Tag: Jess Collins

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Sidewalk Driver @ T.T. The Bear’s Place 7.27.2012

A couple of weeks ago, we presented a show at TT’s with our good friends over at Boston Band Crush. Sidewalk Driver was on the bill. I may have posted some pictures of these guys before. I kinda sorta like ’em a little bit. They’ve got these songs. Really cool songs. Songs about magnets and Tad’s face. And they play the hell out of ’em. They do all that while blowing confetti all over the friggin’ place.

One of my favorite things about a Sidewalk Driver show is telling my boys about it the next morning. As I was describing this particular show, Big Little One suspected I may be embellishing the tale a bit.

“You’re teasing.”

I assured him I wasn’t, although I understood his skepticism. It all sounded to fantastic to be true. It was too much for his six-year-old brain to process. I paused a minute to let him take it all in.

Then I told him about the parachute…

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Mellow Bravo @ T.T. The Bear’s Place 7.3.2012

Mellow Bravo is firing on all cylinders right now. They’re loud, raucous, soulful, heavy and wildly entertaining. Their new material is flat-out devastating. With the added depth these songs bring to their set, Mellow Bravo can manipulate the pacing for maximum impact. That’s exactly what they did at TT’s.

I’m down with Mellow Bravo, The Dirty Truckers, Cropduster and Murcielago playing every Independence Eve. Let’s make it a tradition.

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Mellow Bravo @ Radio 6.9.2012

There was a very special episode of the Mellow Bravo show on Saturday night. The band set their “party band” image aside for the night and played nothing but sensitive ballads. OK, that’s a lie. No set that includes “Freshman Prom Queen” will ever be tagged as sensitive, but there was a bit of a different dynamic on display at this Radio gig. Mellow Bravo dug deep into some of their more textured material, showcasing the strength of the songs and their ability to play to them. This is one tight outfit.

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Mellow Bravo @ Radio 11.19.2011

Mellow Bravo is the band you should be begging to play at your basement kegger. Sure, the cops are gonna come and bust the thing up, but it’ll be awesome until then…

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Mellow Bravo @ The Middle East Downstairs 7.29.2011

There’s this movie called I Get Off. It stars a white 1974 Pontiac Trans AM driven by Sheila, played by an otherwise unknown actress who now makes her meager living charging people $20 a pop to have their picture taken with her and a replica of said car at comic conventions. In this cinematic masterpiece there are bar fights, mustaches, a Columbo knock-off police detective, bricks and bricks of an unspecified narcotic and a guy in a banana suit.

In the climactic scene, the Trans Am races head-on toward a tanker truck in the desert. The windows are down. Sheila’s hair is blowing in the wind. She lifts her sunglasses. Her eyes are focused. There’s a shotgun on the passenger seat. Her hand reaches down to turn up the radio.

Mellow Bravo blares from the speakers as a sly smile comes across Sheila’s face.

Then it gets messy.

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Mellow Bravo – Strut (2010)


Mellow Bravo
Strut
2010

Do you like your ’70s inspired hard rock with a healthy dose of bombast? I thought so.

Mellow Bravo deliver the goods on Strut. They hook you out of the gate with the heavy groove of “Highs And Lows” and the blistering “I Get Off”. Mellow Bravo makes you feel good. Just try to not sing along to the “ooo ooo” parts in “Must Be My Woman” or “I Wanted A Girl”. You can’t help yourself. “Freshman Prom Queen” is wildly inappropriate and unbelievably awesome. “Hard Timin'” has a swinging guitar riff that sounds too good not to have been played before.

Just when you think you’ve got Mellow Bravo pegged as the ultimate party band, they hit you up with “Just Like Water Would” and “My Head And Heart”. Keith Pierce and Jess Collins carry these songs with their well paired vocals. Oh wait, did I just imply that Mellow Bravo aren’t the ultimate party band? No, no, no. They are the ultimate party band. They just happen to be able to go a little deeper as well.

It would be impossible to capture all of Mellow Bravo’s live energy in a studio setting, but Strut comes about as close as you could hope for. For one last hurrah, they close out the record with a live version of “Light Up My Little Love”. Mellow Bravo rules.

Where to get it:

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Mellow Bravo @ T.T. The Bear’s Place 4.14.2011

Mellow Bravo played their Rumble semi-final set as if it was their last ever. I suspect they play all of their shows this way.

What a fun band. I wouldn’t doubt that Mellow Bravo fans think the band has a middle name. I, for one, found myself muttering “Mellow F’n Bravo” underneath my breath more than once throughout their supercharged set.  The band was firing on all cylinders, and singer Keith Pierce was their spark plug. Jeffery Fultz and Andrew Doherty channeled every classic rock guitar riff they’ve ever heard.   Dave Jarvis on drums and Seager Tennis on bass kept things moving along with reckless abandon.  Jess Collins helped make the whole thing gel on keys.  She also happened to explode when they put a microphone in her hand and gave her center stage.

Semi-Final Night #1 of the 2011 Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. Spirit Kid won the night, but any of the bands could have moved on given a different set of judges or a groundhog seeing his shadow or what have you. Mellow Bravo, Sidewalk Driver, and Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (and Spirit Kid, of course) were just that good.  What an awesome night.