Did you know that at , you can check your moccasins at the door? If you wish to go barefoot while hula hooping to — who played the first of a three-night residency at the Denver hippie magnet on Friday night — you can.
Shoeless maidens rubbed shoulders with graying ponytails and backwards baseball caps as marching band Dead Phish Orchestra ushered in the evening with a wildly nerdy version of Cameo’s “Word Up.” Fellow openers and Denverites stood on stage speechless, staring at the swirling mix of audience and band geekery unfolding. The marching band mayhem lasted only a handful of minutes before recently-added BWC member Aaron Collins’ warm organ tones began to seep through.
Watching Bad Weather California’s Chris Adolf make the transformation from sheepish basement crooner to headstrong but humble bandleader has been a beautiful evolution; live, his road tales — like “This Is My Country Too” — inevitably grow into sweeping, participatory sing-alongs, and made for the perfect opener for Akron/Family’s intricacies. The band’s slow move from psych-folk toward a jam band abyss has been an enjoyable one too, and the three days worth of shows at a smaller venue than Ak/Fam’s usual big room setting was a nice transition.
Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton and Dana Janssen began their set on flutes and recorders of various kinds, coiling melodies set to prerecorded bird sounds, leading the band to their respective stations on guitar, bass and drums. Olinsky’s slide guitar quickly drove the jam into the distorted mess, Janssen getting up from his kit to trace the air with an effects pedal while Seaton’s bass head mimicked his body’s circular motions. This would set the tone for the show, Akron/Family ebbing and flowing through songs like “Crickets,” “Bulldoze” and “MBF” from last year’s epic “Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free.”
Bad Weather California was invited back to the stage for a percussion-heavy jam, smiles dressing ear to ear as congas, tambourines and a drum machine were brought into the mix, portions of the thin audience reacting in delight. Akron/Family’s ability to weave harsh noise and noodling guitars together with dude harmonies and a drum circle aesthetic has long been the trio’s strong suit, and this episode in Denver didn’t disappoint.
The only ill-fitting component of the show was the venue — this edition of Quixote’s is seemingly draped in a joke version of itself. A Spencer’s Gift’s array of posters (like the generic Jerry Garcia image superimposed on a rainbow tie-dye background) and artificially trippy flashing LEDs were annoying, and felt like a mockery instead of a welcome addition to Akron/Family’s jammy tendencies.
For the first night of the band’s residency, the turn out was unfortunately low, but it should only be due to Colorado’s unawareness of trio being the perfect DIY/jam band hybrid. Give them a year and a little more exposure, and Akron/Family will most likely have tapped into the legions of Phish-heads at Red Rocks. And deservedly so.
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Bree Davies plays bass in Night of Joy, co-runs tape label , and dissects other humans through essays at . She also enjoys discussing the gym, hot tea, T. Rex and Nicki Minaj in her blog, .
