Wednesday and Saturday, Wednesday and Saturday
LarJar is excited to be performing four shows in the Richmond area over the next two weeks. We continue our weekly Wednesday night performances at Cary Street Cafe, free of charge and always a blast. Over the past two months, we’ve featured guest percussionist Mark Henderson, two appearances by DJ Possum (Nathan Firster) and guitarist Matt Sthreshley. During the last two weeks of December, keyboardist Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee, guitarist Bon Lozaga of Gongzilla and Tiny Boxes and guitarist Scott Lane of the Congress joined the band for numerous tunes. Openers and special guests as well as two full sets of music from the band can be expected at every show.
LarJar is excited to announce two free Saturday performances over the upcoming two weeks, March 6 at Emilio’s at the corner of Broad and Meadow, and March 13 at City Dogs on Main Street in the fan. The Emilio’s performance offers an opportunity for expanded sound and lighting rig and a change of pace for the band with a fresh atmosphere and a lot of dancing space. Come out ready to shake and move it with a host of new covers and reworked tunes planned especially for this performace. March 13 at City Dogs is sure to be a blast, the first appearance by LarJar at “the Dog” since their CD release party on February 5 that included opening set and setbreak jams by DJ Possum and some great turntable-vs-synth improv battles in the second set. City Dogs offers great food and drink specials all night, an ever-improving sound system, a fun, clean environment and best of all the show will be free of charge.
The band has been hard at work developing new material since their February 20 performance at the National with Perpetual Groove. The 1-hour set by LarJar included new mashups of their own original material, an epic 12-minute, 4-part suite that included numerous melodies and grooves developed from MMW tunes “Night Marchers”, “Bubble House”, “Lasst Chance to Dance Trance” and the traditional blues number “Old Wyne”. The last song of the set, “Biplanes”, developed based on the work of Richmond pianist Brian Mahne, featured Brock Butler of Perpetual Groove for the entirety of the song, playing both electric guitar and pedal steel guitar, chugging through an extended solo and improv section that saw some great lights and hard-hitting jams. Be sure to stay tuned to RichmondImage.com for some great photography work by James Young documenting the show. Check back regularly to LarJar.net for more news, videos, mp3s and opportunities to check out the band in action.
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
