{"id":265,"date":"2007-10-03T11:50:13","date_gmt":"2007-10-03T15:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/?p=265"},"modified":"2007-10-04T10:56:15","modified_gmt":"2007-10-04T14:56:15","slug":"music-review-mofro-and-assembly-of-dust-in-concert-at-the-highline-ballroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Concert Review: Mofro and Assembly of Dust at the Highline Ballroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mofro<\/a>, one of the best American bands of the new century, has grown a bit in size, adding a three-man horn section, and (probably of necessity) gotten a bit more polished since I saw them last summer<\/a>. The need to direct more musicians makes lead singer\/guitarist\/keyboardist JJ Grey less like a shaman and more like a gospel\/soul bandleader. If anything, though, his onstage self-confidence – to use a technical term, his mojo – has strengthened.<\/p>\n

Drummer George Sluppick, functioning as second-line band leader, has added some sting to his beat while retaining the heavy foot. Absurdly nonchalant guitarist Daryl Hance and casually funky organ\/keyboard-bassist Adam Scone round out the core of the band. Mofro, especially with the horns, is a loud band. But the near-perfect acoustics of the new Highline Ballroom<\/a> (in the Meatpacking District, upstairs from Western Beef) made everything clear as a bell. Every word of the lyrics could be heard and understood; every wrinkly, scratchy note from Grey's Wurlitzer came through clearly.<\/p>\n

Highlights of the set included "Tragic," "By My Side," "Circles," and "Country Ghetto," all from the new CD<\/a>, as was the slow, gospel-influenced encore, "The Sun is Shining Down." "Six Ways from Sunday" (from Lochloosa<\/i>) turned into an extended jam, and "Florida" (from Blackwater<\/i>) got the crowd into a frenzy which continued through a mopping-up (nameless?) jam that closed the official set.<\/p>\n

Inspiring, as usual.<\/p>\n

Assembly of Dust<\/a> (see my CD review in this column<\/a>) is the exact opposite sort of band. Where Grey directs his group from a position of charisma and total dominance, AOD's Reid Genauer<\/a> leads by getting out of the way. Not blessed with an especially soulful voice or a magnetic onstage personality, Genauer has the gift of generating small sparks that his band can blow into roaring fires.<\/p>\n

If a Mofro set feels rooted in the 60s, AOD recalls the 70s, referencing the Allman Brothers, Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, and Bakersfield country. Lead guitarist Adam Terrell looks like a college professor but blazes during his long, astoundingly fluid solos, which owe much more to Duane Allman than to Jerry Garcia. Keyboardist and co-writer Nate Wilson plays with easy flair, while bassist John Leccese and drummer Andy Herrick lock in as well as any rhythm section I've heard.<\/p>\n

The first few songs seemed small and overly controlled. Genauer's wispy presence requires you to "lean in" to get what the band is doing. But after a few songs things started to deepen, the excellence of the band became apparent, the dynamics kicked in, and much jamming ensued. More than I could take, actually; I missed the end of the set because of the problem with Highline Ballroom and similar venues: they're standing-room-only rooms, with just a few tables on the sides. There's a reason I'm not a butler. Three and a half hours is as much as I can take standing on my feet.<\/p>\n

Still I came away with much appreciation of Assembly of Dust, and another memorable experience of JJ Grey and Mofro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mofro, one of the best American bands of the new century, has grown a bit in size, adding a three-man horn section, and (probably of necessity) gotten a bit more polished since I saw them last summer. The need to direct more musicians makes lead singer\/guitarist\/keyboardist JJ Grey less like a shaman and more like … Continue reading “Concert Review: Mofro and Assembly of Dust at the Highline Ballroom”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-new-york-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}