Greensky Bluegrass @ Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard

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Greensky Bluegrass’s modus operandi was set from the gitgo when the band headlined a 90-minute concert Thursday at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard. Opening with a psychedelic tune that sounded like a valid chance to check both the band’s sound and light show, they immediately pivoted to follow up with an adaptation of Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues.”

And there you have it, in a nutshell. Jamgrass: from jam band to bluegrass in less time than it took to visit a beer stand. The quintet masquerades as an acoustic string band with a lineup of guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass and dobro. And at times, Greensky Bluegrass are just that, yet the musicians also have at hand an arsenal of effect pedals that they utilized to send the sound over Lake Michigan into the outer limits, a sound that might have bluegrass founder Bill Monroe calling for the National Guard. It was as if the hills and hollers of Rosine, Kentucky were busted by a close encounter.

Yet that sound wasn’t foreign to the legion of fans in attendance. Neither was a light show, possibly made all the more effective by smoke wafting in from Canadian wildfires. The drone and twang of banjo and dobro on “In Control” got pushed by subsonic bass frequencies. Another jam that featured mandolin through an envelope filter—a sound just this side of funky—morphed into what could have been bagpipes, frosted with echo-treated vocals atop.

“There you go saying those things that make me crazy,” sang mandolinist Paul Hoffmann picking a hypnotic mandolin riff on “Wish I Didn’t Know” as Anders Beck’s dobro virtuosity cut and jabbed like a fighter picking his punches.

So that’s half the deal. Take the stark high lonesome sound as pioneered by Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys and send it toppling through time and space. That accomplished, reel it back in for a feather-soft landing back to its roots. The synthesis as engineered by the likes of Peter Rowan and John Hartford which conflated into the tie dye and patchouli traveling tribalism of the Grateful Dead, was on full display.

Thanks to synchronicity or just good planning, amphitheater headliners Dave Matthews Band finished in time for that audience to infiltrate the Greensky bleachers. Nearby at the BMO bowl Cypress Hill’s thump drew Hoffman’s ear as he deftly segued into their tune singing, “Pick it, pack it. Fire it up, come along, and take a hit from the bong,” then appropriately riffed into “Smoke on The Water.” Next stop, jamgrass rap?