Thursday August 28, an unseasonably cool and drippy night outside in Rochester, and a perfect in any season night of cool drippy music inside the Bug Jar.
Appropriately the night began with a set by Drippers, Mike Turzanski’s expandable psychedelic outfit that on this night was just Turzaniski himself. Backed by a mystery box of prerecorded tracks and electronic beats, he contorted his guitar and distorted his voice, lit only by the club’s mirror ball. Mysterious and intriguing, and the perfect entry into the rest of the evening.
Next up, another of Rochester’s psychedelic gems, Overhand Sam and Bad Weapon. Often playing as a quintet these days, they were down to the core trio of Sam Snyder (Overhand Sam), Benton Sillick on bass, and Dennis Mariano on drums. They were road testing some fresh new tunes like the recently released single “Spinning” which featured some maniacal wailing over a relentless bass line. The highlight of the set however was a classic Bad Weapon tune, the ethereal “Dust” dropped into a free jazz-punk rock section with all three members flying high on their own journey that somehow found common purpose toward an exhilarating sound. As tight a band as you’ll find in this town, or many others.
Anchoring this mind warp of an evening was Brooklyn’s Evolfo. The sextet was effusively raining love upon the Bug Jar throughout the night. One of their favorite places to play, they said. Legendary even.
Stopping by without a recent album to promote, they too sprinkled new tunes throughout the set. The creative churn exhibited through the night was impressive across the board.
Their set opened with cacophonous swirl, from which a fuzzed out ripper of a groove emerged. Evolfo brought new elements into play throughout. A strange twist of jazz reminiscent of Frank Zappa. A vintage sax and organ groove reminiscent of Traffic. Deep-seated ragers, punk rock rave ups, psychedelic thrillers, garage-rock guitar jams.
They kept things moving with a variety of vocal arrangements, different leads, multi-part harmonies etc. Instrumentally the bass and guitarist switched it up for a couple, and the other guitarist picked up a trumpet to add a little more horn sounds into the mix.
Endlessly engaging, it was a shame the set had to end, but alas, it did. But not before the crowd urged the band to pull out one more and extend the evening a bit longer. Captain Beefheart’s “Zig Zag Wanderer,” a fun finish, was also an appropriate description of the journey we had all taken.
And now we await Evolfo’s return to one of their favorite venues. But if you want to see them in the meantime, catch them in New York on September 19 at Elsewhere.
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