BigYawn

333 different bands over the course of the next 12 months. Roughly 2 shows a week. Duplicates don’t count. I have to see at least 3 songs for it to get tallied. Those are the ground rules.

Show #1 was a lark. Co-worker of a friend sort of thing. In thinking about this daunting task ahead of me, at some point you just need numbers, it doesn’t matter who the band is. And so it began.

The Black and Tan Fantasy Band(1) were playing weekly gigs at the 18th St. Lounge until recently, and their sound totally fits that scene. A three-piece, minus a few songs with a guest MC freestyling, their funky, tropical improv could easily cover a three set performance at the Lounge. Apparently the band is often joined by other musicians, including a full brass section. Too bad I missed that. I generally am not a fan of this type of music, especially when I have to stand up to hear it, but they were pretty solid musicans, that much I can respect. And bassist Ashish Vyas was insanely good. He’s a touring member of Thievery Corporation, so you’d expect him to be good. Also explains the 18th St. Lounge connection. It could have been much, much worse, which leads me to…

Played Tomorrow(2) were a pretty typical jam band. Jam is a term I use regularly, but whose definition I know is a very relative thing. We won’t all agree on it, but let’s just say for me, “jam” is synonymous with “I hate this hippe shit.” I’ll give Played Tomorrow some credit, there were a few songs which almost sounded more post-rock than jam. Almost. I was with a couple musicians, who really thought the music was “tight” — another word who’s musical definition is highly dependent on who you are and still slightly unclear to me. I would agree with that description, but that doesn’t change my overall feelings on the music.

So, I wasn’t all that thrilled with show #1. Ironic that it ended up being a fairly jammy-jam type of evening, given my distaste for the genre. Black and Tan Fantasy Band were alright, but Played Tomorrow was simply not my thing. But that’s not to say you wouldn’t like them. You fucking hippie.