Great Western At Juniper And The Mountain Says No At Radio Bean March 21, 2014

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music Friday night. I got out of work at 7 and got a message that David L. Jarvis was hanging out at the OP. Mike Luoma and I headed down and chatted for a bit. A little after 9, my musical muse dragged me over to Juniper to catch some songs from Great Western. Juniper is a lounge in the lobby of the swanky Hotel Vermont, so it’s not a rock venue. I saw Swale there once and they had to keep it pretty mellow. Great Western played some sweet songs with great articulation on the guitar and some really great drumming. The bass player kept things solid and steady and the violin player added a layer or warmth to the music.

They had a few moments where they were starting to rock out a little, but held back. At the end of the first set they were asked to turn the music down, apparently it was a request from the second floor. The second set opened very mellow, but they brought it up a bit. I wanted to rock out, and there was no way they were going to, but they play some really sweet songs, and I enjoyed myself, despite everything. They wrapped the night with Think I’ll Stay, which has a great riff that I find myself humming often, then played a John Prine song as a demanded encore.

After that, I skipped back to the OP, and chatted with Dave and Mike a bit more. Mike took off, and Dave was meeting a friend at the airport. Around 11:30 we split up and I took the long walk to the Radio Bean.

A band just finished and I settled in as The Mountain Says No set up. They opened with the title song and rocked the place hard. Aaah, there it is! Their set is becoming familiar and I’m loving the sprawling heavy rock music they play. Somewhere in the middle they played the I’m With The Bomb song, and they closed the night with the song about one statistic. They were as wonderful as always and I walked home with a heart full of joy.

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