OM TRIO | 04.20 | FORT COLLINS

This show was my highlight for the smoking holiday weekend and was a great one to see in such a random place. This trio is one of the brightest bands on the scene incorporating all types of music in a perfect blend. Like The Slip, MMW, and JFJO, this band puts out an incredible sound for three musicians. Coming out of San Francisco, this power trio puts out some great sounds and vibes for all to enjoy. This was only my second time seeing the band, so I had some conflicts with some of their set list, but there was nowhere else in Fort Collins I would rather have been.

We had missed the opening band, Moving Matter, as usual. My girlfriend and I were having our own private 4-20 party. Even though I wanted to wear my IL plates “Trey 420” into the show to give my praise, it would have been hard to get them off my car. But as the band got their equipment on stage we knew we up for an above par show, and we smoked our cigarettes and tried to get as close as we could.

With Yonder Mountain String Band in Denver, the show was pretty empty, which seemed to have the band in a positive aspect of their playing all night. The opener, “Sun Struck,” was a beautiful jazz jam that led me to believe that this show was to be one of the better of the spring shows. It provided us with all the elements of the current jam scene, including jazz, funk, electronica, and new wave. The second jam worth praise was “Bolbous > Breakfast.” Brian was very sick during this jam which included impressive solos which had everyone looking at his guitar work. The jam that followed had that electronic groove that has made me bored with a lot of the bands on the scene. I myself do like some of the bands such as Sector Nine and the New Deal, but to see a pure jazz band have to revert to such sounds makes me want to crumble and die. There is so much that a band of this caliber can do. The rest of the set was pretty good, and it gave me a taste of some of their pure jazz sounds. The “Subway Sailor>Clydedogg>L” was the best progressive jam of the night. The highlight was in the segment out of “Clydedogg,” which featured a lengthy solo by the keys. This got me back to my pure music element, but it still had its new electronic groove. The last four songs all had a perfect balance to them, but the show was seemingly cut short by crappy management. “Fredo” was perfect as expected and gave us a chance to see solos by the band which gave them some justice. A great version of “Peaches En Regalia” closed the show and gave us ticket holders the reason we came to the show. The version was not much different then the great Zappa version. It did have final solos from the band and gave us all a smile before the encore.

The last onstage appearance of the band in the Fort was again a cover, but an unexpected tune by most. The cover of Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” was a very different version than the one I had heard before. I had seen this band open up for the Rolling Stones at Alpine Valley in 1989 and was so used to that live version, even at age 11. This version was much slower with all musicians playing to their hearts’ content. It just seems weird to me that this could be a cover song for many jam bands in the future. The version was beautiful, and they exited the stage with much thanks.

This band needs to get some more exposure and grow from there. I don’t say that often, but with as much touring and good music as they possess, it does not seem that far-fetched. This band has the potential to be the next jazz band on the scene that makes us realize that the truly popular electronic scene is not that good, and that we need to support the future Blue Note scene. Well, thank you guys for a fab 4-20, and come back to the Fort soon. For the rest, thanks for reading and see you on the flip side...

Dallas Kuyendall
JamBase Colorado Correspondent
Go see Live Music!