By: David Schultz

It should come as no surprise to anyone following U-Melt's ascent through the jamband ranks that the celebration for the release of their second CD, The I's Mind, wouldn't be your typical run-of-the-mill event.

As if the late night starting hour at New York City's Knitting Factory wasn't enough to set U-Melt's record release party apart from your usual celebration, shortly into "The Fantastic Flight of Captain Delicious," their second song of the evening, the main room of the quirky downtown haunt exploded in a blizzard of luminescent glow sticks. With the band's enthusiastic fans throwing the rods back and forth between themselves and back and forth with those in the balcony, Zac Lasher (keys), Rob Salzer (guitar), Adam Bendy (bass) and George Miller (drums) continued playing as if this playful chaos was simply business as usual . . . which it pretty much was. U-Melt fans take their cue from the band: it's simply good practice to expect the unexpected.

After recording the majority of the album with long time sound engineer Josh Parrish earlier this year in Cincinnati, OH, U-Melt returned to the road for the summer, tirelessly continuing on a seemingly endless tour that made its way to festivals and venues throughout North America. On their return to the Knitting Factory, where they played this past March with Tea Leaf Green, the experience showed, especially in their growing mastery of the ability to work the crowd. Rather then simply shift into a different passage during a lengthy jam, U-Melt, in unison, skillfully built anticipation, bringing the crowd with them and causing them to burst with glee when they hit certain riffs or upped the tempo to a different gear.

Over two sets spanning close to 3½ hours, George Miller set a furious pace for the rest of the band to match. Tirelessly working the bass drum and cymbals, Miller consistently provided a danceable beat, laying down the challenge to the assembled crowd to keep up. As usual, Adam Bendy remained relatively stationary throughout the night, his calm demeanor betraying his subtly funky and ferocious bass lines. Even though he stood near the back of the stage, Rob Salzer's guitar skills can’t be hidden. Best typified in the first set closer, "The Eternal Groove," Salzer's ability to rifle through guitar god worthy riffs without drawing the focus away from his band mates remains astounding. Zac Lasher continues to match Salzer's drive, seamlessly moving between his various keyboards and offering one rave-worthy roll after another.

Focusing on the cause for the night’s gathering, U-Melt devoted a portion of their first set to selections from The I's Mind. Though new to the studio, their opener "Ernest Funknine," "Cloud Box" and "Escape" have long been part of the band's live repertoire. With the new album only hours old, U-Melt refused to be satisfied with living in the present, debuting three new songs over the course of the night. "Clear Light" is cut from the mold of U-Melt's prior songs and "Elysian Fields" evolved into one of U-Melt's more trippier, psychedelic jams but "Perfect World," a more traditional song sung by Miller, presented the evening's most intriguing change of pace. Like most of their songs, expect that these will develop over the band's live performances.

U-Melt stayed faithful to their reputations as the kings of the after-hours jam, taking the stage after midnight and playing until 4:00 in the morning. After an evening of frenetic jams and soaring melodies, U-Melt finished their second set with a bouncy rendition of Medeski Martin & Wood's "Bubblehouse," returning for an encore of the Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime" that had Lasher nailing David Byrne's vocal mannerisms.

With the new album now released and available here, U-Melt will be hitting the road on The I's Mind tour, which currently has them in Midwest but will shortly bring them back to the East coast.

[Photo Credits: Sillouette Andrew Francke; Live Shots Richard Clarke]

Labels: U-Melt