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By: Brian Heisler
Groovatron :: 07.30.05 :: Canopy Club :: Urbana, IL
Groovatron |
The great heat and the even worse humidity of Central Illinois can make for a hostile atmosphere on a summer night, enough to keep a crowd relaxing in the air conditioning watching a movie. But luckily, this July Saturday night brought a good crowd to the Canopy Club in Urbana, Illinois on the campus of the University of Illinois. As Alan Vasquez took the stage at 9:30 echoes of chatter could still be heard throughout the club, which quickly turned to cheers. Among many other appearances, Alan was found opening for Keller Williams in March at the Canopy Club. And why not? The 24 year-old recent graduate of Southern Illinois University, currently residing in Chicago, puts his own spin on the art of looping. While Vasquez gives nothing but the greatest respect to Keller, he insists his sound is nothing of the sort, and his listeners agree. Armed with several guitars, a mandolin, a bass guitar, and a myriad of electronics, Vasquez creates not only a more electronic and less vocal sound than Keller, but an altogether different atmosphere one might describe as a house DJ with state of the art tools and lightning-quick guitar work.
From the very start of his set, the attention of every member of the audience was front and center on Alan Vasquez to see what stroke of genius might pop up next - perhaps a synthesized steel drum or piano loop via the electric guitar, or a retreat to his table of electronic mischief. An Alan Vasquez performance is definitely an added bonus to any show he opens and a special treat for those who catch him on a headlining night. Our first noticeable dancer of the night - in the form of a girl with long blonde dreadlocks, arms out, back bent upward, head rocking, legs crouching and marching - set the stage for <>B>Groovatron to take over.
Before the show I stood at the bar with the band as they made their setlist. With a pad of paper and a pen in hand, lead guitarist Marc Quagliara looked at me and asked, "Whaddya wanna hear?"
"'Manamana,' by the Muppets," I told him. Drummer Andy Dumaresq and I began to sing the song. The last time Groovatron performed at the Canopy, the band had a set of six TVs playing the movie Dark Crystal, a Jim Henson production. The request did prompt Quagliara to lobby the band for an AC/DC cover of "Hell's Bells," but to no avail. So with a setlist finally worked out, Groovatron took the stage around 10:30.
In what has become somewhat of a tradition, Groovatron added bright orange jump suits to their business wardrobe and entered the scene like prison inmates. The set began with the Bob Marley cover "Them Belly Full," instantly causing the audience to gravitate towards the front of the stage in a dancing frenzy. The signature funk of Groovatron put a new twist on the song, leading with heavy bass and moving into the straight rock song "MacBeth." Heads in the crowd bobbed continuously to the easy-to-follow song and its morbidly humorous lyrics and distorted chipmunk-like laughing. With the white lights stabbing through the air, the orange jump suits of the band lit the stage like Umbro shorts on a grade school playground in the early '90s. "Holding Out" started with Quagliara on the MicroKorg synthesizer/vocoder, as he cut off bass player Tony Qualls's commentary with the crowd. Qualls soon followed Quagliara with a funky, yet walking bass line, complemented by Tony McCullough's saxophone solo in a heavy jazz piece. The first set came to an end with the crowd favorite "Bone Diggin'." With the crowd at its height of energy thus far, everything ceased as the band put together a vocal jam that topped off the first set very strongly and left the hardcore Groovatron fans cheering and already winded.
"Give it up for Alan, the Sexican!" said percussionist Steve Pesich giving Vasquez a warm welcome back to the stage to keep the audience on its feet during intermission. Surely one of the highlights of the night came as Groovatron joined Vasquez onstage for a mesmerizing jam. I like to refer to this combination of players as "GroovAlon," although the band sometimes refers to it as "Sexitron."
After the band and the crowd thanked Vasquez for filling-in, Groovatron kicked off the second set with another cover, this time from their biggest influence, Frank Zappa, in the form of "Joe's Garage." More crowd favorites filled the night like "Hey," "Allegiance," and the guitar soloing "Gilara." Like Trey and Mike on their trampolines during "You Enjoy Myself," the front four members of Groovatron (Quagliara, McCullough, Qualls, and Ferrer) added visuals to their signature song "The New Mash Tater Controversy" as they crouched and turned, alternating in sync. With McCullough leading on sax and the crowd grooving harder than ever, this was clearly the most interactive song of the night.
As the band returned to the screaming audience for the encore, they opened it back up with one of their bluegrass-style songs, "Helplessness." And to end the night, the band picked "Outcome S.O.S." (pronounced "Outcome Sauce"), featuring an amusingly bright and melodic, almost Eric Clapton-esque, guitar solo from Quagliara, leaving the crowd with a fuzzy summer feeling for their trip home. But as the band left the stage, a fan yelled out, "It's only 1:30!" Like a helping hand to a friend in need, Groovatron reemerged.
"You've all been so kind tonight. We're gonna do one more short-short-..." Pesich was cut off by fanatic screaming, and the band whipped up a smoking version of "Star Biscuit." And by "smoking" I mean Quagliara and Qualls were both still smoking cigarettes as the song began. Qualls held his cigarette in his right hand while he did a slide with his left hand on the bass. "Thanks for coming," Qualls shot back to the crowd after the final exchange of energy between the band and the audience, and it was clear exactly how spent both the band and the crowd were, as exhausted fans clung to nearby shoulders and headed for the door. I ran into a friend of mine, and as we watched the band pose for pictures with the crowd, he told me he drove three hours just to see the show and that he was every bit satisfied. "These guys are gonna be big," he told me. I had to agree.
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