Colorado-based jam quartet The Jauntee are roughly mid way through their 2019 Spring Tour, and this past weekend they kicked off its northeast leg with a set at The Parish Public House in Albany, NY.
In an increasingly saturated progressive music scene, The Jauntee stands outs in both their personal repertoire of songs but also their vibrantly unique live performances. Songs like “Carry Me On,” which the quartet performed midway through this Albany show, shine with a sense of character, and often sensations of positivity and amiability as well. Using intriguing melodies and hooks, along with the occasional great vocal harmony, the band can managed to charm an audience long before they even start to flex their improvisational abilities—these of which are not in short supply by any means. Beyond the final verses of tune, The Jauntee works, with contribution from all four members, to build creative, inspiring jams, which can often be as multi-faceted and color-changing as their song material.
“Dunes,” which was featured in this NY set, followed some terrific keyboard soloing to find its way into a darkly funky jam ending with a trace-psych sound. This one, and the nicely extended “Not a Crime” before it, also showcased just about one of the coolest bass tones to be heard. The most creatively invigorating segment of this Albany set came in the backside of a fantastic cover of Parliament Funk’s “Hit The Nail On The Head.” The last several minutes of this sixteen-and-a-half minute version saw the band manifest a beautiful, dreamlike jam that then transformed magnificently into their own song “Slow Down.” “Slow Down” went on to enhance this already strong segment with a movingly soulful climax that had Parish Public House’s crowd cheering in a sudden sense of inspiration.
Taking the stage for after The Jauntee for a late night set was Albany-based psychedelic rock band Glass Pony. This night, the quartet also invited as a special guest for the set local keyboardist Matt Richards, best known as one of four members of the recently disbanded jamband Formula 5. Among a ton of eccentric and energetic stage antics, Glass Pony clashed glam rock sound with psychedelic, jazz, and funk rhythms.
Rather quickly into their set, the band rocked their way through a tremendously long, non-stop segment featuring a segue between their songs “Hypnos” and “Blackberry Brandy.” This portion of the show, which stretched close to an hour long, rose and fall several times through build ups and drops of peaking tension. It also saw rounds of spontaneous-feel solos from all members involved, including bass and drum moments and bits from Richards, who solidified the band’s presence with funk improv on a Moog keyboard but also thoughtful piano playing. The segment also featured teaser jams that gave nods to songs like “The Imperial March,” “Girlfriend is Better,” and more. After this, another original from the band, a song called “Grover’s Mill 1938” which concerned as its subject Oscar Wells’ historic radio performance of War of the Worlds, took on an equally massive segment of improv, this time a wildly spacey, droning performance that recalled the likes of Pink Floyd and The Mars Volta.
As they do with most of the shows they perform, The Jauntee had this Albany performance recorded and shared of archive.org, and you can stream that by heading here. This week, this band continues the northeast run with shows in Vermont, Boston, and Connecticut. After that, they’ll return to Colorado for a run of shows with psych-rock trio Cycles. To learn more about the band and future shows, you can visit their site at https://www.thejauntee.com/home/.
