Melvin Seals and JGB

Melvin is in command of the keys. Jeremy held a beat and held the line, in tandem with the barefooted J-P. Oteil, another shoeless bass guitar phenom brings much more personality and dynamism to the role in the band, but make no mistake, J-P is busy thumping along at the low end of the register. What?!?! I haven't mentioned John, yet. Right. His nimble fretwork, noodling, plucking and strumming, singing while leading the musical harmonies, exchanging riffs with Melvin, interesting soulful strains wove together nicely with Jeremy, Melvin and J-P. The music cascaded across a set of audience pleasers from the first steps onto the stage, 'til the final cord got unplugged. Playing through Jerry classics, like "Reuben & Cherise," the Dylan standards "Positively 4th Street" along with "Corrina, Corrina" enabled some searing jams, interchanges between musicians. The New Speedway Boogie version the band ripped through segued nicely, bringing audience participation to the shared experience, as the ladies and gentlemen bellowed out, singing along, voicing rhetorically about getting to the top of the mountain, and finding one's way among hills in some way shape or form, rather, One way or another. The sticks Jeremy was playing with shifted first to one mallet, banging away, soloing into a drum Jam with a continuation of a rigorous performance that required all the musicians on stage to orchestrate and share roles with barely a glance among them. And, what about Melvin, again... he was throwing down, givin' a riveting performance, puttin' on a show, like playing a calliope or a harpsichord in days of old. He shared his mastery in a number of ways, sliding up and down the 88's, rising to tune in on the right tones of his organ, the box he was sitting in front of, always with a foot on the expression pedal, with the mood set variously to bluesy, gospel, as well as thundering rock & roll, with so many genres intended, in between. It was a great show, that their sound engineer, Armando, brought to the venue with all due precision of a world class act. A very pleasant surprise was the regionally high profile warm-up act, who are elevating their performances with each outing, the Joe Marcinek Band (JMB). Mixing up bass players, bringing in a lead vocalist, sharing the stage with old friends who can almost read one another's minds, having worked at their relationships for over 20 years, was an underpinning of solid, straight ahead contemporary rock & roll. Release of their first album '1 River Street' (cheeky name with a number of plays on words in the title alone), that bears a listen, or at least two or three. JMB was able to rev up the crowd, set the ambiance for the main Act while showing adept skills on originals. Before their conclusion the JMB musicians as well drove vibrations right through the center of the crowd on the familiar Black Crowes hit "Hard to Handle," demonstrating a knowledge of what had come before, in order to know where they need to go next. If you get a chance to see either of these acts again, seize the opportunity, buy their music and merch, to one day soon to rock and roll, again.