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Greetings from the surface of the sun. No joke, it's very hot at the Vibes this year and I'm not talking about the schedule (although the same adjective applies). If you're planning on coming up, please bring something that will provide you with shade and be careful how much you haul since lugging it to find a campsite will deplete a lot of energy in the broiling sun up here.
Despite the fact that IT'S HOT, the vibe is very chill here and there are lots of peaceful heads milling about. Kudos to Terrapin for a very easy arrival process and a convenient set up on the grounds (including the cyber tent in which I'm currently sitting). I'm very much looking forward to when the sun goes down and The Disco Biscuits and Les Claypool's Frog Brigade take us into the night. Not to mention the rest of the weekend and the after hours sessions with loved ones that will most definitely be happening as well.
But I don't want to get ahead of myself. The pop up from NYC was short and easy and we were able to get to a camp site and settle in time for me to get to the main stage for Topaz. They've been rocking my world lately with their mix of high energy funk and psychedelic explorations that crawl through the skin via Squantch's didgeridoo, Topaz's malleable tone on the sax and the bending ticklishness that Ethan White can bring out on the Wurlitzer. And then there's Christian Urich...
Topaz and his crew are some of the many intelligent and fun people I've been fortunate enough to spend time with in the NYC music scene. I automatically come before them with a grin, just waiting for that on stage interaction of fun and frolic to take over and fuel some serious party music. Laying down the beats for all of this, Christian is high energy which is exactly what he utilizes in this vocal jam he's been doing lately. I think they said they were doing a Joe Henderson tune and everyone in the band left Christian alone on stage to pound out some tasty lines while he guffawed maniacally in to the microphone. This charged laughter morphed to gibberish which he pumped further with his hands before he called the audience to respond "Boombatsa" back and forth with him. It didn't matter how overheated I was cuz it was just pure fun.
That's this band's vibe. Bare footed due to the heat, they danced around the stage to the funk they were putting out. While not an MC, Squantch has that ability to get the crowd into the gig and then he blasts you back with his trombone or sucks you into a dream via the didg. Topaz introduced one of their songs which, I think, is called "Didg," saying, "this if for everyone who started their trip early this weekend." What proceeded was a languid stroll through varying textures of rasp and fluidity which he changed through the muscles in his tongue and cheeks. The band held back and let us all swim with Squantch for a while and then delicately came in to take us further into their world where you can be warmly massaged one moment and whirled around the room like a swing dancer the next.
They opened the set with that intensity and then came back to it at the end with covers of "Everthing is Everyting" and "Fat City Strut." The vocals in Everything gave the audience a chance to get into it with the repetition of "I hear voices, I see people, I hear voices of many people" which was nicely punctuated by Christian, in the back, throwing in the song's title. And then came the hammer!!! The last time I wrote about Topaz, I took a pretty long section just to describe how they play Mandrill's "Fat City Strut" because it's always that crazy. I'd been out in the sun for an hour and a half at that point but the power that Squantch and Topaz generate on the brass, coupled with Ethan's melodically powerful soloing had me dancing and flailing my arms all over the place. I was hoping that they didn't have to go back to NYC, even though I knew they had to for their opening set before Robert Randolph at the Bowery Ballroom.
I just realized that I unintentionally forgot to mention one of the aspects of their set that moved me most. Jason Kriveloff's bass was downright nasty today. He seemed to bounce back and forth between compact phrases drove the rhythm of my body movement in every song. I was a bit tired from this week's musical sickness in NYC (see Aaron Stein's review of The Word) but Jason moved my muscles and bones while his stringed companion, Tewar, lifted my emotions and cerebral functions.
The 6th Annual Gathering of the Vibes has begun. As I conclude this, the Wailers are getting their own sweetness of the ground and we're only ankle deep in the whole thing!!! If you're here, stay cool and hydrated. If you're not, enjoy whatever you're doing.
Howie Greenberg
JamBase NYC Correspondent
Go See Live Music!!!
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