Oteil & Friends at The Bellwether

Oteil & Friends at The Bellwether

[All photographs courtesy of Jim Brock Photography]

Oteil Burbridge has always had a joyful stage presence, a barefoot warrior with an ebullient smile tethered to those bubbling six strings. The ground-breaking, consciousness-lifting, mind-splitting Dead & Co. Sphere residency is done. The face paint is off, and the bassist is on the road with his besties, who dropped by The Bellwether in DTLA this week. This was my second show in the room in a month, and it has quickly become one of my favorite new haunts. Room for the twirlers, horseshoe balcony not far from the stage, and it just feels smaller than its 1,500 capacity. 

Oteil’s pals featured two Kimocks (papa Steve on guitar and John Morgan, the kin behind the kit), multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby (switching between keys and fiddle), Tom Guarna on guitar, and Lamar Williams Jr. on vocals. Sadly missing was Melvin Seals behind the B3, sitting this one out to rest up. The band’s going coastal from Cali to the Cap for a 12-date Fall tour. I had snuck a peak at a setlist from earlier in the week and was stoked for a night of Jerry-Dead, ABB, and some original tunes.

A pretty straight forward “Blue Sky” kicked off the first set, a tune that’s a bit overloved this year since Dickie Betts’ passing, but its buoyant groove and twin guitar lines never get old. The first twist of the night came early between “Franklin’s Tower” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” when the whole band landed on Cannonball Adderley’s jazz classic and gospel soul groove “Mercy, Mercy.” That’s a good night right there, and it was just getting started. Set 1 got really interesting with a “Lithium”-infused Nirvana mashup of… “Friend of the Devil”? I think I liked it. And, somehow, it called back to a “Liz Reed > Blue Sky” reprise to seal the set.

Set 2 had more originals, with tunes from Kimock the younger (“Mother’s Song”) and Crosby (Gambler’s Conceit”) featured early, as well as Oteil and Williams Jr.’s “Love and War,” which debuted at the inaugural Dead Ahead gathering in January and which the bassist called out as “Afrobilly” (which somehow appropriately fit). Not to mention Crosby’s fiddle teasing the “Other One” and the rolling triplets that ensued. My ears had not met Tom Guarna’s guitar before, and damned if he didn’t make that Collings sound like a pedal steel on one tune and fiddle runs on another.

The peakiest jam had to be “Cats Under the Stars” late in Set 2, making the twirlers especially happy. “Midnight, Moonlight,” a Jerry nugget by way of Peter Rowan, got a turn, and Oteil capped it with a churchy, thumpin’ “Lovelight” to call it a night.

There was a high spirit of ease on and off the stage among all the players, the crowd, and the folks who run the place. The music never really stops; Oteil and his friends see to that with freshness and heart. 

More of that, please.

One response to “Oteil & Friends at The Bellwether”

1. […] Seals behind the B3, sitting this one out to rest up. The band’s going coastal … Full Article Here […]

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