Downstairs Kate Taylor-Mighty, Rollo Tomasi Quartet, Melissa Weikart
Upstairs – The Chicken Slacks
Though originally a four band bill, Kate Taylor-Mighty made her Bohemia debut followed by one of the Bohemian favorites, Rollo Tomasi Quartet. The name Rollo Tomasi, of course, is the invisible assassin from the 1997 film L.A. Confidential and Boston’s RTQ pretty much has a residency monthly at the club under the Cantab and the group’s jazz-inspired rock has become popular in Central Square. This writer has caught them on many occasion but was only able to catch the third and final act.
It was an evening of pop with heavy cosmic jazz influence as Melissa Weikart brought a dreamy sound into the Club Bohemia cavern that is usually noisy and loud. With Adam Tuch predominant with his smooth and inviting keyboards over Zach King’s drums and Devon Hurt’s bass, Weikart played to a substantial and appreciative crowd on a beautiful Thursday night in Central Square.
The diva’s voice reached amazing heights over Matt Okun’s liquid guitar strums with bass, drums and keys all generating a symphonic, airy bit of mystery, embracing Weikart’s lyric in a pleasant and entertaining way. Engaging renditions of her “Our Room,” White Dress,” “New Normal” and “Broken Records” gave way to Weikart sitting down at Tuch’s piano to perform solo. “Unconventional, but it’s happening” she noted as they were able to get the stand-up microphone at the right height for “Humans.” The solo material, in particular, seem perfect for a new Twilight Zone, odd piano sounds and a vocal sound that went contrary to the notes she plucked off of the keyboard, quite difficult to pull off. The audience, all the tables and chairs filled, but still intimate, kept quiet during the solo portion. Pure artistry at play and a very welcome change of pace for our cellar full of noise in the cavern under Massachusetts Ave.
Chicken Slacks upstairs were downright frighteningly good with a more than average rowdy crowd stomping to pure rhythm and blues. This writer gets to see the Slacks almost every week, but this night, April 27, was more intense than usual. The club was getting filled to capacity and the room and floor were shaking…with a line of more people outside. I snapped one video which captured the craziness, but had to get out of Dodge as it was, “just too many people” (thank you, Melissa Manchester) for me at midnight…had to get home to catch the last part of Perry Mason.
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
