The High Breaks at Red Square, Seth Yacovone And The Mountain Says No At Nectar’s October 23, 2015

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music Friday night. I got out of work at 6 then stopped home for a quick bite of food. I knew Mountain would be on around 9:30, but had some other options before that. I finally got out the door around 8 and took a brisk walk downtown. I was debating just going to Nectar’s early to see Seth Yacovone play solo, but was leaning towards heading up to the Zen Lounge to see Small Change, a Tom Waits cover band. I’m one of the few people I know who is not really into Tom’s music, but Robert Gagnon is a really talented guitar player so I thought it would be fun to check out the band. I was walking down Church st when I heard a band playing at Red Square. Curious, I looked to see who it was, and The High Breaks were on stage and rocking. I wandered in and grabbed a drink. The band were super tight and their surf rock sound is super cool. There was a couple dancing to the tunes and the full room really liked the band’s sound. Matthew Bryan Hagen told the usual fun stories that begin the instrumental songs. Ankle Breaker has a nice slow build until it rocks hard then eases off and builds again. Sidewinder starts with some simple riffs but as the song keeps going each member of the trio rock their instruments hard. When they announced they had one more in this set, the first of three, Matt said they would do a familiar song then said “Hit it Todd.” Todd Gevry did the shrieking laugh and called out Wipe Out and the band played a killer version of the classic. When the last note rang out, I headed out the door. Since it was getting late, I headed right to Nectar’s. Seth Yacovone was on stage playing a song on acoustic guitar and singing with his ragged voice. As I settled in he played a song about a lady in France then played a fun song about going along on an intergalactic ride. It was pretty fun and a nice way to wrap up the set. His singing is strong and powerful and his guitar playing is just outstanding. I’m so glad I caught a couple of his songs. After a bit of a wait, The Mountain Says No were set up and ready to go. They opened with Ricky The Rider, but something was off and it just did not gel like it should have. They slugged their way through a couple of songs, but I got a bit worried, since something was just off in the sound. Statistik was the fourth song and it was OK, but just not as glorious as usual. I think it was the fifth song where Justus began a nice drum riff and suddenly the band were locked in and sounded as perfect as always. From that point on, everything sounded great and I was ecstatic. They played a couple of new songs that I really liked and did killer versions of King Grifter and Restaurant. As they headed toward the end of the set, the time shortened and their plan to play three more turned into one more. The Bomb rocked as hard and wonderfully as always. I headed out shortly after the last note finished and took the long walk home. I was quite content.

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