Back at Cicero’s, and this week we got the Slip. The band is a staple in both the Boston and Providence music scenes, and is playing five Midwest dates this week with the equally jambase-friendly band Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey.
After an embarrassingly low turnout Sunday for the Boulder-based band Jive, I was nervous that there wouldn’t be enough crowd support for the band, and that once again St. Louis heads would be underrepresented.
I was so wrong.
Cicero’s was packed. The vibe was very positive, if not uppity, and the crowd seemed to be a mix of fans familiar with the band’s music, and newcomers who were experiencing the Slip groove for the first time. The band played two raucous sets, right up to and then past U City’s 1 a.m. curfew. They knew the crowd wanted it, and they held nothing back.
The Slip is a three piece band from the Boston area, together since 1991. The simplicity and freedom of a three piece band allows each member to have a real part of the spotlight, and to showcase their musicianship. They will often change roles, the drummer controlling the melody while the guitarist stamps out a drum line and the bassist plays chords. Their sound has a seamlesssness to it that is unique to jam-genre bands. They’re frequently referred to as jazz fusion, but seem equally influenced by rock and blues. Their performance was glazed with an evolved finesse that can only come from playing and growing together as a band for eleven years.
Watching the band communicate through their instruments becomes almost fixating, and Cicero’s is a great venue for that kind of intimacy. Made up of brothers Andrew and Brad Barr on drums and guitar respectively, and Marc Friedman on bass, the Slip seems poised to edge further into the ever-increasing spotlight that glares down on the jam band scene. Trying to describe their sound accurately is like trying explain to someone the definition of ‘is.’ It just is. It is fusion and improv and jazz and jam, it is as if all those things are wrapped around the Slip when they come on stage, and then the band proceeds to spend the next two hours unraveling it all, layer after layer, from ballads to grooves to the deepest recesses of funk.
The Slip show heralds an amazing week of live music here in St. Louis, a week that will continue with the San Fran “space porn funk” band Particle at Cicero’s, and the sold out Ratdog show March 22nd at Mississippi Nights. Everyone, from hippies to heads to squares, should keep their ears open over the next six weeks-the scene is swinging. There are three tight shows next week alone.
Wisconsin loves them and we do too: the Big Wu will be back for some St. Louis action on Monday, March 25 at Mississippi Nights, and you can end your week there too seeing the knee-slapping bluegrass favorites Yonder Mountain String Band on Friday, March 29th. Sandwiched in the middle is The Recipe, one of my personal favorites, with a down home rocked out bluegrass groove that will get even the most stodgy of spectators up and dancing. The Recipe plays Wednesday, March 27th at Cicero’s.