Friday nights are for dancing, but especially here in Denver, there are many different ways you can do it. Last Friday night's show at the Walnut Room showcased three local bands that provided three different ways to get busy on the dance floor featuring a soundtrack one might not normally expect. Each band provided quality music from underrepresented genres to rile up the crowd, making a concert that was just as much a wild party as it was a spectacular show.
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| The Legendary River Drifters |
The night began with The Legendary River Drifters, a local seven-piece folk band. From what I could find before the show, I expected a more traditional folk ensemble generating a turn-of-the-century type folk sound. But with the combination of Olivia Quintana on guitar/harmonica, Curtis Wallach on banjo, Matthew Lilly on bass, Suzanne Magnuson on vocals/musical-saw, Darrick Jones on drums, Joe Burkins on mandolin/vocals, and Cyrus Green on guitar, they created music that had that old folk feel set ablaze with the attitude and intensity of heavy metal with their high energy folk-country-bluegrass presentation. The myriad of instruments on stage worked in perfect synthesis, allowing lead singer Suzanne Magnuson to propel each boot stompin' song with her powerfully soulful voice.
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| The Legendary River Drifters |
The Legendary River Drifters wasted no time introducing the audience to their intensified folk sound by beginning their set with "The Metal Song", a piece with an unassuming mandolin intro that suddenly explodes into a stompin' and screamin' bluegrass epic. Even when the tempo slowed down for songs like the ghostly musical-saw driven "Long Before", The Legendary River Drifters still performed with such a confident ferocity that they were much more soulful and engaging than they were ever solemn or grave. They even augmented Mel Tillis' "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" (popularized by Kenny Rogers), with their uptempo heavy folk flare. If you are a fan of folk but are looking for a high energy live experience, The Legendary River Drifters are a musical stick of dynamite.
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| A. Tom Collins |
Next up was A. Tom Collins, an indie group with a throwback sound but modern attitude not easily pinned down or categorized. A. Tom Collins was on keyboard/lead vocals, Franco Valentino played electric bass, Alex Hebert played drums, and Robert Cole Sackett played trumpet. With A. Tom Collins' usual saxophonist unavailable for the night, Pink Hawks members Yuzo Nieto and Nick Krier lent their services on the alto and baritone saxophones respectively. With this combination of instruments, A. Tom Collins created a very unique jazz-blues-rock hybrid that sounded like a modern rock version of '40s swing and jazz complete with dashes of punk attitude.
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| A. Tom Collins |
A. Tom Collins performed eight pieces that really showcased their unique blend of sounds. They started with a piece in 3/4 time that had a bluesy jazz ensemble sound before playing the slow swing song "Oh No!" from the A. Tom Collin's EP of the same name. The live performance had a slightly different feel from the album, since the live performance featured electric piano and bass, yet that didn't change the songs' identity at all. The uptempo swing-like song they played next sounded much more modern with the electric piano, making the band sound very fresh.
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| A. Tom Collins |
Trousers literally hit the ground when the band performed the next piece, "Pants Off Dance Off", another uptempo song this time featuring a gypsy-jazz influence. At this point, the crowd energy was at full boil, and it stayed that way through the next uptempo swing song. Next came a lounge piano type piece, which cleverly juxtaposed a slower tempo with humorous sing-a-long type lyrics. After a more blues-rock type song, the band finished with one more EP song, "Pretty People". The live version was about twice the length of the recorded version, starting out uptempo blues-funk and winding down to a more lounge style. A. Tom Collins brand of music is all about inciting a good time, and the unique sound they use to create that atmosphere is nothing short of amazing. Their blend of jazz-rock is like nothing else I've heard and I'd highly recommend hearing their songs and seeing this band perform.
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| Pink Hawks |
Pink Hawks came out as headliners to close out the night, bringing their original afrobeat and other world music influenced songs to the eager Walnut Room crowd. The last time I saw this band, I was blown away by their energy and presence, and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into more. For this night, they had ten members of the band on stage; Yuzo Nieto on acoustic guitar/alto saxophone/vocals, Zay Rios on percussion, Trevor Morris on electric guitar, Jim Angel on bass, Lannie Shelton on violin, Joe Tabano on trumpet, Koffi Toudji on percussion, Nick Krier on baritone saxophone, Laura Gibson on keyboard/vocals, and John Olsson on drums. They all worked together beautifully to deliver their intricate sounds and polyrhythms to deliver an incredible live music experience.
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| Pink Hawks |
The night began with a performance of a brand new Pink Hawks song, a song called "Ven Aqui". This Latin inspired song was written after some members of the band spent time in Peru, and was definitely a sexy hip-shaker of a song that evoked a South American feel. Afterwards, both the crowd and audience paid tribute to Yuzo Nieto, celebrating his birthday with a quick rendition of the birthday song, before launching into one of my favorites, "Everything Is Poetry". This song incited about fifteen minutes of dance floor madness, as its uptempo rhythms and hypnotic bass line got the crowd to go absolutely wild.
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| Pink Hawks |
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| Pink Hawks |
Afterwards, Yuzo Nieto gave the audience a choice for the next song, either a faced paced afrobeat song or a slower tradional Mexican style song. The crowd emphatically voted for afrobeat, and the Pink Hawks went right into "Addicted To Pain". The jazzy polyrhythmic afrobeat piece got the crowd to pick up right where they left off a couple songs ago, forcing the crowd into another lengthy sweaty dance fest. The intensity was already very high, yet the Pink Hawks reached into their bag of tricks and brought out a song for their finale that pushed the intensity to a whole new level. "Separate the Corporation & State" was just the medicine the crowd needed to draw out the last bit of energy from the crazy crowd.
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| Pink Hawks |
Pink Hawks knows how to turn a performance into a party. To help bring even more energy to the stage, A. Tom Collins' trumpeter Robert Cole Sackett, The Dendrites' trumpeter Squidds Madden, and The Legendary River Drifters' vocalist Suzanne Magnuson joined Pink Hawks on stage to lend their respective talents and add to the already huge sound. Koffi Toudji pulled up a member of the audience onto the stage to play percussion on the bongos. What did Koffi do? He took her place in the crowd as he showed the members of the audience how to truly wile out to the music. The whole performance was absolutely crazy, and some of the most fun I've had at a show.
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| Pink Hawks |
The Pink Hawks were going to end it there, but after cries from the crowd, the band stuck around to perform one more song, the aforementioned traditional Mexican piece. They wrapped up the night with the slower huapango song. It was a good way to get everyone to simmer down a bit while still maintaining a degree of sauciness, because the songs before it had the crowd completely on fire. The Pink Hawks threw an incredible live show with music so good it seeps to the bone and causes the body to move in ways not previously thought possible. If you enjoy high-energy music and/or world music of any form, see the Pink Hawks whenever you can.
See more pictures from this show in the Facebook photo album. Like the Concerted Effort page and stay up to date!
Categories:
A. Tom Collins,
Concert Review,
Pink Hawks,
The Legendary River Drifters,
Walnut Room