By: David Schultz

Just ask Bode Miller, the pressure of living up to any type of hype or advance publicity, oftentimes generated outside of your control, can be a crushing weight: especially, if you are a band in the process of establishing your name. Such a burden has been placed squarely on the shoulders of Tea Leaf Green as, over the past year, a pleasant groundswell of goodwill towards the San Francisco quartet has spread through the jamband world.

With each show, Tea Leaf's current fans find themselves mingling with an equal but growing number of new ones who have heard the word or, more appropriately, the torrents, and want to see for themselves whether Tea Leaf's worthy of the acclaim. Upon their first exposure to Trevor Garrod, Josh Clark, Ben Chambers and Scott Rager, most are discovering that the believability of hype spread by fans differs exponentially from that spread by the music industry. Big labels hype what needs to sell; fans hype what they know to be good.

Tea Leaf Green returned to New York City this week for their first time in 2006, playing two shows at TriBeCa's The Knitting Factory with the equally exciting U-Melt. On Friday night, the two bands combined for an orgiastic musical feast of groove-heavy, eyebrow-raising rock and roll that lasted nearly five hours and left the normally tireless New York crowd spent by the end of the evening.

Tea Leaf Green's music boldly and refreshingly defies definition by genre. At times TLG sounds like a 21st century Grateful Dead and other times like a throwback version of Phish. However, listeners looking to Tea Leaf Green as a logical successor to either would be missing the forest, or rather the tea leaves, for the trees. While comparisons to the musical gods of the jamband scene aren't unfair, any attempt to pigeonhole Tea Leaf Green into a singular genre doesn't do justice to the considerably singular musical style they've crafted. Throughout the night, country, blues, jazz, funk and straight forward rock and roll could be detected, but not in any distinctly tangible form. Their set list and catalog do not include a country song, followed by a blues song, followed by a funk tune, etc. Instead Tea Leaf incorporates the various styles that have clearly influenced them into one fascinating fusion that keeps listeners on their toes and fans on their feet.

Whether seated at the keyboards pounding out melodies, standing and leaning into the audience with a surprisingly pliant microphone stand or simply taking a second to stand back and join the audience in dancing while guitarist Josh Clark and bassist Ben Chambers did their thing, keyboardist Trevor Garrod funnels an enormous amount of energy into his performance. Tied but not anchored to his keyboards, Garrod remained in perpetual motion throughout the entire show. The only complaint about Garrod's performance would center on the creepy set of X-ray specs that he wore throughout the second set opener "Lil' Hood." As Tea Leaf's main songwriter, Garrod takes a Dylanesque approach to his lyrics, preferring eloquent though often ambiguous turns of the phrase over more direct descriptions. Not everything is kept cryptic though; "Morning Sun" and "Las Vegas" contain simple choruses reflecting Garrod's celebration of life's joys.

Possessing a voice more akin to someone from Virginia then California, Garrod's mellow countrified tones provide a laid-back counterpoint to Tea Leaf's powerful style, much of which comes from guitarist Josh Clark and bassist Ben Chambers. Clark matches Garrod's keyboards and lyrics with his impressive guitar. At center stage throughout the show, Clark's blues and hard rock oriented guitar solos perfectly complimented Garrod's keyboards. Chambers, who inexplicably also refers to himself as Franz Hanzerbeak, remained in stoic bass repose for the portions of the show that he wasn't jumping and boogieing like a madman channeling Les Claypool. In appearance, Chambers looks like he was separated at birth from The Slip's bassist Mark Friedman, and in spirit he may have been separated from Snoop Dogg. Chambers' questioning of whether anyone in the house smoked marijuana before taking the lead on the Cypress Hill tinged "Planet of Green Love" brought an expectedly raucous ovation and his methodical rapping showed a deft aptitude for dope-inspired hip-hop. Although taking a set break, TLG played for close to four hours with drummer Scott Rager providing unrelenting drums. Although able to provide a couple jazzy cymbal breaks and occasionally taking a brief drum solo, for the most part Rager tirelessly pounded away, performing exceptional yeoman's work.

Opening the show with "These Two Chairs" and "Moonshine," Tea Leaf set an extraordinary pace that they maintained right through the entire evening. No small feat for a near four hour show. While Tea Leaf jammed consistently, they never stretched a song out to an interminable length. Most songs clocked in between five and eight minutes, allowing them to pack a lot into a show. Their ability to move seamlessly from country influenced songs like "Papa's In The Backroom," to groove-heavy tunes like "Georgie P" and folksy-bluesy material like "Deep River" shows off their versatility while also keeping the show fresh.

On his late-night radio program, Idiot's Delight, Vin Scelsa would ask any musical guest performing in the studio to play a cover song, believing that you can learn a lot about a musician from the songs and other artists they choose to cover. Applying that axiom to Tea Leaf's Friday night show, you would find a band drawn to well-written, well-crafted and intelligent rock and roll, an inference that would not miss the mark. TLG closed their first set with a tight rendition of The Beatles' "I've Got A Feeling," and eased through a deliberate reading of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For My Man" midway through the second set. The second set also included an impassioned and up tempo reading of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues," turning the lines about going back to New York City into an audience sing-along. For their second encore, Tea Leaf rewarded those who stayed till nigh 3 in the morning with The Who's "Eminence Front." Unlike TLG's other covers this evening, this one deserved more applause for the effort than for the actual performance.

As for the experience of the show, it deserves mention that Tea Leaf's fan base are a wonderfully inclusive group, eager to share their stories and memories of past performances and impart their thoughts on the greatness of their band. In the tiny, standing-only club atmosphere of the Knitting Factory, a sense of communal experience developed with numerous instances of fans considerately making sure others could see without selfishly worrying about how close they could get to the stage.

U-Melt, Jambands.com's New Groove Of The Month, opened up the show, returning to New York after their winter tour, which including their first southern string of shows. No worse for wear after their tour, U-Melt returned from the road sounding like a band truly hitting their stride and gaining the finesse developed from constant touring and playing. Favorites like "Air" and "Green Amber" sounded strong and, with each playing, their version of "Praise You" becomes more a U-Melt song and less of a Fatboy Slim cover. Packing three hours worth of energy into their hour-long set, U-Melt quickly turned The Knitting Factory into an uncontrolled rave. The buzz around U-Melt has already started and with their momentum already headed in that direction, U-Melt should soon be generating the same type of excitement currently surrounding Tea Leaf Green. Fast forward to a year later and instead of opening for TLG, the pairing of the two will be an extremely attractive double bill.

U-Melt has an exciting couple months ahead, including another March 16 date with Tea Leaf Green at The Paradise in Boston with some exciting announcements coming in the next few weeks regarding U-Melt's future gigs. Tea Leaf's future looks rosy, as well. As part of the Green Apple Music Festival that hits New York at the end of the April, TLG will be playing the legendary punk club CBGBs on the festival's closing evening, April 22. In addition to hitting the festival circuit, TLG will also be featured on the side stage at the Dave Matthews Band Island Getaway taking place August 5 and 6 at Randall's Island.

Tea Leaf Green's New York shows seem to have the same effect as their others across the country. By the close of their second encore in the wee hours of the morning, many new converts had happily drunk from the carafe of Tea Leaf Green Kool-Aid and, once again, Tea Leaf Green lived up to the daunting task of meeting expectations, large and small. Wandering off into the refreshingly springlike New York night, fans rested comfortably that evening with the knowledge that shows like this one may soon be few and far between as intimate venues like The Knitting Factory will soon no longer house Tea Leaf Green's burgeoning fan base.

Labels: Tea Leaf Green, U-Melt