of Connecticut people. I mean, you've got Kung Fu and The Breakfast with that whole squad of incredible heavy hitters- Tim Palmieri, Adrian Tramontano, Chris DeAngelis, Jordan Giangrecco- I mean, the list goes on and on. We were blessed to be surrounded by such incredible talent. At no time did I ever enter into a jam in any of these times feeling like I was hot stuff, because there was always somebody there that was like- Deep Banana Blackout, I'd be watching Cyrus on keys being like ahhhh. There's so many guys that were inspiring me and the rest of the band. And I'm sure this is the case for the guys in Goose and Big Shrimp, Residual Groove- another band out of Connecticut that's doing really great stuff, a younger band that's just starting to go out on tour. And the scene is very alive and thriving. And I wish I could be going out more. I'm on the road quite a bit, as you know. And so, it's been happening, and Connecticut's kind of like one big city for music. You could live in New Haven, but if there's a good show in Hartford, you're going to Hartford. You could live in New Haven, and if there's a show at a bar in Bridgeport, you're driving 30 minutes to go to Bridgeport. And, like, it's just inherent. People are down to make travels for it. Connecticut always gets the rap of being the drive through state. You're going from New York to Boston, passing through, and so we really appreciate the music that we get to see. I’m just very happy to have come up in what I could really best describe as a vibrant music scene.
Something I'm always interested in is how bands like you guys, in this era where forums and social media are so omnipresent in the jam scene – a scene that's notoriously defensive, often witheringly critical – you guys have, I imagine, at some points faced your share of that. I don't think there's any band in the jam scene that I've not heard someone say they're a disgrace to life itself for some reason. How do you guys handle that as a unit? Clearly, with giving Mike space to handle his mental health, it seems like you're pretty proactive and outspoken about making sure that these are considerations that you're foregrounding. But in general, when you hear people say the kind of cartoonishly hyperbolic negative stuff that is unfortunately common in this scene, how do you guys handle that?
For the most part, we just try and laugh it all off, because the fact that anyone felt so compelled to say something negative is hilarious. The times that it actually gets under our skin – which, this isn't to encourage – sometimes, when we'll read something like, man, you know, he's actually kind of right, and then that's when it’s actually a critical thing that's tangible. Like, oh, man, actually, he’s right, I did sing really [bad] that night or something. But at the same time, it's so inevitable that we've just adopted the mentality of being like, hey, if they don't like it, there's a thousand other bands you could go like, No one says you have to like our band, and if you don't get with it, all right, you know, that's fine. No one's saying you have to. Obviously, we love positive feedback as much as possible. We have so far been able to feel we- I wouldn't say we've gotten any hate, maybe just people not enjoying the show, and that's fine. You can't win them all. I think that's our mentality. You might piss some people off along the way. If you're a star athlete and you're going into the rival arena to go play some basketball, you better get booed or you're not doing your job right. You're going to have to turn some heads and maybe anger some people along the way too. And that's all part of the journey. Maybe people just don't get what we're trying to do. For the most part, I feel we do a good job of conveying what it is we're trying to do so people have a good expectation of what they can get. And everybody's a critic. Or, as my aunt likes to say, you know, opinions are like a*******. Everybody's got one.
Well said. So I'm going to finally catch you guys live a couple times this month. It's something I’m really looking forward to. I'm particularly excited about your appearance at the Divided Sky benefit at Okemo in Vermont coming up. Talk to me about that! A sober jam band event is something that I think in past eras would have been considered like an impossibility. Personally, I'm sober, and it's so exciting to be like, Oh, cool, I get to go to a show where it seems like the environment is not going to be one that's dominated by people who are absolutely melted. I want to know your thoughts on that, because it seems like a really noble experiment, and I'm excited to see how it turns out,
Man, I mean, we're excited for it too. The Divided Sky Foundation does really incredible work. So first of all, we're honored and excited to be able to link up with them and help spread their mission. I learned only recently about it being a sober event. I thought that was awesome. We go on stage completely sober, we all went to the Phish show last night completely sober. And not to say that I don't like to have a beer every now and again, but being in an environment where you're just really, truly affected by what's exactly happening in that moment, it's beautiful. So much of our lives is trying to twist the knobs to kind of get us to feel a little bit better, whether that's through our phones or through a variety of means. And not to say- I want people to enjoy themselves as they do throughout, come to an Eggy show, enjoy how you like and how you're comfortable with. All that being said, I think having an environment that's curated for this sort of- I think