TLG: Processing a Three-Night Run at Blender

I must admit, the last few times I’ve seen TLG had yielded mixed results. I’m still awed by the band’s extensive repertoire, the endless talents of guitarist Josh Clark and keyboardist Trevor Garrod, the rock solid rhythm of bassist Ben Chambers[beak] and drummer Scott Rager, as well as the burgeoning collection of rabid fans that gathers before and at each and every tri-state area gig.

But there have been shows lately when I worried the band was changing its goals, either intentionally or unconsciously morphing from kickass folk-infused rock ‘n roll band to folk- and rock-infused mediocre jamband. This group didn’t begin as a band of noodlers; these were songwriters who happened to piece together natural jams that flowed effortless from their story arcs. Yet the more I saw them, the less I felt I could stake that claim. Maybe it was my timing, but shelved were beautiful songs like Las Vegas, Bootlegger and John Brown, and in came newer material that seemed more focused on the jam than the song.

This weekend’s performance allayed those fears. Sure they felt song-centric again, but there was something bigger, too. I realized that even if they do go full-on jamband on us, there’s nothing mediocre about ’em — these guys brought the heat, as the kidz say. Saturday was Statement Night, the band making this very case, and just when many in the crowd thought they couldn’t top Friday’s second-set magic, TLG opened with a four-song facefuck that had the crowd going ballistic within the first 20 minutes: Garden Part III, Papa’s in the Backroom, Kali-Yuga and The Devil’s Pay had even some of my non-believer friends grinning like the ghost of Shoeless Joe. Mediocrity ain’t home tonight, friends.

Josh absolutely slaughtered that Kali-Yuga, just as he did on many of songs during this run. His work in Tequila, breaking into Also Sprach Zarathustra on two separate occasions, left most of the paying audience both speechless and screaming at the same time. (Is that even possible? Nice sentence there, Ace.) The Don’t Do It > Can You Guess It? third-night closing duo was by far and away the highlight of the run for me, easily my favorite TLG song preceded by one of my favorite tunes of all-time. Throughout my two-year, 18-show history, this band knows how to send me home happy.

This is a band firing on all cylinders, but with all due respect to the other three (and they are all fantastic), TLG will go as far as Clark wants to take them. That may seem counterintuitive considering Garrod’s the lead singer and songwriter and I just spent a whole paragraph arguing “It’s the songs, stupid,” but if you watch the crowd when Clark is shredding something to tiny Enron pieces, it’s obvious how much this should be his band the way that Phish was Trey’s band and Jerry led the Dead. Sure they all play equal roles, and I’ve never heard them tighter, but when Josh flips the switch on Rock Star Mode and he steals the focus, I’m not sure there’s a band in this corner of the live music world that can touch ’em.

And you have to love a band that opens for itself: Saturday brought Coffee Bean Brown — TLG’s acoustic alter ego — to New York for the first time to give the East Coast contingent a chance to see what they’ve been missing for years. Over the next hour, CBB played 13 acoustic rarities that set the we’re-all-family tone for the blistering rock show that’d follow. Gorgeous ballads like I’m Not Fit, Carter Hotel and Slip Away had the entire place gushing before the band even played its first electric note of the evening. Acoustic Harvest Time? Awesome.

Tea Leaf Green is also benefiting from an insanely improved light show — the Chris Kuroda School of Lighting Design has cranked out another talented disciple, and the ability to be pleased aurally as well as visually at a show cannot be underestimated. The band is now completely in sync with its both sound and lights, and all that’s left is rocking the fuck out on a nightly basis.

It’s amazing to me how many monster songs this band has churned out already, that these guys can play three consecutive nights in one city without a repeat and nary a cover. They’re certainly prolific, but they’re also incredibly adroit and they play together in ways you wish every band would. You could tell they’re four musicians that not only like each other musically but that mesh so well off the stage that the fun’s contagious on it.

We, as fans, are obviously all in it for the fun, but when you add the level of professionalism Tea Leaf Green brought to New York this weekend, it’s hard not to imagine these guys gaining the momentum they deserve. Onward and upward.

SOME AUDIENCE VIDEOS AND FULL SETLISTS

• TLG Forum poster Brew (Youtube: webalienz) posted a handful of videos from the show: Sex in the 70s; Professor’s Blues, Planet of Green Love and the post-Friday Burning Down the House dance party

Thursday 9/6/07 — Blender Theatre at Gramercy — NY, NY
Set I: Garden I > Vote on Tuesday, Rapture, Hot Dog, Got No Friends in Arizona, Back To New Orleans, Georgie P, Slept Through Sunday > Baseball Jam, Moonshine, Taught to be Proud

Set II: Don’t Curse the Night, These Two Chairs, Panspermic De-Evolution > Country Seduction, Make a Connection, Precious Stone, All of Your Cigarettes, Ride Together, I’ve Been Seeking, Gasaholic

Encore: Don’t Let It Down

Friday 9/7/07 — Blender Theatre at Gramercy — NY, NY
Set I: Garden Part II, One Reason, 5000 Acres > California, Let Us Go, Incandescent Devil, Bootlegger, Wet Spot* > Flight of the Sea Monkeys > Wet Spot, I’ve Got a Truck, Ribbons

Set II: Lil Hood, Piss it Away, Jezebel, Criminal Intent, Earth & Sky, Asphalt Funk, Zoom Zoom, Freedom, Can’t Get High, Sex in the 70s

Encore: Truck Stop Sally

*with Indiana Jones Theme and This Land is Your Land teases

Saturday 9/8/07 — Blender Theatre at Gramercy — NY, NY
Coffee Bean Brown opener: Dreaming Without Sleeping, Rattlin’, I’m Not Fit, Barnacle B, Honey Bee, Biscuits, Packing Up, Carter Hotel, Cowboy’s Lullaby, Slip Away, Cops Took My Weed, For Every Lonely Lady, Harvest Time

Tea Leaf Green Set I: Garden Part III, Papa’s In The Backroom, Kali-Yuga > Devil’s Pay, Faced With Love, Morning Sun, Las Vegas, Ben-led jam to stall while Josh fixed amp > Dragonfly, Drink of Streams

TLG Set II: If It Wasn’t For The Money > Franz Hanzerbeak, The Invasion, Stormcloud (w/ Trevor on flute), Deep River, Tequila (w/ strong Also Sprach Zarathustra teases), Planet of Green Love, Don’t Do It > Can You Guess It?

Encore: Professor’s Blues