Late Night Ludwig: Electric Beethoven At The Palace Theatre In Albany – Recap & Photos

Words & Images by: Bryan Lasky

Electric Beethoven :: 2.24.18 :: The Hollow :: Albany NY

On Saturday night, a stream of people left the Palace Theatre in Albany after moe. ended their show and went a few blocks down to The Hollow to catch a late night set by Reed Mathis and Electric Beethoven. As they walked into the venue, they were treated to the sounds of Scott Hannay Plays Video Games. Hearing the foursome put a spin on songs from video games of the ‘90s is an absolute treat.

Following a quick break, bassist Reed Mathis introduced the crowd to Electric Beethoven and they roared in approval. As soon as he was done the band dug into a bit of Beethoven’s music before veering off into uncharted waters.

Watching everyone on stage give knowing glances to one another when little changes happened in the music was wonderful to witness. In the short time that they have been playing together, they have developed an unspoken language on stage that every band strives for. At one point early on, the band vamped on a jazz theme and then out of nowhere Reed sang a few lyrics from The Doors’ “The End” – much to the crowd’s delight – before going back into a bit of Beethoven.

Mathis is the band’s leader, but anyone onstage with him can steer the section of music into new territory. Keyboardist Todd Stoops began to wildly go off on his Moog and the rest of the band followed into some spacey Pink Floyd areas. Without so much as a glance Clay Welch had his guitar turn into a siren and the jam developed into a memorably rocking moment. Drummer Josh Raymer kept the charge going and the crowd was able to headbang along for a brief moment before the quartet drifted back toward the Pink Floyd-like spaciness, which dissipated into the next section of Beethoven.

About 40 minutes in, there was a brief break in the action to give everyone a chance to take a breath before going right into the next piece of the evening. The selections of Beethoven compositions performed all evening were launching points for whatever style the foursome turned to next. At one point everyone moved into a funk groove, creating a sound far from traditional “classical,” but somehow always rooted in the work of Beethoven.

The night ended quite late, but most people in the audience stuck around to the end. When a band is running on all cylinders like Reed, Todd, Clay and Josh were, you can’t leave until the last note is hit.

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