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BOOMSHANKA
Tobacco Road | New York, NY | 08.09.02
Well, it was Berkshire Mountain Music Festival weekend in New England, which meant that everyone who would normally go out to see this type of music in Manhattan was definitely at the festival. I, however, was broke, so I stuck the weekend out in New York City. And thankfully San Francisco natives boomshanka pleasantly blew me away until the sun came up over the East River. Truly a spectacular show.
I didn’t get to Tobacco Road until 3:00am or so, and boomshanka had already been on for half an hour. The room was crowded but not packed and everyone had a huge grin on their faces. The band had just finished playing “Chicken Finger,” and as I walked in the horn section was blowing down some funk-ed up Dixieland and the place was coming off its feet. Next up was “Peter North” with its hauntingly smooth bass line and dripping Fender Rhodes notes. The song builds and builds with an infectious saxophone line that concludes with guitar, trumpet and sax playing the line in unison over and over, louder and louder. The effect is powerful and was made even more so by the segue way into “Chicken Finger,” which has a groove reminiscent of that Blondie tune “Rapture.” You know, the one where she raps about Fab Five Freddie. Anyway, it had a serious pocket and had everyone feeling the vibe.
The band’s sound falls somewhere between Galactic and classic Allman Brothers. There are two guitar players: Sean Leahy plays lead and rips it up Duane Allman style; Ryan Smith plays rhythm guitar and sometimes lead, but his style is more reminiscent of a Stax style, R&B thing. The combination is incredible and the two paid close attention to what the other was doing. There was never just a wash of two abrasive electric guitars, unless of course that’s what they were going for. Mike Petri and Caesar Mercado make up the horn section with Mike on pocket trumpet (you gotta hear the sound from this thing) and Caesar on saxophone. The rhythm section is really as solid as it gets, with Mike Warrington on bass and Spencer Raymond on drums. The monster organ and trippy Rhodes duties were held down by Wade Larsen.
The dancing slowed down a bit for the next one, “That’s What I’m Talking About,” which was the first time I had a chance to hear Ryan sing. Now as we all know, in this scene of ours sometimes those instrumental bands play all those jams because no one in the band can sing a note to save their lives. Not so here: Ryan has a strong, raspy voice with a slight southern drawl. But the true highlight was Sean’s soulful slide guitar work. His tone was heavy and distorted to the point that caused hairs to stand on end when his slide got up to the high notes. Perfect for a song about late night/early morning blues that ended with the whole room screaming “That’s What I’m Talking About” during the ending chorus.
The night just got better and better and the room stayed packed almost right up until 5:30am, with about 75 people dancing away. The night was full of more slammin’ originals, but the band new when to give a little something back to their attentive audience. When they busted into the Band of Gypsy’s “Who Knows” most of the crowd was right on top of the call and response section and things got downright rowdy. Likewise right around sunrise, when the band slid out of their original “Motorcycle” and into “Elizabeth Reed” the room erupted. If you have never heard the head of that song played by a horn section, you don’t know what you’re missing. The band encored with a fitting “First Thing Tomorrow” that again had everyone singing along with the band. Basically the gist of it was “Drink my last bottle, smoke my last cigarette, exorcise all of my demons...” Most in the room could relate. The jam climaxed with both horns weaving in and out of each other higher and higher into the ether. Exhausted, I stumbled out into the already muggy New York morning. It seems I was meant to miss Berkfest, and boomshanka is now at the top of my list. Truly a spectacular show.
Carl Ruusch
JamBase | New York City
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