The term “jam band” is often associated with never ending solos, dirty hippies and music fans that just like chill music, brah. Here in Plymouth, however, the genre seems to have caught hold and created a niche in the live music scene. And at the front of this scene? Plymouth’s own Big Love Monster.
On Friday, February 25, Big Love Monster played for the first time at Biederman’s Deli and Pub. The show, while being a much more mellow scene than what a lot of their fans are used to, was still a success in the band’s eyes.
“Fun show, we got to play a lot of stuff we don’t normally get to play,” said Guitarist and PSU graduate Sam Demers. “The sound in here gives us something different than what we usually get to have”. While the show did start off mellow, the excitement seemed to build as the night went along. Surrounded by the brick in the old style dining room inside Beiderman’s, the crowd started to put down their sandwiches and pick up their focus. After the mellow beginning to the show, guitarist and PSU senior Nate Weaver commented that, “Stuff is going to get more funky” in the second set.
The second part of their show wasn’t the only thing that the band wants to get more funky, however. The band is also currently working on their first album, which parts of, according to Weaver, are turning out “better than we thought possible”. The band is working on their album in Amesbury, MA with fellow jam band, The Brew. Demers says that the experience of recording with The Brew has been very helpful: “Dave Drouin (The Brew Guitarist) is such an amazing musician and engineer. He’s helped us a lot and added a lot of passion to the project”.
The band hopes that the record will be out around June and hope to tour the northeast to promote it. They hope the tour will help them reach some of their aspirations, stating that, “We’re really trying to branch out of this area. We’ve been here for a while and it’s kind of like an island in the middle of nowhere,” says Weaver. The band has also hired a booking agent with the hopes of acquiring a larger variety of venues.
While they are hoping to branch out, the Plymouth area still enjoys hearing the tunes of Big Love Monster: “I love the shows, they are always a lot of fun,” said Senior Liam Gannon. “They play a lot and it’s always great to see live music.”
PSU senior Jess Cosentino sees an improvement in the band over the past couple of years: “They’ve always been good, but they have definitely gotten sweeter over time”.
The fans, Demers says, are as equally important to the Big Love Monster experience as the band itself. “The music is an energy thing. Both the crowd and the band are important,” Weaver added. “We are very appreciative of the fans. We wouldn’t be making the album if it weren’t for them coming out and supporting us”.
On a snowy Friday night, the fans certainly seemed to be with them. While everybody still remained sitting, the energy that Demers spoke of became apparent: “It’s hard to get a groove going when there is no energy, but towards the end it picked up,” said drummer and PSU senior Ryan Bradicich. While nobody was actually dancing, the crowd sat in the brick room, very intently staring at the band while moving their heads back and forth in tune with the music. It was a unique experience to see so much energy in a crowd that was seemingly not moving very much. After the band’s last song the crowd cheered for an encore, which the band promptly delivered.
After the show Barber and Demers were sitting, relaxing after the fantastic show that they still weren’t completely satisfied with, quipping that they probably should have practiced a bit more. Nonetheless, the band seems to feel lucky to be where they are, “A lot of musicians aren’t lucky enough to be in a band where we can all collaborate and come up with a song where people will listen to it,” says Barber.
Looking back on the experience of the band, Demers seems both realistic and hopeful about their future: “As far as I’m concerned, we punctuated the last five years with this album. We’re trying to give it a bit of a push, and if something hits, great. If not, we want to be musicians as it is, so it’s just all learning”. Demers added. “I could leave now and have nothing but positive thoughts on Big Love Monster,” a sentiment that a lot of live music fans in the area I’m sure will all agree with.