The Cleanup
July 9, The Grotto
517 University Drive, Fort Worth
Saturday night found me hanging out at the Grotto, one of the best and most underrated places to see a live band. It's small, so it can get a bit cramped at times, but the people are friendly, the sound is first-rate, and you can generally get a table to watch the band.
Coincidentally, I was there to see one of the best and most underrated bands in Funkytown -- the Cleanup.
Kyle Harding (bass), Brad Cannon (vocals, guitar), Riley Pennock (drums) and Landon Cabarubio (guitar, keyboard) are the band's members. They took the stage a little after midnight. Some bands I have to warm up to, but these guys won me over right off the bat with killer jazz/prog rock instrumental sound that woke up the room. Harding's bass work is phenomenal; and while I am most familiar with Landon's keyboard work with Get Well, his guitar leads were at once frantic, precise and tastefully done.
The lyrics, which, honestly, are kind of secondary in an act like this, are written by Cannon.
"Generally, they are about desires or regrets," Cannon said. "I write about how we take our greatest opportunities, and we blow them off because they're too much for us at the time, or maybe we feel like we're not up to it. "
My only real complaint was that the band finished around 1:30 a.m., and I could have used another half-hour of this stuff. There are a lot of musicians that can play fast, but it's rare to find a band so unbelievably tight and intricate. This isn't just one guy up there riff bashing, but everyone playing together as one.
At times the band seemed to suffer from lack of a charismatic frontman; Cabarubio and Cannon generally seemed engrossed in their performances. Cannon's animated and hyperactive stage presence balanced things out nicely. There was just enough of a jazz essence to their performance, tempered by more of an experimental, harder edge than most jazz acts (or even most prog rock, for that matter).
Their latest gig is Wednesday (July 13) at the Where House on Hemphill. It's part of the new hump day party that Jeff Dazey (of Dazey Chain and the Josh Weathers Band) puts on every Wednesday. With such a vibrant music scene in Funkytown, it's easy for bands like this, which appeal to more of a niche market, to get overlooked come booking time. So when you get a chance to check them out, take it.
