El Beej And Wave Of The Future At Manhattan Pizza, January 16 2014

Words by Tim Lewis.

I just got back from seeing music at Manhattan Pizza. I walked in and El Beej were onstage unleashing sonic weirdness. With a drummer, sax player, Joe Adler on guitar (and other assorted mouth instruments), and Lee Anderson triggering some odd effects, the band played some loose jazz(??) in a free form style. They were interesting but did not grab me. As the show progressed Joe pulled out so many whistles and slides and unexpected wind instruments that I swore he was going to start playing his beer glass. After a bit, they locked into a couple of rock jams that caught me and got me moving. At one point Joe grabbed his beer glass and used it to play slide guitar, He walked into the audience, playing some super cool sounds. It was a good time, and they only scared a few audience members away. They were challenging, but fun.

After a bit, Wave of the Future hit the stage and were nothing but high energy fun. They opened with Super Sexy Dance Party and followed with The Safety Dance. The next few had a heavy dirge to the wild and exuberant pop. The guitar and drums have a rock sound. The bass and keyboard/guitar had more of a pop influence, though the bass player cranked hard on a few of the heavier ones. The singer, Luke Richer triggered lots of fun from his laptop, and sang solidly. Samara Lark Brown sang like crazy and danced the whole show. They played a few songs about Total Recall and Back To The Future. They pushed the audience to dance hard for every note. They played Great Scott and One Point Twenty One, and played until they were ready to drop.

I’m so glad I went. They had me moving from first note to last and I’m left with a calm bliss. After the show, I walked back to WBKM, grabbed my backpack, then stayed for the next song that happened to be in rotation, A Glimmer by Queen Tangerine. What a night.

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.