This past Saturday night was the final night of the Garage A Trois tour through the West Coast and we saw an absolute rager at the Independent. The band is touring in support of their latest album Always Be Happy But Stay Evil, and the new songs have absolutely transformed a band I once thought was just jazz-groove freak-out to something melodic and beautiful than I remembered in years past. The show absolutely left me floored. It helped that the opener was Amendola vs. Blades, a duo I’ve seen many times here in San Francisco and features some cats just in their local element while they’re not playing huge gigs with Billy Martin or Nels Cline.
A bunch of my crew got photos while I was busy trying to flirt with some waitress, but I did take a few shots along the way and threw it together in this big hodgepodge of media. The band opened the show with Puma jumpsuits and the first track off the new album, “Omar,” a glorious piece that has everything I love about music wrapped up into one 4-minute tune.
We also got Skerik to drink out of our official High Sierra camp koozies. Incredible.
Then I got a signed copy of the album after the band took their setbreak to sell their CD’s and sign copies for whoever wanted autographs. Skerik signed his “Wallus,” I think?
Here’s some of the action up close:
Thanks to my friends in Camp Caw Caw for the photos and video. What a fun show.
