By: David Schultz
Photos by Jeremy Gordon

Since its inception three years ago, the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival has grown from an ambitious local weekend-long New York City counterpart to the Jammy Awards into an equally ambitious nationwide endeavor raising environmental awareness in conjunction with Earth Day. For this years Festival, Green Apple organized and produced “America’s largest Earth Day celebration” which consisted of open admission shows in eight different cities, including San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, New York City’s Central Park, Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

As the Green Apple Festival has grown in stature, so have the bands that have helped GAM&AF attain its well-deserved reputation for presenting bands whose relevance matches the importance of its activist message. In its inaugural year, San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green played CBGB, bringing their easy-going rock and roll into the storied punk club. For the 2008 Green Apple Festival, Tea Leaf Green returned to New York City, only this time packing people into the HighLine Ballroom for a wonderful two-night run.

In many ways Tea Leaf Green is a band that keeps its fans young. They have tapped into the same fount discovered and perfected by the Grateful Dead and their shows, which differ from night to night, contain a palpable energy, bristling with a tangible excitement uncommon to the typical concert experience. Their fan base seems to reflect the timeless aura, it transcends age demographics and brings together a wide spectrum of fans who all revel in their communal love of the band and their music. Trevor Garrod, Josh Clark, Scott Rager and Reed Mathis are sitting at the epicenter of a perfect storm that should catapult them onwards and upwards. While true that there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert; there is also nothing like a Tea Leaf Green concert.

With bassist Reed Mathis on tour with the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Tea Leaf has brought ALO’s Steve Adams into the fold for their Spring tour. If Adams had any nerves about stepping into the breach, they hardly showed. For the two HighLine shows, Adams comfortably prowled and bounded about the stage, meshing with Rager as if they had played together for years. Clark enjoyed goading Adams on, giving him a beaming grin whenever Adams found the right bass lick and busting into a funky little dance in response to an Adams solo during “Zoom Zoom.” If the HighLine nights were your first TLG shows, you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking Adams had been with the band much longer than four shows.

It’s hard to quibble with anyone branding Tea Leaf with the jamband label unless you are going to assume that the term includes lengthy noodling. Tea Leaf does not mess around with endless soloing and directionless jamming. A song oriented band, Tea Leaf explores the possibilities of their songs in a live setting. Over the HighLine weekend, they inserted a wonderful psychedelic interlude into Garrod’s folksy “Taught To Be Proud” and brought the house down with a tightly wrought reading of “Carter Hotel,” a song that could someday be Tea Leaf Green’s breakout crossover hit.

On the opening night, Tea Leaf interacted marvelously with fellow San Franciscans Hot Buttered Rum. Garrod emerged near the end of HBR’s opening set to sit in on a simmering version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Retuning the favor, violinist Aaron Redner gave a down-home feel to a cover of The Band’s “Ophelia” to close the first set and during the second set, simply transcended the middle portion of “Criminal Intent,” turning Clark’s hard-charging rocker into a sultry, backwoods charmer. For night two, which coincided with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York City, Garrod’s references to Jesus in “I’ve Got A Truck,” which came with an assist from Moonalice’s Barry Sless and Pete Sears, and Clark’s pronouncement during “Wet Spot” about finding God and buying him a drink had a slightly thematic tinge to them.

Not a band that gears its show towards excessive soloing, the second night’s encore featured some impressive (and rare) individual efforts. Clark opened the extra set on his own, offering a resounding reminder that he is one of the most gifted axemen currently practicing the craft before guiding the band into "Hot Dog." Towards the close of “Morning Sun,” Garrod, Clark and Adams slipped into the dark recesses of the stage giving Rager the opportunity to showcase the skills that make Tea Leaf such an intriguing band. A common thread running through Garrod’s melodic tunes and Clark’s straight-up rockers is Rager’s uncanny ability to find the right measures; it’s a trick he performs with the skill of the finest jazz drummers and he does it so well, it’s sometimes easy to overlook.

About a year ago, Tea Leaf’s set lists felt in stasis, as if they were pausing so that everyone could catch up. In the past few months, such criticism would be unfair. At the HighLine, Tea Leaf included beloved tunes like “If It Wasn’t For The Money” and “Kali-Yuga” but also included newer songs like “Let Us Go” and “Red Ribbons.” You sense that Tea Leaf is sitting on a geyser of creativity and it is taking all their effort not to drown their fans in what they have at their fingertips. It makes for a fun time to be a Tea Leaf Green fan. If you’re not on board yet, drink the tea now before it becomes too hot to handle.

Labels: Tea Leaf Green