Concert Review
Live in Tallahassee,FL • April 7,2015
LiveMusicDaily Tour Continues Tonight
Review by Nicole Bryan • Photos by BFETLO Photography
Tallahassee has been in a funk. First it was the weather, days and days of numbing cold, desolate skies and bare trees. Spring is finally upon us in the 850 but the flowers aren’t the only ones flourishing. This springtime music selection has bloomed quite beautifully with last nights show at Sidebar Theatre.
Wolf & Witness, Displace, and Earphunk gave Tallahassee a heaping helping pile of raw and powerful tunes last night and the crowd could not have loved it more. Any music enthusiast in the Tallahassee area is no stranger to Sidebar Theatre. Originally the Engine Room (and before that, Beta Bar), it has been and still continues to be, home to a number of incredible acts. A simple interior structure that consists of a main stage, dance floor, and minimal seating provides the perfect place to boogie all night.
“Come closer,” echoed out of the mouths of lead guitarist, Giovanni Marrero-Baez and bassist, Jake Dane, summoning the crowd to move in, a place they held and never left. Wolf & Witness, a self-proclaimed “rock group blending elements of jazz, rock, and folk with harmonious vocal melodies to create a heavy-mellow mixture,” opened with “The Garden”, a thick, rich guitar driven track, showing the true talent of guitarist, Jerry Sullivan. They have that kind of quiet and intimate connection to the crowd that left us mesmerized in a trance of melodic flurries. An ambient and dream-like transition into “Waves” gave the audience a sweet taste of W&W’s abilities to utilize Giovanni’s vocals, which straddle the line between reggae and progressive, two genres they blend perfectly into this song. The audience rode these smooth waves into their fifth song of the night, which featured a cameo by Displace’s Chris Sgammato on the saxophone. Elegant, tasteful, and silky are just a few words to describe the saxophone styling of Sgammato, giving the crowd a taste for what was to come after Wolf & Witness. This gorgeous saxophone selection lay atop a nicely made bed of steady drums, simple keys, and straightforward guitar riffs.
After one more song from Wolf & Witness, Displace, a band hailing from Tampa, FL got the crowd moving with a song off their new album, Eureka!, called “Fog”, a song that grooves in itself and has an irresistible guitar hook played by the lead guitarist, Sam Dobkin. They possess the kind of diligent concentration to this opening jam that seasoned professionals have. The band began to “displace” themselves, as they call it, after the first song came to a close, to take on new instruments and carry on into the second song of the night, “Old Bread”. Chris Sgammato, a truly talented multi-faceted musician, handles the bass as if his hands were made for this instrument. With the second and last “displace” of the night, the musicians return to their original keepsakes and give the crowd the funk they came for. A dance party began to ensue amongst the crowd as a myriad of lights played tricks around the venue, bouncing off the disco ball that hung above. Sgammato effortlessly moves from guitar into blaring saxophone, which the crowd is more than prepared for. Tucker Sody on the drums provides a fluid build up into the rest of the bands smooth jazz processional. Dobkin interrupts these melodies with guitar licks to create a euphonic melding of sounds.
A gentler and softer jam bellowed from the stage as they played “In Plain Terms”, a song that gave the crowd a place to breath. Sgammato sings, “familiar faces are all I see in this melody,” and I promise those lyrics reign true because every person there could not help but be hooked and want to come back to become one of those familiar faces to Displace. Their set was brought to a close through an explosive rendition of the late Amy Winehouse’s classic hit, “Valerie”. The song starts with the beloved lyrics and spirals into a vortex of melody with gorgeous improvisational guitar riffs, wild percussion, and pronounced bass by the impressive, Vinny Svoboda. It felt as if time had been temporarily suspended within this chaotic jam and after a period of intense free form playing, reverted back into the classic lyrics that the audience had almost forgotten about as they were sucked into this psychedelic whirlwind. At times, the song was almost transformed into a southern rock classic and at other times, it felt as though you were in a hot and sweaty blues club, hearing a canonical tune. The audience was sad to see their set come to a close, but appreciated the much-needed break for the upcoming Earphunk throw-down.
