Now, I enjoyed seeing Tea Leaf play but I’m far from being a die-hard fan. I never traveled to catch one of their shows, yet I always had a good time when they came to town. The San Francisco-based quartet returned to New York City and Irving Plaza on Saturday night and I went to see them. Not only did they do a surprisingly nice job of filling the floor, more importantly they killed everything they played in the best possible way. I’m not sure where all of my friends that kept on telling me how good TLG was back in 2006 were at on Saturday night, but they missed a fantastic show that showed real growth from the unit on the improvisational front.
From the minute they kicked off the action with a tender reading of Carter Hotel through the Tom Thumb’s Blues (if someone does this tune better than TLG, I have yet to hear it) encore, I saw some life and passion out of this band I haven’t seen since those glory days of 2006.
Singer/keyboardist/harmonica ace Trevor Garrod has embraced his role as frontman, dancing around the stage with Mick Jagger-esque swagger during a brazen Let Us Go that had more bite than usual. Lead guitarist Josh Clark had a few new tricks up his sleeve and was much more calculated and patient in his shredding especially on Jezebel.
TLG – Let Us Go (Live at Irving Plaza)
The show wasn’t without its flaws. I’m always excited to see bassist Reed Mathis play, but he didn’t seem excited to play on this particular evening. Perhaps he was tired from working double duty as the bassist for the Marco Benevento Trio’s opening set, but fellow HT Contributor Ryan put it best when he said Reed appeared to be hiding behind his hair. Don’t get me wrong, Mathis pushed his band mates with creative bass lines and bold fills but he looked distracted, as if he wanted to be some place else. Also, the older songs TLG played were still the best of the bunch as I’m still not a fan of most of the material from 2008’s Raise Up The Tent.
Yet, everyone on the floor seemed to be really into the show and I was surprised at the number of people who seemed to know every word to every song. I’ve never been too impressed by any of TLG’s segues but Josh Clark slyly snuck the opening riff to If It Wasn’t For The Money into his solo in Not Fit and the rest of the quartet quickly followed along and shifted tempo to begin the song properly – an impressive moment to say the least that elicited screams of joy from the crowd.
Regaining the momentum of a few years ago may prove difficult for Tea Leaf Green but if they keep playing the way they played at Irving Plaza on Saturday night it’s certainly possible.
Set 1: Carter Hotel, Incandescent Devil, Mistletwo -> Don’t Curse The Night, Papa’s In The Back Room, If You Gotta Go Go Now (Bob Dylan), Precious Stone -> Can You Guess It, The Devil’s Pay
Set 2: One Reason, Soldiers Of Kentucky -> Stick To The Shallows, Criminal Intent ->Â Vote On Tuesday -> Let Us Go -> Jezebel -> Not Fit -> If It Wasn’t For The Money
Encore: Tom Thumb’s Blues (Bob Dylan)
6 Responses
acoustic sets are fun
well shit, if i knew it was gonna be this kind of review i would stuck my dick in the mashed potatoes.
that being said: nice one scotty. i want a contributing credit there somewhere.
also:
Carter Opener and a Tom Thumb’s Close = NYC Sandwich.
When this band movers to NY full time it will be EPCOTT, as the kids say these days…..
Great work Scotty. TLG did seem poised to be the next big thing in the jamband world – but your right for some reason or another they still haven’t quite gotten there yet.
I’ve managed to catch these guys around 8 or 9 times over the last few years including a monster set at Bonnaroo, but I’ll admit I probably couldn’t recognize maybe more that two or three songs on any give night that I’ve seen them. My biggest issue has been Josh Clark not stepping up more, he’s a monster guitar player and I’ve always felt that after three or four Trevor songs in a row they tend all blend.
But that being said I will continue you see and support them.
JG i would disagree, i feel josh steps up more than he should have to. At Irving wwe saw, as Scoty pointed out above, T Bone step in and take the reigns of the frontman. Let Us Go + him with that much energy as he should on Saturday = Boner for me (metaphorically speaking of course)
Unfortunately I wasn’t at Saturday’s show, so I’ll take your word for it – it’s just from some of my past experiences. The guy can shred, I’d just like to see it more.
The Marco Benevento Trio turned out a brain melting opening set. Their cover of “Golden” was huge! Tea Leaf’s audience was digging it. Being that both bands share Reed, maybe we’ll see more shows together?