Speakeasy is absolutely the best for hard-driving rhythms. Saturday night at Patton Alley, the band was an endless defibrillator. It's true that they aren't subtle, but sometimes that's not what I'm looking for. The last time I heard the band, it was opening for JJ Grey at the Gillioz in August. They were playing a lot of deliberate noise in that performance. Saturday night, it was all groove.
Cheers for Lilly Bee and The Johnson Three for their debut gig, opening for Speakeasy. LBJ3 featured all-original songs, created collectively by group, that sounded like unfamiliar but great B-sides from Motown and other 60s-70s repositories. I like the way Melissa Henderson remained relatively calm while belting out these tunes. The sound was a little muddy, somewhat restricting our appreciation of her voice. Dan Maple's use of electric piano, making it sound much like a distorted guitar, reminded me of Keith Jarrett's work in Miles Davis' electric bands that made Live Evil and Live at Fillmore East — squiggly, smeary sounds. That was probably the only time Jarrett ever played electric piano, and the last time he ever did anything someone else told him to do.
Plus two smudgy cellphone photos ...
Cheers for Lilly Bee and The Johnson Three for their debut gig, opening for Speakeasy. LBJ3 featured all-original songs, created collectively by group, that sounded like unfamiliar but great B-sides from Motown and other 60s-70s repositories. I like the way Melissa Henderson remained relatively calm while belting out these tunes. The sound was a little muddy, somewhat restricting our appreciation of her voice. Dan Maple's use of electric piano, making it sound much like a distorted guitar, reminded me of Keith Jarrett's work in Miles Davis' electric bands that made Live Evil and Live at Fillmore East — squiggly, smeary sounds. That was probably the only time Jarrett ever played electric piano, and the last time he ever did anything someone else told him to do.
Plus two smudgy cellphone photos ...
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| Shawn Eckels |
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| Melissa Henderson |
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