Tea Leaf Green brins the San Fran spirit to the Twin Cities
By: Sam Robertson
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: The Arts
On Friday night, a revitalized Tea Leaf Green played at The Cabooze and showed that they were as good as ever despite recent lineup changes. In November, the band's popular bassist Ben Chambers announced that he was leaving the band after ten fun years. The band immediately announced that Reed Mathis from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey would replace Chambers, and he's fit in seamlessly on their first tour together.
Opening for the new version of Tea Leaf Green was Moonalice, a new band of old musicians who decided to come out of retirement to play music purely for the fun of it. The band's claim to fame is that all seven members play bass guitar and, true to their word, a different member played bass on every song. Despite being a very loose, fun bar band, Moonalice is made up of very talented musicians, and its members have played with Jefferson Airplane, The Dead, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna in the past. Musically, the band combined some new material with reworked old sixties classics like "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Somebody to Love." Their sound was dominated by the terrific bass talent of all members along with the searing guitar solos of Barry Sless and GE Smith. Their set was so good that the audience an encore, which is almost unheard of for an opening band. They thanked the audience repeatedly for being so appreciative and launched into the Grateful Dead classic "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" with the audience singing along, wrapping up their fun opening set.
Eager not to be overshadowed by Moonalice, Tea Leaf Green took the stage at 10:45 and delivered high-energy rock and roll past 1:30 in the morning. Made up of Trevor Garrod on keyboards and vocals, Josh Clark on guitar and vocals, Reed Mathis on bass and Scott Rager on drums, Tea Leaf Green is a young band from San Francisco earning a reputation as one of the best live jam bands in the music scene today. The band manages to combine Garrod's poignant lyrics with elements of psychedelia, folk, jazz and blues into their own brand of rock and roll.
Opening for the new version of Tea Leaf Green was Moonalice, a new band of old musicians who decided to come out of retirement to play music purely for the fun of it. The band's claim to fame is that all seven members play bass guitar and, true to their word, a different member played bass on every song. Despite being a very loose, fun bar band, Moonalice is made up of very talented musicians, and its members have played with Jefferson Airplane, The Dead, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna in the past. Musically, the band combined some new material with reworked old sixties classics like "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Somebody to Love." Their sound was dominated by the terrific bass talent of all members along with the searing guitar solos of Barry Sless and GE Smith. Their set was so good that the audience an encore, which is almost unheard of for an opening band. They thanked the audience repeatedly for being so appreciative and launched into the Grateful Dead classic "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" with the audience singing along, wrapping up their fun opening set.
Eager not to be overshadowed by Moonalice, Tea Leaf Green took the stage at 10:45 and delivered high-energy rock and roll past 1:30 in the morning. Made up of Trevor Garrod on keyboards and vocals, Josh Clark on guitar and vocals, Reed Mathis on bass and Scott Rager on drums, Tea Leaf Green is a young band from San Francisco earning a reputation as one of the best live jam bands in the music scene today. The band manages to combine Garrod's poignant lyrics with elements of psychedelia, folk, jazz and blues into their own brand of rock and roll.
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