What a band. What a show. I can only assume that this band woke up two hours before going on stage. Tea Leaf Green‘s clear-eyed charge and thirst for performance is a wonder to behold. They stare so nakedly happy and curious into the audience, it’s as if you were the one pouring hours of mind-blowing music into their ears. It feels as though they are there to see you, not the other way around. The end result is a room packed with grateful, fulfilled people. What a band.
The show was three full, full sets and an encore, we didn’t leave Codas until around 4. Felt good. I would have to say that the show really got great around the first three or four songs of the second set. By that point they had really warmed up and smoothed into their style, which is to play beautiful songs that evolve into well orchestrated jams, which then climax a couple levels beyond what you would expect. So by the time we hit the second into the third set everything about their playing, the routes they took, and interactions were so confident, clean and full that we couldn’t ask for more.
Tea Leaf Green plays so tight, completely devoid of the minor banalities that often accompany ‘jam music’. The guitar and keys simply spill strength and intelligence. The songs hold weighted dreaminess and down to earth qualities at the same time, that they are instantly accessible.
So to end, some highlights; the band-wide tequila shot in the third set during Tequila, also a nice drum solo during the same song, girl standing next to Maria and I absolutely losing her mind – I mean she was completely losing it, I think something might have been a little off on the inside (If you know what I mean), the four different people Maria and I roped into the show – just on our way there – who by the end of the second set were so thankful they kept us in the juice for the remainder of the show, the Helter Skelter encore, who doesn’t like Helter Skelter? Aaand the confetti. The confetti was everywhere. Confetti. What a band.
