photos by Ron Adelberg

On June 6th, South Jersey’s Veterans Island, part of Cooper River Park, served as homebase for Island Jam, a daylong music festival celebrating the tenth anniversary of beloved local craft brewery Tonewood Brewing. Promoter Rising Sun Presents, who recently made headlines for purchasing The 8×10 in Baltimore, assembled an outstanding lineup of artists, both local and national, for a day of music spanning rock, jazz, funk, folk, and electronica. The performers blended originals and covers in demonstration that both can serve as breeding ground for creativity and original artistry.

The first act of the day was regional favorite Crickets & Cicadas, the area’s leading Grateful Dead-adjacent experiment a la JRAD, born years ago from a weekly Tonewood residency. Bassist and singer Anton Milioti leads the collective mightily and presents a unique spin on the Dead’s music, wearing his influences on his sleeve: from Phish to J Dilla, Operation Ivy to the Disco Biscuits. To the latter point, joining the band was Aron Magner, one of the day’s artists at large who had previously sat in with Crickets for a December 2025 celebration of the third anniversary of their Tonewood residency. (If that show was a proof of concept, this show underscored that proof – emphatically so!) Drummer Jim Burkhart opened atmospherically, with Magner and guitarists Jake Brightman and Steve DiFalco trading licks over Milioti’s melodic foundation, steering the band into the first of four songs in the set: the ambitious “Terrapin Station.” They navigated expertly into “Let It Grow” and a jam that flirted with “Harry Hood” territory before settling into the Biscuits’ “Home Again” and raucous cheers from the crowd. The band was fully dialed in and jamming hard before circling back to “Let It Grow” to close out the set. It’s clear that these local favorites are destined for bigger stages.

Following an acoustic folk/bluegrass set on the side stage by Sean Daniels and the Law Abiding Citizens, the Winderman Colman & Kimock (WCK) Trio took the main stage next. Drummer John Morgan Kimock literally began the set by drumming on a pair of old school copper-bottom saucepans, leading the band into a cover of “Cars Trucks Buses,” one of a handful of tunes they covered on their early 2026 debut LP, Out of This World. Bassist Jonathan Colman, the band’s enthusiastic spokesman, shared that the band has been busy writing and recording new music, before the band proceeded to debut two of them – “Bikini” and “Vacation” – apropos of the warm weather and vibe of the day. They presented a cover of the Allmans’ “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” set to a Latin clave rhythm, and interwove sections of “Stairway to Heaven,” to the sheer joy of the audience and players themselves. Keyboardist Eli Winderman next opened one of the most fun tunes of the set: a cover of “What I Am,” the perennial one-hit-wonder by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. (Contrary to popular misbelief, Jerry Garcia did not perform the solo on the recorded version of the tune.) The band invited Magner and Kanika Moore, another of the day’s artists at large, for an inspired original take on Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box,” further demonstrating that you can make someone else’s tune your own.

DJ Jay Rose performed a side-stage DJ set that strangely and wonderfully mixed Miles Davis’ Bitches’ Brew with music by the recently-departed Rob Base, and paved the way for a main stage set by nineteen-year-old guitar phenom, Grace Bowers. Bowers’ set complemented the rest of the show well: her first album consisted of large ensemble funk, and she even performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Trey Anastasio at 2025’s Love Rocks NYC benefit concert; but her newer output has a leaner and decidedly more punk rock aesthetic, so the combination made for a refreshing counterpoint to the day’s set. She performed with a four-piece, playing both originals – like “Spaced Out” – and covers – like Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” – that brought a harder rocking, less funky drive to the day. She also performed a pitch-perfect cover of “Play That Funky Music,” and had countless moments of welcome rock god shreddery on her vintage 1960s Gibson SG. 

The Disco Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein, the third of the day’s artists at large, featured next on the side stage with a DJ Brownie set. Brownstein has been leaning more and more into DJing over the last decade or so, and this set showed an artist bringing the best of both worlds to bear for a group of jam band music fans who also like to dance and get lost in the rhythm. His set included a variety of originals and covers, blending lyrics from “Tourists (Rocket Ship),” from the Biscuits’ last LP, Revolution in Motion, with classic beats like Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).” Magner and Cloudchord, who would go on to perform their own sidestage set as Deadtronica, joined in to the delight of fans. (Brownstein thanked Cloudchord, as well as Jesse Miller from Lotus, for helping him prep his set.)

The sky was foreboding as LaMP took the main stage, determined to keep the crowd grooving for as long as the weather would let them. They blazed through a series of original jazz-jam tunes and arrangements that they’ve honed across two albums and consistent touring, allowing each member of the group to shine. (They also shared that they’ve been busy writing and recording their eagerly awaited third LP.) Scott Metzger-led “Out of Curiosity” is always a standout, his dancing jazz lick serving as the tune’s head and providing more than enough space for Russ Lawton and Ray Paczkowski to jam over. Lawton’s drumming is equal parts loose and tight, and Paczkowski’s left hand functions so independently, it’s easy to forget they’re a three-piece. They’ve perfected the acid jazz thing, taking a standard groove and somehow giving the impression that it’s melting; unfortunately, increasing rain drops added to the feeling of melting, and the band had to cut their set short while concertgoers fled to their cars to wait out the rain.

After receiving the all-clear, fans returned to the grounds for a side-stage set by Deadtronica, the collaboration between Magner and Cloudchord offering electronica-heavy interpretations of Grateful Dead tunes, a telling complement to the SPAGA Plays Dead jazz project Magner released around the same time. Kanika Moore joined the band for “Dancin’ in the Streets,” with the band nailing the “snake walk” part of the jam that tends to evade lesser players. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong finally took the main stage to close out the day. Augmenting the four-piece was frequent collaborator, Jon Brady, whose keys work is beloved by fans for elevating the band’s jams. They played a set of originals and covers, including a raging Pink Floyd jam – “Pigs” and “Have a Cigar” – and a mini keyboard sit-in by Magner, only to close out with a Kanika Moore-led cover of CeeLo Green’s “Fuck You” that brought the house down.

Through rain and shine, Island Jam delivered an excellent day’s worth of tunes across a variety of styles, the perfect way to celebrate ten years of Tonewood Brewing and some of the scene’s top talent.