The layout of Higher Ground’s Showcase Lounge doesn’t much recall the late Bill Graham’s Fillmore East, but the triple bill of Anders Parker’s Cloud Badge, Blood Oranges and Waylon Speed called to mind the halcyon days the now-defunct New York venue as a haven for true music lovers. The bands on this Halloween evening bill effectively depicted the evolution of alt-country.
Fronted by Jim Ryan, once of Burlington’s Decentz and Pine Island bands, Blood Oranges offered an ideal opening set, belaboring neither their thirty-minutes plus performance as a whole or the individual songs within it. While many of the tunes did sound repetitive, the abbreviated takes were imbued with a ramshackle charm that compensated and when the quartet closed on a slightly dolorous but majestic note, they effectively enacted a smooth segue into the next set by Anders Parker and Cloud Badge.
One of the highlights of September 2014’s Grand Point North Festival at Burlington’s Waterfront Park, the former member of Varnaline and collaborator with Jay Farrar in Gob Iron – led his band with even greater versatility than on that date – the foursome proffering not just fuzz-drenched electric guitar drones a la vintage Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but more gentle chiming chord progressions that hearkened all the way back to the Byrds (though not too directly). Even some credibly punkish aggression occurred that, on the closing number of “Jackbooted Thugs (Have All the Best Drugs),” morphed into dramatic power chording along the lines of early The Who.
In another demonstration of the logic of the night, set up the entrance of Waylon Speed almost perfectly in that the Burlington band bristled with an energy and abandon largely suppressed on their last studio record Kin. Even more heartening still, the quartet stretched out as the set progressed simultaneously moving in and out of heavy metallic and country realms. Their evolution from the days of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades thus made perfect sense, as did the growing acclamation including award-winning recognition from hometown weekly 7 Days.
In a further demonstration of the continuity of the night, Mark Spencer, the producer of the aforementioned record Waylon Speed album, made his advent to the stage to play an almost but not quite silent screaming pedal steel as the headliners offered their heaviest riffing of the night to that point…at least until they gifted the audience (thinning around the room but nevertheless raucous upfront in the Showcase Lounge) with a brand new number where the twang in the guitars of Kelly Ravin and Rev. Chad Hammaker was less obvious than the decibel level.
As Spencer left the stage after this first stint with the headliners, one wag in the audience was heard to label this night at Higher Ground “Spencer Fest” and, glib as was the comment, it was an accurate appraisal. The man’s lead guitar for the Blood Oranges recalled the quick fluid picking of Clarence White when he played with the latter-day Byrds, but also the tortured ambiance of Television’s Tom Verlaine. Spencer accentuated the shifting textures of Anders Parker’s music with the sounds of electric and acoustic piano, plus Hammond organ as well as Farfisa, while he rotated to and from keyboards with Waylon Speed as well.
Spencer’s multiple talents, recalling the versatility he displayed with Son Volt in the venue’s larger room five years ago, served as metaphor for the various influences and their extensions as they emanated from the stage on this Halloween 2014, none of which rang anything less than wholly true even on this night of disguise.
