SNOCORE ICICLE BALL | 2.17 | PHILLY

First up was Drums & Tuba. These guys DEFINITELY passed that second-time's-a-charm screening. I love how the lines between all music are being blurred, bringing about marriages of style and instrumentation. This is a perfect example of a successful marriage. The set-up is a power-trio with a twist - guitar, bass, drums, except instead of a bassist there's, you guessed it, a tuba player. (Oh great, now I have to learn how to play "air tuba" without looking like an idiot!)

As their name implies they do a lot of bass and drums type stuff with an ample amount of sampling to create a much larger sound than just three men could provide. For the first few tunes of their set, Brian Wolff, the tuba player, would set up low, funky bass lines, sample them and let them run for the length of the song. Then he would play more melodic work on top and use more effects to create some wild laser-gun sounds.

On drums, Tony Nozero was solid. Funky when he had to be funky, strong when he had to be strong and all-out rocking when he had to be a rock and roll star. He also had some 21st century gadgetry to add multiple rhythms and beats on top of one each other - sometimes sampling his own stuff and sometimes seemingly hitting a button to summon prerecorded drum lines.

Lastly, Neal Mckeeby on guitar whose huge role in the band seemed not to merit being mentioned in their name for some reason. His work was a refreshing unique take on the guitar. I liken him to that torture expert in espionage films that has all sorts of implements, both high-tech and low-tech to torture his specimens. Neal's subjects are his guitars - he even has one strapped down mercilessly to a stand with a rudimentary string-and-tape method. Hammering fingers, butter knives, stuff I wouldn't know how to describe and even good old picks-and-fingers were laid on sometimes two guitars at once. He is able to hammer out notes on the neck of his guitar setting up a nice melody while using his other free hand to either attack the strapped-down guitar with evil genius or play out a completely different run on the bottom half of the guitar. And when it got down to it he could also rip it up with some bluesy/metal-esque speed and dexterity.

And the music they were making was heavy and danceable all at once. As opposed to many of the bands doing drums-and-bass-live type stuff, their repertoire seems to have a little more weight to it. Even some of the straight up dance tunes had a edgier feel to them. But when they wanted to, they could ignore their effects and samples and loops and just play some pretty-respectable straight-up rocking out jamming. Instead of that they-all-sound the same grooves their music covered a broad range of influence and genre. They had their share of short and semi-catchy songs as well as longer, trancey grooves. I look to catch these guys when it's their own gig and they have more than an hour or two to delve into the product they choose to present.

Next up was Col. Les Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade. I never was as big a Primus fan as maybe I should have been, but my musical psyche is making up for it by being absolutely floored by this band everytime I see or hear them. Their music is wholly ungodly in the same vein as your mother thinking 3am is an ungodly hour - that is, it is gloriously nasty. Much of the band is in "uniform" sporting wild masks and outfits which creates a sort of comic book feel to the entire production. Flipping through old material as well as some new, inventive covers, Les and his Bridage have meshed the hard edge of Primus and the like with the refreshing, innovative ear of the "jam band" world.

I wouldn't even pretend to know all the material, but it is all solid. Of particular note to me were Skerik on saxophone who takes the thumping, evil ambience provided by the band and just jettisons the music to the outer limits with some unrivalled blowing on his tenor saxophone. Jay Lane on the drums is the power that fuels the entire operation. Tucked away in back, nearly out of the audience's eyes, he commands attention with assaulting thunder. Eenor on guitar is also a revelation, extending his heavy metal chops with climactic solos and blistering riffs. Heavy stuff!

Of course, then there is the man amongst boys on the bass guitar. At any point during any song, if you so desire, you can forget about what everyone else is doing and just zone in on Les Claypool. And there are many other points where you have no choice but to do so. His style is so fluid and yet so distinct, playing picked bass sounds without a pick, playing slapped bass sounds without slapping, simple bass lines without being simple and complex solos and riffs while making it look all too easy. His ability stretched to both an electric stand up bass and a funky one-stringed instrument which had a lever to change the tension. He would slap at this with a drum stick and got a wonderful noise that sounded like he was hitting a big water pipe or something.

I am particularly enthralled with the songs that the "Colonel" has chosen to cover. The set opened with the moody, ambient beginnings of Floyd's Shine on You Crazy Diamond. The band seems to cull just enough of the original to keep it real and infuse enough of their own style and direction to make it an utterly enjoyable romp.

