Lemon City Trio Expanding Their Horizons
The Miami-South Florida area is a hotbed for great music, especially for bands mining the depths of jazz, funk, fusion, trance-dance, prog, and much more. Lemon City Trio have impressed us from the first time we encountered them five years ago. At the time, they stayed for the most part in the organ trio confines, and they were outstanding.
More recently, however, they have been coloring outside the lines (WHAT LINES?), never more evident than on January 11 at Dunedin Brewery. They crushed three sets of music with some of their earliest tunes, six from their new album Postcards, and five brand new compositions that don’t even have names yet.
The trio were at once on their game, opening set one with two “oldies,” “Lemon City” and “Jawn.” The game began to morph when guitarist Nick Tannura made ample use of his whammy bar and Brian Robertson added synths and synth bass to his usual array of keyboards. We also got two tracks from Postcards: “Marigold” and a smokin’ “Dunes.”
Set two offered more diversity, with four brand new tunes, with Aaron Glueckauf continuing to lay down the perfect rhythms, and Tannura and some really nice guitar tones. They hit some psychedelic realms, then did an about-face on “Horizon” from Postcards, as Tannura switched to a 1943 lap steel guitar. This was in the ballad realm, not the incendiary pedal steel style (although I am certain he can do that, too). He stayed on lap steel as the band offered a fine mellow groove to Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box.”
Tannura changed back to electric guitar as they lit up “1979,” the Smashing Pumpkins hit. The set closed with another from the new album, “Tyson.” Robertson displayed some gorgeous harmony synths, and Tannura exploded!
The first two songs of the final set were almost downtempo. Things sped up for “Moctar” before Glueckauf, the official spokesman (well, he had the only microphone!) acknowledged that there were drummers in the house, inviting them up to play. First up was Michael Garrie, whose current band list is miles long. He tucked in perfectly on the MMSW tune “Chank” from John Scofield’s brilliant A Go Go. Then it was Eric Layana’s turn, and they whipped up a dandy “It’s Your Thing” (Isleys), substituting in the chorus from “The Beat Goes On”!
Time to finish off a wonderful night with Glueckauf back on kit with a fine showing on the old-school “Lemoneapolis.” Tannura killed again, and Robertson dusted off his clavinet (effects)! Put these gents on your must-see list. And check out Postcards and their back catalogue. WOW!
It was a very fine crowd for a Thursday night, even discounting the women who talked the entire time and the guys who sat with their backs to the band, also talking. Bravo to sound engineer Chris Fama for doing what he does best.
[LC3: ONE: Lemon City, Jawn, Flying Free, 16zz, Marigold, Dunes, ?; TWO: new funk, new1, new2, new3, Horizon, Heart-Shaped Box, 1979, Tyson; THREE: Pups, Western, Moctar, Chank, It’s Your Thing (The Beat Goes On), Lemoneapolis]
