Joel Cummins and Dave face-off on the keys!
Quick follow-up regarding the December 23 show with Tiny Boxes-
Kicking off around 9:45 to a packed house, the evening began with an opening set by LarJar, running through a number of their 70s-esque soul grooves, pulling a few pages from Robert Walter’s songbook (Panacea, To the Bitter End, Ain’t it Funky, Biplanes) and getting the crowd warmed up for what was to come. With each successive song, LarJar veered more into open territory, leaning on disco-funk beats and bringing out new original tunes (Tap into your mind) and tying it off with a raging take on Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish”.
Tiny Boxes took the stage after a brief interlude, with Bon Lozaga and Joel Cummins smiling ear-to-ear and ready to play for an anxious crowd. Tiny Boxes ripped through several Jimi Hendrix greats including “Castles Made of Sand” and finishing with “Voodoo Chile”. The drummer and bassist, recent additions to Bon’s musical endeavours, both draw deeply from gospel and funk roots, and it shows in their tight, crisp and funky playing. Bon and Joel lent vocals to a number of tunes, and the Tiny Boxes originals were mainly light-hearted, jazzy numbers with thick back-beats, personal lyrics and shredding solos. Joel very comfortably worked his way around the organ, clavinet and stage piano, even adding synth solos to occasional tunes.
The set drew to a close after 90 or so short minutes, and after a few moments of quick interaction between band members, shifting of cymbals and snare, LarJar was back up and ready to pummel the crowd with more jams. Plowing through Karl Denson’s “Elephants” (minor technical problems with the Clavinet aside) and the Benevento-Russo Duo improv vehicle “Big Whopper”, the band jumped into their own “Dart of Harkness”. This jungle-vibe tune, with heavy floor-tom rolls forming the core beat construction, rumbled along through the head/melody sections before jumping off into a deep space. As the band coasted momentarily, Bon Lozaga jumped on stage and lent some percussive riffing to the tune before busting out into a deep and angry guitar solo. Carrying through a dozen or so bars, the band began dropping out and only playing on rhythmic hits together to emphasize the powerful guitar shredding. With little warning to the crowd, Joel Cummins jumped back up in front of the keyboard rig, and he and Bon began trading off lead lines, improving over the band’s vamping with some deep synth-lead/guitar exchanges, while Dave continued to work the Clavinet and stage piano and Alan and Jason continued to hold down the rhythm, stepping back and forth between hits and a thundering bass-and-drums groove. The tune traveled into outer space before slamming back to earth as the piano signaled a return to the head of the tune and the whole band came screeching to a high-pitched halt.
Bon continued on with the band for the remainder of the show, lending some unique thoughts and emphasis to “Organ Donor” and the LarJar prog/blues finale “Ridin’ the Rails”. The crowd was ushered quickly out onto the sidewalks and into the night with little beyond memories to remind them of what they’d just witnessed.
Tiny Boxes is performing at the Outer Banks Brewing Station on January 9, 2010 and in Raleigh on February 5. You can check them out on Myspace. Umphrey’s McGee is playing an extended New Year’s run in Chicago and returning to the area in February to play Valentine’s Day at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore. Check them out at Umphreys.com.
Thanks to jambands.com for mentioning the show in advance, it was the most crowded Wednesday we’ve seen in quite some time!
Tiny Boxes feat. Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s and Bon Lozaga of Gongzilla to perform with LarJar 12/23/09
Tiny Boxes, a new funk-jam project formed by guitarist Bon Lozaga of Gongzilla and featuring Umphrey’s McGee keyboardist Joel Cummins will be performing at a special free holiday show with us at Cary Street Cafe in Richmond, Va. The performance has been arranged for December 23, 2009 at 10:00pm at Cary Street Cafe and will include two sets each from Tiny Boxes and LarJar taking turns melting faces.
Lozaga has been hard at work on his new project, Tiny Boxes, whose first recording efforts include members of Umphrey’s McGee and Derek Trucks Band. This marks their first foray into the community, with the band traveling from North Carolina and Cummins as a special guest in from Chicago. Their new sound is a funky mash-up that harkens to previous projects including Gongzilla, Lozaga’s solo work and the progressive sound of early Umphrey’s McGee.
LarJar is a keys-bass-drums trio that’s been performing a weekly Wednesday workout at Cary Street Cafe for over two years. They’ve hosted two LarJarFests, an independent jam-funk music festival outside Richmond, VA with a third in the works for this spring. LarJar features twin brothers Jason and Larry Alen Jarrell on bass and drums respectively and Dave Klemencic on organ, clavinet, synths and electric piano.
Cary Street Cafe has long been the home to Richmond’s jam/funk/rock community, hosting an eclectic variety of live music for the past 14 years. Their weekly routine includes free shows by the Former Champions every Tuesday, LarJar every Wednesday and a rotation of regional touring acts on Fridays and Saturdays.
www.umphreys.com/
www.lolorecords.com/bon_lozaga.html
www.larjar.net/
www.carystreetcafe.com
