2010

God Street Wine @ Gramercy Theatre, July 10

After the second night of God Street Wine’s reunion at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City, I’m convinced that the band’s fans have been punked. Outside of a few lyric flubs, the quintet powered their way through every song performed this weekend with little difficulty. We’re not talking about a pop band either, these were complex tunes with proggy transitions. There’s no way a few weeks of rehearsal went into these concerts, GSW was simply too tight for that to be the case. The assembled Winos had their expectations met and exceeded all weekend long.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

One of the elements of GSW’s music that originally drew me in was the diversity of styles filling the group’s original songs. That variety was on display last night as in the first three songs alone they easily slid from the white-bred reggae in the lilting When She Goes to the jazz-fueled tones of Molly to the powerful, take-no-prisoners Goodnight Gretchen. It’s hard to peg down this group’s sound because it changes so much from tune to tune.

Molly gave guitarist Lo Faber a chance to shine while Goodnight Gretchen turned into a showcase for guitarist Aaron Maxwell’s talents. The same diversity found in the group’s originals can be found in the six-stringers’ solo styles. For his Molly solo, Faber channeled Buddy Guy producing one stinging blues riff after another. Maxwell’s Goodnight Gretchen solo was a beaut based on two chords in the same vein as Frank Zappa’s Inca Roads or Phish’s Reba. Aaron slowly built up the jam with beautiful, cohesive phrases before finally exploding with quick bursts of notes at the peak of the jam. Even Jerry’s tone got some love as Lo utilized an autowah – think Estimated Prophet and Fire On The Mountain – for a Driving West solo that if you closed your eyes you might have thought Garcia was playing. It’s almost as if GSW has six different guitar players thanks to all the different tones and styles Maxwell and Faber are capable are providing.

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