NYS Music 20​13

Author: Darren Kemp

  • The Jam Journey Home: Aqueous and Turkuaz weekend in Vermont, March 30th and 31st

    Road trip. Two words that will instill excitement, desire, and even a wee bit of anxiety in any music lover. This particular trip would involve three people’s weekend journey into the beautiful mountains of Vermont, culminating in an excursion to see two of the Northeast’s finest bands, Buffalo’s Aqueous and NYC’s Turkuaz, playing together at the revered historical jewel of a venue: Nectar’s in Burlington.

    Our Friday stop was in the sleepy little town of Manchester, Vermont which is snuggled comfortably in the southeast corner of the state just across the New York border for a two set Aqueous show at The Perfect Wife Restaurant and Tavern.

    The Perfect Wife resides on a windy country road and had a packed dinner crowd up until show time, which made for some interesting logistics prepping sound and equipment around families enjoying their dinners. The venue was immaculately clean and featured a friendly accommodating staff, a diverse menu featuring many local products and an excellent selection of draft micro-brews.

    Aqueous took the stage a bit after 10pm to a decent crowd with a well executed, if somewhat standard version of “What’s the Connection”. This would be the last of the standard renditions for the night as the rest of this set was pure fire. Top notch versions of “Skyway” and “They’re Calling For Ya” came next, both featuring some especially adventurous improvisation between the composed parts and the start of a “Cissy Strut” tease that would permeate almost every song for the rest of the night. The highlight of the first set was an intense 17 minute version of “Complex” which, despite being a relatively new song, has joined the upper echelons of the band’s most jammed out tunes. The set closed out with a 23 minute combo of Hendrix’s “Bold As Love” into the original “All In”.

    The second set started off with an on-the-spot improv jam based on Chic’s “Good Times” which segued into the often paired original duo of “Eon Don” and “Timmy’s Blades”. Manchester got a special treat in this set as it marked the debut of a first time played original “The Village Dog and Pony Show”. The new song was an excellent example of Aqueous’s brilliance at genre-knitting sequences that seem to have no business being in the same song into one seamless composition. Imagine if Rush and Muse had a hot threesome with Umphrey’s McGee’s “Booth Love” and you’ll be somewhere in the ballpark of this songs sound. had a chance to talk with guitarist Mike Gantzer about the story behind this song, and while we can’t reveal the gritty details, the song is written about a person who was too consumed with his own self interests to be courteous to others. Other second set highlights included a very experimental version of the original “Origami” featuring a keys sit-in by Scott Hannay (Mister F, Capital Zen) who was also helping out with sound that night.

    The next morning, after a quick breakfast, it was time to head to Burlington. After a fun day enjoying the shops of Burlington  and a chili cook off at Nectar’s — with guest judge Jon Fishman of Phish — we were able to witness an absolutely breathtaking sunset as we arrived at the venue a few minutes before Aqueous’s opening set.

    Nectar’s is everything a jam fan might imagine: filled with artwork in line with the venue’s rich musical history, well kept and staffed, excellent sound and heady selection of brews with a large local focus.

    Like the night before, Aqueous wasted no time getting right into it and delivered another set filled with excellence for the Vermont denizens whom showed up early. Highlights included the opening original “Pictures”, a fun mash-up of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Aqueous original “Warren in the Window” and yet another monster “Complex”.

    Next up was the mighty Turkuaz, with the ten members lined up on the stage, which made even the ample sized Nectar’s stage look minimal. The entire band came decked out in one piece coveralls, maintaining their fashion statement from the Rochester show the previous night. Despite the ten people on stage, their sound is unbelievably tight and comes across as one unified funk force. Like Sly on steroids, the band flowed effortlessly from song to song with ample improvisation and a large portfolio of well chosen covers including top notch versions of Led Zeppelin’s “Trampled Under Foot” and The Band’s “The Shape I’m In”. Beyond the music, the bands three vocalists all have top quality pipes that add an extra layer of soul to the funk souffle. At this point the venue was packed to the gills. All eyes were on Turkuaz and all feet were moving in unison with the thundering waves of funk. They played late into the night and left the Nectar’s crowd fully satiated. Even if you are not a fan of this genre, Turkuaz is an absolute must see band.

