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After Widespread Panic destroyed the Greek Theater in Berkeley, I recieved a flyer for a band I had never heard of. This piece of paper told me that Grasshoppers would be touting their "homegrown originals and tie-dyed covers" every Tuesday this month at Club Galia. I'd never heard of the club or the band but decided that $3 was a small price to pay whether the band got me going or not.
Things started looking up when I saw that the line-up consisted of drums, bass, elec. guitar, keyboards, acoustic guitar and violin. It took the Grasshoppers a
couple minutes to work out some sound bugs during the first tune but as soon as they did I got a bit more excited as it started to sound pretty good. I
found out that the tune was called "Southern Cross Railroad" (after the set I approached the guys in the
band and they were very appreciative of me coming out
[i.e. they bought me a couple drinks] and gave me a
copy of the set-list. They seemed surprised and happy
by my interest)which was fitting 'cause it was kind of
a southern flavored blues based jam that really
started rockin' at the end when Mike Goodin (lead
vox/keys) got his digital B-3 repro kickin'.
Next up were some more originals; "Ca. Sun" got me off
my duff with Robbie Planting's acoustic guitar rhythms
driving this bluegrass influenced tune with great solos
by the violin, keys and guitar. "Like This" is a
psychedlic/bluegrass tune that impressed me with the
strong vocals, smokin' guitar solo (Lance Case, on
electric guitar, has clearly put a lot of effort into
reproducing some tones that are reminiscent of
one of the masters, Mr. Jerry Garcia himself. Upon asking
him about his influeneces he also told me that Steve Kimock currently looms large). "Like This" segued nicely into a
psychedelic jam number called "Cryin'" the repeated
motif of which I found stuck in my head for days after
the show. They announced that these songs were on the
5 song CD they were GIVING AWAY in exchange for e-mail
addresses; I quickly signed up and grabbed a disc.
"Kin" also clearly demonstrated the influence of
bluegrass music upon this band. It was a peppy little
number that ended with a great 3-way jam by the piano,
guitar and violin players.
Next up was the first cover of the night which proved
to be the highlight for me: "Low Spark of High Heeled
Boy" by Traffic! Lead singer/keybaordist Mike
Goodin's (very Winwood influenced I later learned)
vocals were sweet and tempered, and I really
enjoyed the dynamic of his singing on this song which
started out quite a bit like the original. The difference
was in the jam which seemed like it was filled with
improv. It started out really slow and spacey with
some interesting sounds from Josh Thomas's digitally
processed violin but built up to a frenetic and
feverish crescendo behind some tremendous drumming by
Rob Kilner, bass guitar work by Brian Vandemark and
then dropped over tightly to the mellow dynamic of the
original Traffic versions verses. This is one of my
all time favorite songs and Grasshoppers really takes
it to a level above and beyond the original; hard to
believe, but quite true.
Then they played another original which was a bumpin'
and very danceable blues rocker called "Got me a Girl"-
which reminded me of some of the stuff Garcia did with
Melvin Seals in the 80's. Another Grasshoppers
original, "Sittin on a Fence," followed. It's kind of
a psychedlic pop song that ended with some great licks
on the B-3 repro. Finally, they closed with one of my
favorites: Scarlet>Fire by the Grateful Dead! Scarlet
Begonias was really true to the original the violin
backing the vocals and some very Dead sounding jams.
When the verses of "Fire on the Mountain" were "sung"
on the piano I realized that this was going to be an
instrumental rendition. Very unexpected and pretty
cool especially when Lance started tearin' it up on the
guitar and the rest of the band really backed him up
to bring the solo section to a great climax.
All in all I was very happy with my investment on
Tuesday and it was all done by midnight.
Unfortunately, all this effort and great music
appealed to an alomst empty house (my inspiration for
writing this review!). I don't know if it was because
nobody goes out on Tuesdays, or whether it's the fact
that Galia is a really new club (very nice, and big) or if perhaps it's because this band hasn't got much
exposure. I'll definitely make an effort to see' em
again and I hope others will too.
Mike Gee
Local San Francisco | 420
Go See Live Music!!
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