When I think of the band ulu, the one word that comes to mind is energy, and with energy comes direction. Ulu seems to be fully directed by the energy they have among themselves, but also more importantly, the energy they get from the crowd. I arrived at Milestones early, and the place looked rather bare, but as it got closer and closer to 11 o’clock, people started to file
in at an exponential rate. Mainly the crowd was made up of college-aged kids, and it seemed that everyone was ready to boogie.
They started out with some stranger than strange vocal funk, and put
everyone in the necessary mind frame to let loose on a ride with ULU. I was ready and Aaron Gardner took it away
immediately when he picked up his saxophone. Backed by the melodic framework of Scott
Chasolen on the Rhodes, Clavinet, Organ and Moog, Aaron kept the jazzy feel
present throughout the night, without neglecting the funk. But he certainly wasn’t the
one leading the show the whole time; Aaron and Scott are backed by a
powerful and funky rhythm section made up of David Hoffman (drums) and
Justin Wallace (bass). From time to time, Aaron and Scott would alternate
and take turns as the “leader," and in other instances Scott’s heavy
Herbie Hancock influenced style would take over. This was
especially apparent in the cover of “Hang Up Your Hang Ups,” where Scott
took over letting the funk reign supreme just as Herbie himself
would have.
The second set was a bit stronger than the first,
largely due to the increase in the crowd by that point in the evening, and
the heightened energy level. They came out firing with a cover of Led
Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” which led smoothly into “Prince Igor”
allowing Justin to really show off his skills on the bass. This song was
very smooth and jazzy, but at times it would suddenly wake up your buns and
cause you to dance once again. They continued to give us
the complete and full funk-it-ization throughout the rest of the set, really stepping it up with “Preble” which followed “Prince Igor.” “Preble” was
very uplifting and got the whole house grooving to the funky beats with
happy overtones coming from Aaron’s horn.
Next they gave us a short break
from hard dancing with “The Oracle,” which was a very relaxing jazzy tune
with great range of tone coming from Aaron. This set the mood for the
next bust-out, “Tomorrow Never Knows” by none other than the Beatles. Ulu’s
version definitely had the funk all over it and it certainly had
everyone moving once again, sucking the energy out of every person in the
room. “Perkulator Merkins” came back to Scott with his
super-funky organ and once again Aaron kept the vibe bouncy and happy with
his energetic saxophone. After “All You Can Eat,” they busted out an ever so
wonderful nostalgic treat, the “Super Mario Bros. Theme.” The Mario theme has it
all, memories, funk, booty shake factor, and more. Basically it forced me to remember my Nintendo games
growing up, and how important Super Mario Brothers was to every kid on the block. Very creative for a
band to cover such a tune, and I think it made a lot of people in the room
happy and excited.
The encore led to Ulu giving up the last bit of their energy
along with the crowd's, in a back and forth rap during
“Djabooty,” where Justin was dared to drop his pants, and he
obliged! Everyone was floored by his openness and comedic expressions. It
had everyone leaving the place with a sort of confused smile on his or her
face. All in all, a great show and I recommend checking out Ulu when they’re in your neck of the woods. Check out Ulu's Home for tour dates and more
information.
Ian Stone
JamBase | New York
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