Phantom Station 12/10/21 Firehouse 12

 Final show of the Firehouse fall series has the group Phantom Station. Leader Brandon Ross on guitar, synthtar, and guitaro ( a small acoustic), drummer JT Lewis, David Vireilles on keys, Graham Haynes on cornet, and someone named Hardedge on “sound design”. The show starts with Hardedge ( a middle aged white guy for those of you playing along in your head) twiddling some knobs on a table full of  Denon boxes and patch cords. The sound is a variety of metal scrapes and drones with Hardedge wincing and bobbing as if the electricity was flowing through him as he “played”. He appeared to be milking a cricket. Lewis enters with some subtle taps and brushwork. The other three file in and take their station for a continuous improv. The visual is critical, Haynes, in his fifties is graying but still oozes Afro-futurism. He looks as if he’s seen the burning bush, like Pharoah Sanders, but on cornet. The cornet is a beautiful instrument, a creamy trumpet tone is deftly executed with mute or straight. When Haynes faces the audience, you can feel the sound. Vireilles, younger than the rest, knows his place, but is not afraid to open up when nodded to by Ross. Brandon Ross is a notorious downtown axe-wielder. Wafer thin with feminine custom made blouse and long fine dreads, he seems to be in a constant state of contemplation of his next move. I say the clothing is custom because the sheer Indian print pattern of his top is repeated in a stripe going down his pants. The guitar is rarely out front, but his presence is felt on driving the improv. At one point, he dialed his iPhone to some otherworldly app, held it to the fretboard and vibrated through a solo. Ross also sang, a soulful, spooky sequence about souls passing through the gate. Ross ends the affair by stating they are purveyors of “real music, by real people, made in real time”. These guys could be the house band at the best club…..on Saturn.

Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball of Gomez 12/4/21 Fairfield Theater Company

 The best rock band you’ve probably never heard of….Gomez. British group had a string of excellent releases in the early oughts. The band never hit it big though they did appear on some soundtracks and toured the states several times. If I remember right, the band had three singers, but the core of Ben and Ian graced FTC. Slim, “post” pandemic crowd on this Saturday night. The boys start with a rousing title track of How We Operate. Two guys, guitars, a laptop looper and their voices. Some groupies in the audience know the lyrics better than Ian and Ben. They play some solo tunes, some tunes on the next Gomez record although there are clearly some band allegiance issues that might derail the Gomez future. They cheekily came up with a song Selena, billed as a search engine destroyer. Great version of Whipping Piccadilly and We haven’t Turned Around. Encores with Tijuana Lady. Gomez’ live recording Way Out West gets frequent play in my home.