Every time I seem to step into The Arch Street Tavern the music that Nectar’s Presents puts on is always pretty damn good no matter to genre or the scene. pH Factor was on stage as I arrived to the club on Wednesday evening. They were laying down some pretty solid jams to get our feet warmed up for the main act: Papadosio. Front and center on bass, Joe Lane. On drums, Erik Diaz. And on the guitar is, Paul Hamilton.
According to Headstash, the band pH Factor will be joining Papadosio for the whole tour as support. These Ohio born, Colorado raised progressive purveyors of rock are really going to knock the socks off of the unprepared Johns and that guy that everyone knows who knocks every opening band…” I never knock opening acts, though often times don’t always get the chance to see them. This was one instance I was happy to get the venue in time!
The band slipped into a flawless Phish cover, “Stash.” Took my mind back to my high school days when A Picture of Nectar was only a few years old. The song ended and all I wanted to hear was “crab in my shoe mouth…” A few more jams to round out their set and then it was onto the next act: DJ Torrential.
He was spinning some pretty hot beats/songs. And his transition from one song to the next was on point. The crowd was feeling it, dancing, hula-hooping, moving their bodies. The music went silent as we experienced a quick moment of technical difficulties. Then-boom, the build up for Papadosio continued. And the mix of it all made me wish it was 2am and all I had to worry about the next morning was which stage I wanted to start with.
Cheers to great music being so close to my home! I sipped on my glass of Makers and waited for the sound to be just right and the lights set to the perfect setting for what was next. It came highly recommended that I check ‘dosio out. I had listened to their studio work and had watched some of their live footage on YouTube. And then it began: the slow transition from DJ to band. Torrential closed it out with a very slowed down and trance-like mix to Bob Marley “Is This Love.”
I was next to the soundboard area when Papadosio started their set. I stood back watching and waiting for the music to trickle into my system before I stepped out to dance. I noticed that aside from the members of the band on stage, they had some great support in the back. I have to imagine one of them was controlling the amazing light show and projections and the other was mixing music through his laptop in some way. Whatever they were doing exactly, it was pretty incredible to watch how in sync with the band they were.
T. Thogmartin (keys, vocals and guitar) introduced a song by saying, “when six or eight or 10 year olds are asked to draw a picture of a human…they all draw the exact same thing: a stick figure. I think this is very significant.” Then he introduced the name of our next song: “Stick Figure.”
And then awesome-ness ensued.
In this day when so many new bands are emerging into a genre of their own, it becomes hard to compare any of what I was seeing/hearing to an artist or a sound that most are familiar with. Guitar, bass, drums, vocals, keys, keys and more keys, the five piece band swayed their sound from jam to electronic to dance. With the perfect splice of lights and visuals, they really had the crowd at hello. They had gained a good number of new fans. Not bad for a Wednesday evening in Hartford.
If you are ever in the vicinity of any of the above performers, it would be a sin to not catch them. Pretty amazing what happens when you line up a group of amazing talent back to back to back. Oh, the wonderful world of music!
Catch Papadoiso at the Aura Music Festival on March 10th and 11th and along the rest of their U.S Tour here!
