Plymouth Band Showcase

Photo Credit: Nina Weinstein

Plymouth State students showed their musical prowess this past Saturday at the first PSU Band Showcase hosted by the Flying Monkey.  Pardon the Spins, Amulus and Elephant, three bands comprised of current and past PSU students, played sets to and for their peers.  

As students began to trickle into the venue, the music started playing.  Pardon the Spins kicked off the show playing songs from their recent EP, “Where Your Soul Goes”.  Their sound can easily be described as soft rock. Songs generally have little distortion and a focus on melody with almost pop-music sounding hooks.   Fans of groups like OAR and Dave Mathews Band will find their sound familiar.  Upstrokes and luscious clean chords guide their songs, and give them a unique ska/reggae feel on songs like “The Flow”.  All while a melodic horn section replaces lead riffs on the majority of their songs.  
After Pardon the Spins left the stage, cheers for Amulus could already be heard.  The cheers were easily deserved.  Mixing together rock, funk and reggae Amulus certainly has crafted a unique sound all their own.  Latin, classical and metal influences could also be heard throughout their set list.  
Andrew Emerson’s voice resembles Les Claypool, and guitarist Nate Weaver’s solos had enough wah-pedal use to make even Ace Frehley blush.  Despite their complex song structure, improvisation was a big part of Amulus’ sound.  Guitar, keyboard, and even drum solos were some of the best and most entertaining parts of their set. All members played off each other well enough to make their jams sound like written, rehearsed material.  

The final band of the night certainly deserved their name.  Students cheering sounded like a stampede as Elephant took the stage. Elephant was clearly the crowd favorite.  Students in seats from the front to the back stood up and danced along with the band’s songs.  

Their music supported this motion with lyrics like “sounds that make you move your feet,” shouted at the hook.  The crowd looked and felt like a regular party.  The entire place was dancing, and a surprising amount of people knew the words to the songs.  This energy was not unique to the crowd, as it was apparent the band was having just as much, if not more fun playing their music.  

Fans of The Grateful Dead, Phish and the Disco Biscuits would feel right at home at an Elephant show.  The band sounds like what they are, a jam band.

What makes them unique are the subtleties written into the group’s songs.  Between Matt Dolliver on the saxophone and keyboards, and Paul Klein on percussion, the band created a psychedelic and almost jazz like sound (resembling legends like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter).   

This was the first Plymouth showcase at the Flying Monkey, and judging by the turn out of the students it won’t be the last.  Check out all these bands Facebook pages and websites to learn more and see upcoming shows.  Also, check out the Flying Monkey’s website (http://www.flyingmonkeynh.com/) to see upcoming performances and movie showings.