    Aqueous setlist: 2013-03-29 Manchester VT

    Set 1 What’s the Connection, Skyway, They’re Calling For You[T1], Complex [T1], Triangle[T1], Axis>All In[T2]

    Set 2 Good Times Jam[Chic]->Eon Don->Timmy’s Blades->Warren[N1], The Village Dog and Pony Show [N2], Origami[N1,3][T3], Just[N4][T1]>Strange Times, Pictures

    Teases: 1 Cissy Strut 2. YYZ 3. Amber [311] multiple times
    Notes: 1. “North Face” lyrical modifications 2. Debut 3. With Scott Hannay [Capital Zen/Mister F] on keys 4. Radiohead cover

    Listen here.

    Aqueous setlist: 2013-03-30 Burlington VT

    Set 1: Pictures>All In[T1], Strange Times, They’re Calling For Ya[T2,3],The Village Dog and Pony Show, Skyway, Bohemian Rhapsody->Warren[T4]->Bohemian Rhapsody>Complex

    Teases.1. Pictures 2. Xxplosive [Dr Dre] 3. Next Episode [Dr Dre] 4.Closer to the heart [Rush]

    Listen here.

    Turkuaz setlist: 2013-03-30 Burlington VT

    Set 1: Physical Challenge, Future 86, Bubba Slide, Smarter Than the Speaker, Gremlins, Slippery People, Getting Closer, Trampled Under Foot, Snap Your Fingers, E.Y.E.>XYZ, Desert Island>Coast to Coast, The Shape I’m In, Pickin’ Up, Hold On I’m Comin’, Chatte Lunatique>Club Foot, Beast of Burden, The Harder They Come, Monkey Fingers

  • Easter Weekend Funk-Warriors: Turkuaz

    Brooklyn based Turkuaz has a funk-filled weekend coming up and will be on the scene at both shows. The band started in Boston in 2008 as a side project of Dave Brandwein (guitar/vocals) and Taylor Shell (bass). They spent about eight months in the Boston area before migrating as a whole to NYC. Their self-described “funk army” approach is well chosen, as the ten-piece could certainly take over several small countries with their explosive all-encompassing funk spectacle brand of performing.

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    First up is a show Friday, March 29th at The Water Street Music Hall with one of Rochester New York’s finest; Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. Panda has collected quite the following for their jammed out form of roots reggae and will be in full throw down mode with this show being the last with long time keys-master Aaron Lipp.

    Next the Turkuaz funk battalion moves north to jam mecca Nectar’s in Burlington Vermont to play with Buffalo, New York’s finest genre-shifting musical experience, Aqueous. Aqueous has been touring heavy this year in support of their new album Willy is 40 and gathering their own legion of “AQuaintances”.

    hopes to see lots of smiling faces and dancing feet at these shows, and to let you in on a secret a little bird told us – the entire band will be decked out in their finest colored jumpsuits for the Rochester show so feel free to join the platoon and suit-up for your night of funk boot camp.

  • Keller at The Haunt in Ithaca, February 20th

    On a frigid yet calm February night in the Southern Tier, I headed down to Ithaca to see Keller Williams at The Haunt. Keller popped into the jam scene in the early 90’s and has become known as the quintessential one man jam experience. While he does occasionally play with a band, this was to be a purely Keller experience and despite my long history in the jam scene, this was my first live exposure to his music.

    keller20The Haunt is a historic music venue in Ithaca that started in the 80’s and has hosted a myriad of top name talent over the years, including multiple shows by Phish in 1988 and 1990. The venue moved in the past decade and now resides slightly outside of town with a Gorge-ous deck alongside one of the inlets that feeds Cayuga Lake. With the 2012 closing of Castaways, the Haunt has become the premier go-to mid-sized musical venue in I-town. They feature an ever changing excellent selection of draft and bottled beers, RazorBack BBQ and all at comparable prices to other Ithaca venues.

