Tea Leaf Green

Stella Blue - Albuquerque, NM
Saturday, April 9, 2005

Picture walking into a venue where you are about to witness a performance by a band you have heard much about, explored their website, and been told by a friend or two to go to the show. Imagine yourself sitting in this venue and smelling an intense aroma coming from the stage. The band are sitting in the audience enjoying a pre-concert meal, the crowd is sparse, but the fragrance is quite overpowering. Finally, it hits you.

You are about to see greatness. You will have the pleasure of telling people that you witnessed genius. You will be in awe of the talent you are laying eyes on. That's the feeling I got from watching Tea Leaf Green and, needless to say, I was not disappointed.

First, a little background. TLG was born in the mid-to-late 90s. The personnel includes Josh Clark, lead guitarist who should already be classified as one of the greats, keyboardist Trevor Garrod, the owner of a smooth set of vocal chords, bassist The Weed, who did not stop bobbing for two and a half hours, and drummer Scott Rager, who keeps the music in check. These four talented musicians make a sound that is easy to listen to, yet complex in nature.

From the opening chords of "Can You Guess It," I realized that it wasn't going to take a Ken Jennings mind to enjoy the music, but that things weren't simply going to be handed to me. Not being completely familiar with TLG's music, "Garden III," Garden II," and Garden I" would prove my theory. I had no idea where one song ended and the other began, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The rest of the set found TLG taking me from one dimension to another, and it all flowed like a Looney Tunes fuse. They did snuff the fuse momentarily to toast the crowd during their final number of the first set "Tequila." For the second, though, the band blow up the joint.

Like Wagner's "Valkyre," they started slow - giving the audience a chance to get reaquainted with the band and its music. It didn't take them long to crank up the aptly titled "Warm Up," one of the highlights of the evening. From that point, TLG soared and, it appeared, never wanted to come back down. The audience was right there, willing and able to go on the ride.

They rambled through "Professor's Blues," which featured a rap by The Weed, "Georgie P," and "Rapture," before finishing with an incredible instrumental entitled "Gasoholic." A fitting number as the band prepared to venture out in the RV and conquer the next town.

If music is to grow, it will need adventurous acts like Tea Leaf Green to lead the way. If all we're left with is what we hear on the radio, we are truly in dire straits. Let's hope that people will discover this band, expand their tastes, and realize that there is more to music than what we hear on the radio.

On TGB ratings scale, take this show to the sun - A PERFECT 10.