Wetlands Preserve Hosts Superjam For The Ages 15 Years Ago Today

In the early morning hours of September 11, 2001 famed NYC nightclub Wetlands Preserve closed its doors after a superjam for the ages featuring DJ Logic, Mike Gordon, Stanley Jordan, Warren Haynes and others. Just a few hours after the superjam was finished, a pair of planes flew into the World Trade Center changing life as we knew it in New York City. Though future shows at Wetlands were planned in the days following, they were canceled which left the superjam as the final performance at the venue besides free-to-the-public shows at the end of the month.

Wetlands opened on Valentine’s Day in 1989 and was an incubator for the burgeoning jam scene. Many jam acts including Phish, Blues Traveler, God Street Wine, moe., the Disco Biscuits, STS9, Umphrey’s McGee and the Dave Matthews Band played some of their earliest NYC gigs at the venue and helped established Big Apple fanbases at the corner of Laight and Hudson in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborbood between 1989 and 2001. It wasn’t only jam acts that made their New York City debuts at the famed venue run by Larry Bloch through 1997 and then Peter Shapiro through its finale. Sublime, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, the Wallflowers and Counting Crows all played their first NYC gigs there according to the New York Times.

One year ago, in honor of the release of Soule Monde’s debut EP, Ropeadope Records dug into its archives and came out with a recording of the superjam which began on September 10, 2001. The recording below starts with a speech from the last Wetlands owner Peter Shapiro and continues with the improv-heavy superjam led by DJ Logic:

Videographer Larry Blumenstein recorded the action on September 10, 2001 and has shared three clips from the evening on YouTube:

The Capitol Theatre has also shared footage from that historic night:

https://vimeo.com/84890377