What's most impressive about this band is their
presentation. As though it were a lesson in multi-tasking, guitar
player Neal McKeeby plays sometimes two Stratocasters at once—one's
slung around his neck for the rhythm, and another in a stand, so he can
either fret or slide the leads on the neck with only his hand strength.
These aren't the easiest leads and rhythms to play either. The crowd
was agape at his dexterity. The tuba player, Brian Wolff, plays the
bass-line on his tuba, obviously, while sampling McKeeby and the
drummer, Tony Nozero.
They played much more mellow songs than the shows of theirs I'd seen in
the past. Guitar lines ranged from plain funk to tumbleweed-style honky
tonk. They'd meet with samples and noises from your favorite space rock
band, but that turned out to be a nice touch. They can play in mellow
grooves and then launch into complete freak-outs. Much of the set was
newer and mellower material. The first time I saw them, Wolff used an
old typewriter for chromatic percussion. Somehow, he'd time it so that
the bell and return would meet at the end of a certain measure. He was
sampling this and playing tuba at the time. This time around, they were
less focused on experimentating with non-instruments than trying to
manage a bit of musical genre at one time.
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