Some bands toil and sweat for a lifetime and never make it big. Other bands find overnight success, only to fade with the break of day. And some bands, like the Big Wu, reach a certain level of fame and profit and just stay there for a while.

That’s fine with the Big Wu bassist Andy Miller, who says his career isn’t just about money and large crowds.

“There’s not 2,000 people in a sold-out theater every night – that doesn’t mean I can’t make a living,” Miller says. “You don’t have to be big, getting bigger, on the verge of anything to go out and play real music and have a good time playing it, and make people happy while they’re going to check you out.”

The Big Wu has been having a good time playing music since 1992 when the group was formed at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. The band played Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and Allman Brothers Band covers for a few years until the members discovered that they, too, could write coherent, hippie-friendly boogie rock.

In 1997, the Big Wu finally released its first studio album, “Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub.” This release placed the band firmly on the jam-band map and it has stayed there since, through steady touring, several more fan-pleasing albums and an instinct for survival.

“There’s a lot of bands that do everything right, and the Big Wu is not one of them,” Miller says. “The moral of the story is, there’s survivors, and there’s those who tried valiantly and couldn’t survive. And somehow, I ended up on the survivor list.”

Despite “surviving” for more than a decade, the Big Wu hasn’t moved forward much in the last four or five years, at least as far as record sales and audience sizes are concerned, Miller says.

He says there are several reasons for this apparent stagnation, including the bankruptcy of the band’s former record label, which left the band unable to release or sell albums for several years; the recession following the Sept. 11 tragedy; and the departure of one of the founding guitarists in 2002.

The Big Wu keeps pushing on, however, and Miller says things are looking up for jam bands everywhere, because of a general revived interest in live music.

“I’m excited because I’m seeing an uptake in new bands – what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s good for everybody,” Miller says. “I’m excited because I think music is coming back. It’s starting to happen again.”

To coincide with this awakened interest in music, Miller and friends have a few tricks up their sleeves to awaken interest in the Big Wu itself. These tricks include the release of a new live album this winter, followed by a new studio album, followed by a big New Year’s Eve bash, a trip to Jamaica with several other bands and a possible reunion show with estranged Wu guitarist Jason Fladager. To Miller, these are signs of new vitality for this veteran jam outfit.

“Everything is actually on the upturn, everything is getting better than it has been,” Miller says. “There’s more people showing up, the creativity in the band is starting to take an uptake.”

No matter how many people show up at the concert, Miller says every member of the audience always gets “the unconditional Big Wu guarantee.”

“I guarantee that if people show up, that they’re going to leave in a better mood when we’re done than they could possibly have been in when they came,” he says. “That goes double if you try to learn how to dance.”

Who: Hyentyte and the Big Wu

Where: People’s Bar and Grill, 2430 Lincoln Way

When: 9 p.m. Friday

Cost: $10 in advance, $12 at the door