sober is an interesting word, because to me it’s more unaffected. It's such a norm in our society, so much of live entertainment is just built around the ability to sell alcohol. It's a sort of flawed model in that regard, that it's gonna be cool to be in a space that's truly just about the authentic vibe and the art and the collaboration that's going to happen there with different artists. And I was talking to my friend last night, Dr Leah Taylor, who does this thing called Embodied Groove, which is so amazing. It's the highest you'll ever feel is after doing an Embodied Groove for an hour, where you just, it’s a total- I won't do it justice describing it, but she uses music, and the times I've seen it and participated in it, there's has been a live band improvising to it and you do this full check in with your body. You get your body moving, you get the blood flowing, meditative. It's beautiful. I've seen people just cry during this experience, and it's like the purest feeling ever, that nothing could get you there in such a way. And so, mental health and substance abuse are very important things to us. We get asked a lot how we got the name Eggy, and it's a bit of a bittersweet story, which is that when Jake and I were starting our band back in high school, we had a buddy named Eddie Torrence. An old nickname back when he was a kid was Eggy, so we were teasing him- let's call the band Eggy, let's call the band Eggy. And the more he puts up a fight, the more we want to do it. So sure enough, we called the band Eggy. And then about, I would say, six, seven years later, he passed away from a heroin overdose, and we lost him. But I think one of the most serendipitous things is like, man, we get to carry his name around and and when we see people wearing a t-shirt that says Eggy, when people are chanting the name Eggy, we want them to know that it really comes from a deep and meaningful place, and It's inspired by a really beautiful soul who’s not with us physically anymore, but is with us every step of the way. And I wish that he was able to get the help that he needed at the time that he needed it. And so groups like Divided Sky Foundation and Backline, and anyone that helps with being able to to bring people to a better place is doing the absolute greatest work you could in this lifetime.
That's a beautiful answer. I really appreciate that. So I don't want to take up too much of your time this afternoon- We'll close with a question I love to ask touring musicians who, maybe you've grown somewhat accustomed to the terrestrial or realistic options for venues. What is a fictional venue you would want to play with Eggy? I often, for myself, turn to Quark’s bar from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It'd be so fun to play in that space. Can you think of a fictional location you would like to play with with Eggy?
Well, this isn't exactly fictional, though it is certainly a pipe dream. We've always said since Day 1 - Eggy, first band to play on the moon.
***
I’m a big proponent of the “I’ll try anything twice” mindset, especially as it applies to the kaleidoscopic world of jam band music. A band can absolutely suck one night, and then stun you the next. It’s why you’ve got to be forgiving and play the long game. To expect something sublime the first time is often asking a lot from the famously indifferent universe. Sometimes, even a very good first show can be quickly overshadowed. You can never know what you might have missed with only a single pass. Sometimes it’s that second step that really grabs you.
Take for example…
-I saw Dead & Company at SPAC for the first time back in 2019, the first step in a long journey with the band that is nearest and dearest to my heart. It was a great show for so many reasons, but just a week later, seeing them play to a crowd of over 40,000 in Foxborough and just empty the tank with the best setlist I would ever see them jam was an immediate upgrade.
- My first Disco Biscuits show on 8/14/22 at the Catskill Mountain Jubilee (which at least one longtime fan believes was among the worst shows of 2022) was enough to get me on the hook, but it was my second Disco Biscuits show (which was in fact at Infinity Music Hall on 11/10/22) was the real mind-blowing freakout that made their stock soar in my book (bathroom was an open air drug market where I had to politely decline an unidentified line offered to me while I was pissing at the urinals, the show ended with a venue employee pulling the fire alarm and cutting the stage power, and most importantly, the jamming was absolutely exquisite).
-My first moe. show was on a winter’s eve at the Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock, a lovely and intimate way to acquaint myself with the band. But my second time, seeing them own the Northlands stage in New Hampshire in June 2025 and play to a full, delighted festival crowd as the night settled in on the grounds was on another level.
All that being said, maybe it was fate, maybe it was fortune - I’ll take either - but on May 2, 2026, Eggy put on the best introductory show I’ve seen a band play since I first saw Goose back in Swanzey, New Hampshire, on June 11, 2021.
Full of mixed grill from City Kebab House, my pal and I posted up by the Infinity Music Hall soundboard (the thinking person’s floor spot), chattered with the tapers (including a guy from Berkshire County with an impressive resume on on Archive.org) and watched a packed, enthusiastic, and impressively age-diverse crowd fill up the room before Eggy took the stage. When they did, it didn’t take long to realize I was in for something special.
