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By Ann Marie Svilar
"That's the thing about rock & roll; it's the attitude you bring to it," says Josh Clark astutely.
"That's the thing about Tea Leaf Green," I think to myself. "It's the attitude they bring to their shows."
Tea Leaf Green with Barry Sless
09.29.06 - GAMH, SF by Josh Miller |
Tea Leaf Green is Scott Rager (drums), Ben Chambers (bass, vocals), Josh Clark (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Trevor Garrod (keys, vocals, harmonica, guitar, banjo).
It is the combination of great personalities that these four guys bring to their music that makes them special. What you see is what you get, and what you are seeing is four guys who love what they do.
"It's fucking romantic as hell," Trevor says without hesitation when asked what he loves about being a band constantly playing live shows. "You get to meet a lot of people," Ben chimes in. There is a youthful curiosity to Tea Leaf Green, which is probably how they got their label as "postmodern flower children."
Scott Rager - Tea Leaf Green
09.30 - The Fillmore, SF by C. Flanigan |
They are a rock & roll band with a jamming soft spot, but even when packing places like The Fillmore, they still maintain a welcoming feeling onstage.
It's the same welcomed feeling I get when sitting down with Tea Leaf Green on a sunny Monday afternoon prior to their two-night run in their hometown of San Francisco, playing one acoustic night at Great American Music Hall and one night plugged-in at The Fillmore.
Our conversation was very natural. From the first handshake, I felt like I should take off my shoes, rest one foot on the amplifier, and stay a while.
I ask Tea Leaf Green to give me Ten Commandments of stage performance. I wish for ten, expecting five, and they offer over thirty, bouncing words off each other like they do music. Anything from serious answers to thou shall not "throw your guitar in the air and fail to catch it."
I can't help but smile; these boys are people I would choose as friends. They've got a tweed jacket sort of style, comfortable, down-to-earth, appropriate anywhere, yet all the while classy. Thankful for my tape-recorder, I wanted to catch everything they said. Great conversationalists, Tea Leaf Green is part intelligence and part damn good sense of humor. It's this aspect of their personality that makes Tea Leaf Green so easy to fit in with and so easy to be around. They are an accessible band, and it is their versatile sort of nature that transfers so nicely on stage and ultimately makes them so special. Being with Tea Leaf Green in-person is like being at one of their shows; it's an all-access kind of feeling. It's like they invited us to their show, not charged admission to get us there.
Trevor Garrod - TLG
09.29.06 - GAMH, SF by Josh Miller |
Always paying attention to their fans and the mood of the crowd, Tea Leaf Green is a high-energy band that seeks to pump up its audience. It's a rarity to walk away from a show feeling like you didn't dance enough. But what happens when TLG goes acoustic? When you think of an acoustic show, in general you picture the band sitting down, the intimacy, maybe even some ballads amongst those covers. What does that energetic nature turn into when everything comes unplugged?
"It's a sit-down kind of show" says Trevor. "If you're going to stand, you gotta dance. I mean, I can't just stand there and watch a band. I have to keep on moving or else I'd like to sit down. The acoustic show is our opportunity for everybody to just sit down and really listen."
Josh Clark - TLG
09.29.06 - GAMH, SF by Josh Miller |
In fact Josh didn't seem all that excited about the upcoming acoustic performance. "Coffee Bean Brown" was their original alter-ego acoustic band. They played a few shows across the city in smaller venues under that name until the wise management thought it was a bad idea to try to market two band names.
Josh talked about getting bored "plunkin' away just on an acoustic guitar." When referring to his pedals, he said, "It's nice to have stuff. Nice to have options." And though he did say he enjoys "dabbling in the acoustic arts," it was a challenge every time because he "just can't rip it on an acoustic."
I could see his point. There is no denying that Josh Clark is a "rip it" kind of guitarist.
"If I'm not going to rip, I'm going to sit down," Josh said.
But when the night finally arrived, the only one sitting during the entire show was Trevor when the grand piano called for that. Otherwise the crowd was dancing as wild as they always do, Ben rocking back and forth with a big grin on his face, Scott holding down the floor with the same seriousness of any plugged-in set, "tailoring the suit to fit," as Trevor described Scott on drums. And Josh, maybe taken with the audience's obvious excitement, at one point said, "I thought this was supposed to be the quiet show."
Trevor Garrod - TLG
09.29.06 - GAMH, SF by Josh Miller |
Well it was, but how could it be with Trevor on the banjo for the first time in a live performance and each set being fourteen songs long, packed with crowd-pleasing funky tunes like "Georgie P," "Dragonfly," "Looking West," and a new "Barnacle Betty," a sort of eerie water song. This was definitely not a sit-down kind of show.
At one point during the tail of the second set, Trevor, in a Mick Jagger sort of rock 'n' roll move, dropped to his knees, microphone in hand, shaking his blond head and screamed, "Get it on, get it on." Then standing to his feet, he said to the audience, "I've always wanted to do that. Feels good." It did feel good.
In fact the biggest difference between this acoustic night and their usual shows was the extra instruments they played. In total these instruments included a banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitars, acoustic bass guitar, drums, harmonica, and a grand piano. From these instruments we heard bluegrass/country sounds on the opener "Taught To Be Proud." There were also some blues bass lines, funk, ragtime piano, rock & roll, etc. It was the same band, just more toys for them to show off their versatile ability to create that Tea Leaf Green sound.
Josh Clark - TLG
09.30 - Fillmore, SF by C. Flanigan |
The Great American Music Hall was the right kind of setting for an acoustic show, with red walls, mirrors, and a wood ballroom dance floor on which Josh said his grandparents used to dance. The acoustic show felt like we were standing in Tea Leaf Green's living room, like they had invited us over for a stiff cocktail and some nice music. Then the lights went up, and somehow it turned into a raging house party.
The party continued the following evening at The Fillmore with more of what the audience would expect, a rock & roll-based Tea Leaf Green taking improvisational risks. And the risks seemed to push the band to startling heights.
During the interview, Trevor said, "You do take risks, but they come of their own inspiration. You'll be playing something and hear something new kind of pop in, and you'll just go for it. And when it happens, it's awesome. And sometimes you go for it and you fail. 'I didn't have the chops to actually hit it.' I think that's okay. I think actually, when I watch someone play, I enjoy seeing a musician striving and failing. You know, you kind of can get where they are going. Sometimes it does totally suck, there's a fine line, but you know, it kind of wakes you up, it becomes more involving. Like there are people who are just absolutely wonderful musicians and play everything perfectly, and they are boring as hell 'cause they never make any mistakes. You just kind of go to sleep; the beauty of it just lulls you to sleep. But someone comes in and every now and then puts it to you to see if you're going to make it. 'Is he going to pull it off?' It kind of becomes like a ball game."
Tea Leaf Green
09.30 - Fillmore, SF by C. Flanigan |
Josh agrees, "People who are the most accomplished musicians, who are beyond good, they end up like Kenny G or like easy listening. Rock & roll was never meant to be perfect. Rock & roll was meant to be sloppy."
But neither night felt sloppy, even though the risk-taking was certainly there, teasing the Herbie Hancock song "Chameleon" at The Fillmore Saturday and a lively rendition of Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me Not To Come" that made me wish I had my roller skates.
Tea Leaf Green closed out the two nights with "The Garden (Part III)," the lyrics beginning, "Got a little bit of soul, got a little bit of rock & roll in my bones." I think it's obvious Tea Leaf Green has more than that. After all, it's really the attitude you bring to rock & roll, and these guys certainly have that covered.
JamBase | San Francisco
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