No one was fully prepared for the throw-down that Earphunk had in mind. The crowd, mostly outside enjoying their break, had little idea that Earphunk had begun playing. Starting out the night strong, Earphunk, a prog-funk band from New Orleans, LA threw down clamorous notes and roared out to the audience, “Sweet Nasty!” the lyrics (and also namesake) of their opening song. Droves of famished funk fiends began flooding the door and found their places on the dance floor. It was as if Mark Hempe and Paul Provosty were beckoning for the audience to come forth and receive this sweet and nasty set of funk. The audience ate this up and the night moved forward into “She Don’t Wanna Hear From You” with delicate guitar plucks in between the electrifying bass from Michael Comeaux. “Sun Up to Sun Down” is another track that captures the symbiotic relationship between guitar and bass. Provosty musically weaves in and out of the bass line, giving way for a steady melody into harder dips and dives from Comeaux, one of my favorite bass moments from the night.
Earphunk provides some of the catchiest lyrics out there in the funk music scene right now, which is shown perfectly in their keys-heavy hitter, “Try”. The audience didn’t have to try and boogie to this song, the rhythm is effortless and Christian Gallé’s howling keys brought the audience to church with unrelenting insistent grooves. Provosty persists through after the intensity of Gallé’s keys with tenacious force on the guitar. It was a pleasant surprise to be greeted with “The Multiverse” a ditty of sorts, devoid of lyrics, but full of steamy bass and hard guitar riffs, the kind the audience missed from songs played earlier in the set. “The Multiverse” is the ultimate song to display the progressive side of Earphunk. Performing the Allman Brothers classic, “Whipping Post” anywhere in the South is going to be met with an appreciative audience. Earphunk’s rendition of this classic song was precise and was a perfect piece to come next in the set after a song like “Multiverse”. The band paid perfect homage to the southern-rock legends and showed the range of Hempe’s vocal abilities. The crowd was completely intoxicated by the cover and continued their dance party in proper fashion.
With the close of their southern-rock classic cover, they opened into “Saura”, an otherworldly-feeling song that blasts off into extraterrestrial guitar melodies. Michael Matthews climbs a ladder into space with his drumming and stays there the entirety of the song. The younger crowd enjoyed the Alice DeeJay’s “Better Off Alone” tease within this space-infused song. It is the kind of song to tease that left the audience falling in love on the dance floor and reliving their first heartbreak. The song, tease and all, lacking in lyrics, helps the audience imagine a world of possibilities. Getting away from the dreamscape of “Saura,” Earphunk had a special treat for us by playing their new song, “Omega” which they have only debuted a handful of times. A harder, more progressive song, Gallé went away at the keys like a maddened scientist, working at an experiment, giving the crowd a great piece to rock out to. They took the edge off the harder previous song by playing “Nine to Five” a light-hearted decree for the audience to proclaim that they will never work a 9-5 job. Earphunk took “Nine to Five” in a direction that seemed appropriate by playing “Drove” right after, a song that gets Gallé working hard on those keys again. Featuring scatting and deep guitar dives, it was the perfect way to end the night… or so the audience thought. As the band left the stage, the crowd stood defiant, unwillingly to leave without at least one more song. Earphunk jumped back on stage to bang the crowd against the head with the rock-staple “Killing in the Name”. Earphunk had fun covering this Rage Against the Machine song, while the crowd raged on in delight to every single note.
Spring is off to a beautiful start in Tallahassee. As the flowers bloom in the spring of Tallahassee, the music scene blooms amidst this transition in weather as well. Wolf & Witness, Displace, and Earphunk brought an incredible show to the Sidebar Theatre last night. Tallahassee was hungry for great music and last night, we got the funk down.