The sound was immediately full, rich, well rounded. Like their friends and forebears moe., Eggy is a proper American rock band at heart. The tunes have a slight twang and swagger that could sit easy with any fan of the classics. Avoiding traditional jam band tropes, there’s no exaggerated funk affectations or forced proggy weirdness here. Like their Connecticut compatriots Goose, Eggy channels the indie folk harmonies of Fleet Foxes (another band they cover) that lend an earthy and earnest feeling to their craft. There’s a lack of schtick that feels confident and honest. I believe they have what it takes to blow up, bigtime.
The opening ten-song first set showed Eggy’s comfort playing a fairly straight forward composition-heavy show with easy-going, catchy rock and pop songs. The improv that emerged was organic and complementary, elevating the tunes in a way that underscored their strength and depth. Many jam bands - including some that I love dearly - lean on improv to distract from compositions that solely exist as launch pads. Jam band lyrics are often a punchline for good reason. Eggy is not such a band! The set truly took flight when Bailey - the diamond in the rough drummer who’s also the best singer in the band - began “Shallow Rivers” (which debuted in Hartford back in 2024). It’s a straight up beautiful song, soulful and effective at channeling the feel of sunbeams warping and sparkling through clear water. The jam that bubbled up out of the tune felt like a warm spring breeze at dusk, played thoughtfully and with great care. Eggy’s finest moments don’t rely on bombast, but on finding the most interesting ways to mine their songs’ themes, sometimes unspooling them into their simplest elements and other times expanding them into something cinematic and vast. There was a narrative flow and wholeness to the show that was very rewarding, and took me by surprise.
Other first set highlights included the emotional swell of “Paper Bed” and the upbeat cosmic disco of “Laurel” tripping up to the stars before settling into an anthemic celebration of Earth’s favorite one- Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up The Sun.” Having just seen Ms. Crow perform her 2002 smash hit at Outlaw Festival in Hartford the summer prior, this felt like another psychic echo, the universe confirming that I was in the right place (Hartford, Connecticut). It’s also just great to hear “Soak Up The Sun” any ol’ time, because it has strong bones and gets toes tapping whether you see it on an amphitheater lawn or in the checkout line at the pharmacy. With big, pounding drums, and a drippy, psyched out take on its main hook that is now drilled into my brain, Eggy’s loving, jammed out rendition was jubilant and as restorative as a big glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.
A big shoutout to Goodman on the bass, who held it down all night and filled up the low end with aplomb.
Brownstein - a very talented guitarist who favors elegance over flash - moved over to acoustic guitar for the last three songs of the first set. The shift into more tender, plaintive fare also saw Battat turn from synths to more straight forward piano from his galaxy-spanning synth work for some lovely interplay. The set ended with Bailey singing the wistful and sweeping “Agatha.”
It was a great first set! It established the band’s bonafides and strong fundies, and wrote Eggy a blank check for set two. And boy did they cash it in!
After re-emerging from set break wearing coffee filters as head coverings - absolutely mental - the band dove head first into what would be the longest version of their song “Shatter” ever played: an astonishing, almost 40 minute tour de force epic that feels like it flies by in a fraction of that time- the peak jam band experience where time seems to freeze and a wormhole opens. Effectively sustaining a jam for that long without resorting to cheap tricks or fizzling out is no easy feat, but Eggy made it look like just one more Saturday night at Infinity Music Hall. The late game decision by Jake to steer the band into a “Come On Eileen” celebration was inspired. I can’t do it justice in mere words, but trust me when I say that any head will be locked into this dump truck of a jam. A real statement, and one delivered with precision and passion. Easily a major 2026 highlight without breaking a sweat.
From that high, Eggy romped through “Trixieville” before entering yet another tripped out melt zone with Battat unleashing spiraling synth lines that reminded me of Acid Mothers Temple over a sticky jam. The whole affair was delicately whittled down into near silence before Eggy launched into a 15-minute cover of Jerry Garcia’s “Cats Under The Stars” with Battat on vocals, reemerging for the first time in 59 shows. It was clearly a love letter to the Connecticut jam scene, and the band attacked it from every angle, winding their way with dexterous playing between the verses and choruses with an apparent glee that Garcia would have approved of. After a spunky “Burritos El Chavo 2,” Eggy closed out the second set by finishing the mammoth “Shatter” in full freakout mode. When the dust settled and the lads returned to the stage, Brownstein noted it was the first time he’d ever seen Battat actually lick the keys before.
The encore opened with the lush, loping “Silver Steed (My Blue)” before dealing with some unfinished business: the ends of the yet unfinished “Soak Up The Sun,” “Laurel,” and “Burritos El Chavo 2.” With every last thread sewn up, my first Eggy show was complete. I left buzzing.
Eggy offered a full meal. I ate up every bite.
See you fellow Eggy heads at Music On The Mountain at Okemo May 16! I’ll be the white guy with a beard and jam band apparel. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.