    I arrived to the venue promptly at the 8 o’clock doors opening time and was surprised to already find a line of Ithacan’s eager for some Keller goodness. It was apparent this show was well marketed by the promoter (Dan Smalls Presents) and, despite the venues somewhat off the beaten path location, would be well attended.  The security and venue staff were incredibly gracious, efficient and accommodating and definitely added to the overall experience. The stage setup was sparse, with a few big white sheets as a backdrop, a bass, midi-esque drum pad and electric guitar set up on stands around the stage. Slightly after 9 the pre-show music stopped and an acoustic guitar started playing. Keller came onto the stage, barefoot as always, with his acoustic singing an original number. About seven minutes in, after being solely on acoustic guitar, the jam began and Keller made a move towards his bass guitar.

    If you’ve never had a live Keller experience like myself, it’s worth taking a minute to go through a jam sequence to see exactly what he offers. Keller picked up the bass, played a few lines until settling on something he liked, hit a pedal to loop it then headed towards his electric drum pad. He laid down a drum beat, set it to loop as well, then spent a minute singing some improv “Hello, how are you” lyrics to the Ithacan’s in house. A few minutes later he picked up his electric guitar, and adds an effects driven “horn sounding” layer to what’s already happening. Now that he had his entire imaginary band in full jam mode, he returns to the acoustic and jams along while using a selection of pedals in front of him to stop, start, and change the tempo of the other looped instruments at will. This ability to change the direction of multiple loops while adding his own improvisational acoustic and vocal additions kept the jamming always fresh and non-repetitive despite the single musician on stage.

    Around 13 minutes into the show, the loops are all silenced and he started some beat box jamming. He layered four or five different vocal lines on top of each other before adding some electric drums. It soon became apparent that this would be the first cover of the handful we received that evening, as the loops morphed into a delightful cover of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”. The cover featured multiple additional brass section sounding effects loops on the electric and Keller himself adding some Spinal Tap inspired air bass. The crowd was frenzied at this point and moving in a giant mass of jam inspired euphoria.

    keller24The set ended around 10:30 in grand style, with a double bird: the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song” with a long experimental segue into Phish’s “Bird’s of a Feather”. If this was Keller’s version of giving the audience the bird, they didn’t mind, as the end set applause was deafening.

    During the setbreak I stepped outside to enjoy the Haunt’s picturesque side deck overlooking the inlet. I talked to a few fans who all thoroughly enjoyed the first set. One fan sported a fully functional “Fun Meter” pin on the side of his hat which was fully in the red. After making sure he wasn’t going to have a Fun-aneurism being that far in the red, I ventured inside for the second set. The second set started a few minutes before 11pm with some more original material. After some more fun loops and an impromptu improvised vocal “Ithaca jam”, the music segued into Heart’s “Barracuda” complete with “trumpet” vocal sounds and some serious hotness. This section was the champion of the night for me. Barracuda ended and Keller went into another original track. Not done with the covers yet, this track quickly transformed into the traditional “Deep Elum Blues”, made popular by The Dead. Next up was the Keller original “Kidney With a Cooler”, which got some added love with a flavor of the O’Jay’s “For the Love of Money” and a pile of additional vocal horn sounds. The covers continued with The Talking Head’s “This Must Be the Place” with some more vocal improvisation.

    The last track of the second set was an extended jam based on G Love and Special Sauce’s “Stepping Stones”. The crowd was devouring this one wholeheartedly and the pre-encore break left the crowd screaming “Kell-er, Kell-er!!” until he came back for one more.

    The encore was another crowd favorite, Sublime’s “What I Got”. Keller then left the stage and I made my way back through the crowd to find my way home. A great night, a great show, and a Keller fan I have been made. Kudo’s to The Haunt, Dan Smalls Presents, and of course Keller and crew for delivering such a memorable experience.
    See him on March 16th when he heads to Higher Ground in Burlington, VT