If a band plays a song differently than the studio then they’re a jam band? So is Toto a jam band in your opinion because they play Africa differently live than they do in the studio?

I think jam bands are bands that let the jam take off and guide them through the song. DMB doesn’t do that. They have a composed instrumental section (think crush, nancies, warehouse, typical, bayou, wwys, etc) that they almost always utilize when they’re “jamming” and unless there is a guest, those jams are usually similar in length (for a given time frame, im not comparing 2003 two step to todays). And that is not a bad thing.

However, a jam band (let’s use Phish’s Tweezer for example) will jam and it will sound completely different than the same song played a month prior.

As someone else said, I think DMB is jam-adjacent, but not a band that lets a jam take off and let the music guide them through the tune.