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Words & Images by Richard Clarke
U Melt :: 12.28.05 :: The Stone Pony :: Asbury Park, NJ
Rob Salzer :: U-Melt :: 12.28 |
The Stone Pony, the legendary live music club in Asbury Park, NJ, played host to a mid-holiday week show that featured the incredible face-melting U-Melt. The appropriately named band melted The Stone Pony into a puddle of lava with a scorching show. The molten core of the U-Melt planet begins with the rhythm section of Adam Bendy (bass, vocals) and George Miller (drums, vocals), which erupted like a volcano and cooled to solid bedrock. Pushing the planet to a red-hot super-nova intensity were Rob Salzer (guitar, vocals) and Zac Lasher (keyboards, vocals), whose fiery interplay vaporized anyone without protective haz-mat suit.
In addition to the mind-blowing jams that U-Melt fans have come to expect, the band brought along artistic lighting designer Bryan Holroyd, who, along with his very cool light array which he blended into the house lights, added a highly creative visual element to the euphony of sound. U-Melt is definitely a band whose music would enthrall audiences under a bare 60-watt light bulb hung from a ceiling, but the lightshow sent the performance into another stratosphere.
U-Melt :: 12.28 :: The Stone Pony, NJ |
The show began with "Human Compass," from U-Melt's debut CD The Unbelievable Meltdown, and right away, the band ignited the audience with their organic progressive groove and vocal harmonies. Killer guitar solos and mesmerizing keyboard expeditions permeated U-Melt's music, culled from a myriad of styles and genres, but the foundation of creative compositions, emotive lyrics, and great vocal contributions by the whole band are not a forgotten focus. The band's concept is the definition of diversity. "Different Things" displayed this dexterity quite well as the piece was multi-directional and textural. Fueled by the great rhythm of Miller and Bendy, Salzer and Lasher unleashed their instrumental firepower in a song that was also lyrical and highlighted the group's vocal abilities.
George Miller :: U-Melt :: 12.28 |
Lasher and Salzer are the primary writers for the band, but as Lasher explained to me before the show, everyone is involved in the arrangements and a big part of the creative process. Miller penned "Kind Insight," which was sandwiched between "Green Paper Society" and "Go," which followed that musical barrage. Both songs were rhythmic and adventurous. Many bands play cover songs, great bands play great cover songs: the latter of which materialized out of the song "Sequel" when the band churned out a fantastic version of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." "Missed," another gem from the Unbelievable Meltdown disc, made an appearance, and the band really stretched it out with a song that began with bluesy guitar and vocals before transcending into a jam that saw styles not just change but morph from one to another in rampant intensity. Well known as a band that loves to play and hates to stop, U-Melt had one of those venue intervention stoppages as they ran out of time, but not before "It's Ice" did nothing to cool off the torched club and had to serve as the encore.
U-Melt is a band that goes all-in every time they hit the stage. And for a band that has been together for only two years, they have amassed a vast catalog of material so every show is a unique musical experience. With a mixture of lyrically expressive songs, strong vocals, danceable grooves, and musicians who love to rip it up, the band is turning venues into puddles on a regular basis. If this show did not melt your face into a look of total delight, it might be time to clean out those ears.
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