reCAP :: Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit w/ Lions On The Moon :: 2015.08.15
Aug 18 / Tuesday
The Aquarium Rescue Unit, featuring Col. Bruce Hampton (ret.) began in the early 1990’s, featuring a group of young yet highly talented musicians. Hampton was a fixture down in Georgia, mostly in Atlanta and Athens, and apparently had (and still has,) a penchant for finding talent in the rough and giving them the room to run free, and find themselves as musicians.
They have now been called “a jam band Velvet Underground,” which makes sense if you take it in the context that it was meant for -- an innovative band with a definitive sphere of influence without, say, commercial success. Because ARU never made it to mainstream, is why the reference to The Velvet Underground works. Hampton himself responds to that comparison in a recent WSJ article.
“…it’s an honor to be compared in any regard and I’ll accept anything anyone wants to say. Credibility is for cowards. The whole world is pro-wrestling now. If it sounds good, it’s true.”
ARU broke up in 1993, and bassist Oteil Burbridge moved to The Allman Brothers four years later. Jimmy Herring, guitar, played with ABB, Phil Lesh & joined Widespread Panic in 2006. Drummer Jeff Sipe made his own waves with Leftover Salmon, Trey Anastasio Band and will be playing with Warren Haynes this fall. All are “musician’s musician” in their own right; the result is fluid yet tight with quite a few smiles of recognition.
The show started casually enough, with the band sauntering onto the stage and they strumming easily into the first song, “Isles of Langerhan”
Colonel Bruce took a seat for the second song as Matt Slocum crushed the keys on “Phantom on the Curb.” The jam was a technically perfect tit for tat between Slocum, Herring and Burbridge.
Then, the first of the night’s special guests joined the stage. Oz Noy, an accomplished jazz guitarist from Israel, who has played with the likes of Chick Corea, Allen Toussant, Warren Haynes, etc. added his Stratocaster to the cheeky “Elevator to the Moon.”
Brandon “TAZ” Niederauer joined in for the next song, “Spoonful,” and the interplay between Noy, Sipe, Burbridge and Slocum was a treat to watch as the 12-year-old virtuoso tore it up. Venerable shredfest.
Actually, the whole show was a treat to watch, first because I have never seen them play before, second because the theatre was not packed and you could move around, dance and get up front to actually look at the technique of Herring and Burbridge, and third, because the sound coming from the stage was so intense, so improvisational that I literally had my mouth open during most of the show watching these guys weave a story in and out and then coming back on track with The Colonel at the helm. What a ride.
Other special guests included the incredible Nikki Glaspie on drums, who easily jumped onto Sipe’s kit while Tom Guarna was playing guitar. I was focused on Guarna who after some guitar tinkering laid down some serious lead with Glaspie hitting those drums. She came back on later in the evening, and did a great play with Burbridge until she hit the drums so hard, she lost one of her sticks.
There was also some great fun oddity, which seems to be par for the course with The Colonel, where Burbridge told us to “Shut UP” more than once, and then laughed as he walked away.
We were treated to two encores, and the night ended early. Most of the crowd went to Garcia’s, to hear more of Taz play with his band Lions on the Moon. Tonight ARU’s tour ends at Brooklyn Bowl, where I’m sure they will raise the roof.
Set List:
Isles of Langerhan
Phantom on the Curb
Elevator to the Moon
Spoonful
Space
My Brothers House
Time Flack
1911
Banjo Jam 6/8 – Dragon
Time is Free
Rampage
Davy Crockett
Compared to What
ENCORE:
I am So Glad
Jack the Rabbit