Thursday, September 29, 2022

Club D’elf 9/23/22 Broad Brook Opera House

 First time at this historic venue, situated in a hidden section of EastWindsor. Built in 1892, this wooden structure has had a recent facelift complete with a sidewall mural depicting rock legends John Lennon, Bob Marley and others. Club D’elf is a loose collective of groove masters that have been wowing audiences with their original blend of Moroccan-dub-electronica-trance-fusion for the past twenty years. I’m pretty sure they are based in Cambridge MA, as I see them listed as the house band of The Lizard Lounge. Constant member Mike Rivard plays bass and Moroccan sintir a 3-string lute was joined onstage by Dave Fiuczynski on double neck electric guitar, Dean Johnson on drums, Paul Schultheis on organ mellotron and clavinet, and a character named Mister Rourke on turntables. The quintet weave their trance improv tunes over computer breaks and beats to produce this unclassifiable music. You know I listen to a lot of music when I was able to spot the drummer’s wordless vocal intro as a cover of Trilok Gurtu’s 1-2 Beaucoup from his excellent The Glimpse release. Club D’elf’s new album, You Never Know is great and pays homage to some influences, notably In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time by Miles Davis and King Kong by Frank Zappa. Unfortunate that more people didn’t attend this show.

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