The Geomatic Attic opened up their season with a sold out show of mainly new faces, featuring a tight set of mellow, atmospheric folk rock from B.C based band The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra.
The crowd wa
nted to dance so some of them got up and danced in the foyer of the Geomatic Attic as the band was happy to cater to them.
They know how to create an atmosphere with layers of instrumentation and vocal harmonies.
They blended folk, roots and exotic gypsy jazz style music with’60 style pop, sounding like Canadian roots icons Tanglefoot jamming on Beatles songs with the Plaid Tongued Devils.
Accordion/ keyboard player Ian Griffiths and new fiddle player Mack Shields pr
etty much stole the show with some jaw dropping musical interplay.
Drummer Paul Wolda sang the more baritone numbers while playing an array of percussion including a box drum he sat on, a djembe and the full drum kit.
On the other side of the stage upright bassist Keith Rodger played jazz influenced bass licks and the odd solo while guitarist Kurt Loewen added a more country influenced sound singing a couple songs in his Jason Isbel style tenor voice.
They started off slowly, but slowly build up the energy levels as they picked up the tempo and got lost in the groove.
Griffiths added a more of a world music exotic Spanish gypsy sound to the music as he sang several songs in Spanish.
They played a lot of their brand new CD“Love” which ironically contains a lot of very wistful, mournful, plaintively sad sounding songs.
“Funeral Song” was a highlight as was the “Canoe Song.”
The second set began on a more uptempo note which once again showcased beautiful fiddle and accordion musical interplay and more of their more exotic gypsy sounds.