Their cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sung as Col. Claypools' Flying Frog Brigade is both a deliciously satirical and self-defacing gesture. When they play it, you notice the hard-edged guitar work which at first seems a bit heavy. But then you quickly realize that this is exactly the same rocking edge that the original version boasts. And then you realize how, no matter how hard you might try to convince yourself otherwise, the Beatles' music is the guru to which almost all western music now pays homage. The satire and self-defacement is particularly apparent when they continue a la the Beatles into With A Little Help From My Friends. Here you have this guy playing a nasty drum kit wearing a mask of some grotesque, horned creature singing "I just want someone to love." And trading lyrics with this beast is a tall, dreadlocked guitarist who 10 minutes later will be raising the dead with his chops - "Could it be anybody?/I just want someone to love." Priceless.

And it only gets better. Sticking with the Beatles theme, they broke into one of my favorites - Taxman. I've always enjoyed the song because of the absolutely killer Paul Mccartney bass work on it. And that's why I enjoyed the hell out of Les' version. He absolutely tore through it with the inane lyrics just a backdrop to the setting up of a monster groove. Skerik took the reins and continued to astound with shattering licks to match his maniacal expressions. The song turned over, shedding the skin of it's source and slithering through mind-scorching solos and funky grooves. Eventually returning safely within the confines of the original, the Beatles were the nexus for launching and landing such a musical expedition - an inspiration but not a guideline.

When they needed to get particularly nasty, they went into the Primus/Sausage catalog of convulsive melody and battered our skulls with churning velocity. Dark, rough swabs of color with murmurs of lyrics sprinkled between solos. It truly is villainous, comic book music.

Personally, I think the Frog Brigade is one of the most refreshing, intense live music shows out there right now. Here's hoping they build on their foundation and take advantage of new directions and new audiences.

Lastly, Galactic. I wish that my familiarity with the band translated into a recognition of their songs and the titles, but alas, I can only comment in general terms for now. This is especially true now that they seem to be working from a wealth of new material.

What was once a straight-forward funk-in-the-vein-of-The-Meters outfit, Galactic has been redefining themselves greatly over the past couple of years. First on a tour-by-tour basis and now even beyond a show-to-show to a song-by-song one. The funk is still there, but only in subtle glimpses the way childhood behavior still dictates and flavors an adult's life. Their growth has seen the establishment of extended, exploratory jams, a harder, blusier edge as well as some risk-taking in style and songwriting.

While this seems to have disenfranchised some of their faithful who will always harken the good old days in New Orleans listening to a band covering the Meters in style and in repertoire, such evolution is necessary for the direction upward that this band obviously is seeking. In my eyes, it is all for good. Their new material was just awe-striking in it's funk-rooted complexity. The skills of each member seem to be improving each time I see them, with Stanton Moore truly establishing himself as the premier drummer in the entire scene as well as the true leader of this band. On top of that, the band still has the flexibility to allow musicians to sit in with them and still reach the climactic grooves they hit on their own.

Certainly the highlights of the Philadelphia set (which ran at 2 and a half hours!!) were the plentiful moments in which Skerik was on the stage. He and Ben Ellman just absorbed each other shooting lines back and forth, twisting riffs around each other and, when they weren't playing, toyfully joking and working out sections for their next go at it.

The pinacle of the show was a Blues For Ben which may eclipse any version, past of future of this song. It featured a triad of duels: Ben and Skerik on saxophone fury; a three-men-on-the-same-kit drum solo to end all drum solos; and dueling bass assault with Les Claypool and Rob Mercurio on the 4-string give-and-take. This all catapulted into a fiery ending to certainly mark one of the highlights of the show.

The Houseman made it on stage for 2 mini-sets. Start From Scratch was wonderful and featured some killer keyboard work from Rich Vogel. Often I am a little turned off when Therly takes the stage as it represents a shudden shift away from hard grooving for me. But Saturday night I zoned into what the musicians were doing to fill the space around the vocals. This was really impressive, as the band seems to have adapted to this portion of their show and created a tapestry of music as vibrant as the Houseman's garments in which they wrap his vocals with subtle, gorgeous fills. Sweet Leaf on the other hand is pure, heavy raging fun with Declouet acting not as the frontman but as another instrument - part of the grinding rock and roll.

Many of the songs they did had some great solo work in them, but I was most intrigued by the full-band onslaught. Galactic has gotten terrifically tight and they show it when they all get on the same page and just elevate into climactic goo. I think it's easy to trace a lot of the steps the band has taken in new directions to the time spent with Gov't Mule, Widespread Panic and others over the past 2 or 3 years. It's given them a little more of an edge and a propensity to jam and extend the music a little more.

I'm sure someone could give a more intimate look at the absolutely phenomenal set laid down by Galactic on Saturday night. I'll sum up by saying I was blown away by all three bands last night. SnoCore is a perfect tour in it's conception and it's execution and Philadelphia has proven itself, once again, to be the haven for some ripping jams. Looking forward to my next journey back there.

That's the view from here,
Aaron Stein
JamBase NYC Correspondent
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