Saw Thank You Scientist / Moontooth / The Tea Club Tuesday Night

[SteveSly]

Tuesday night I saw a triple bill of Thank You Scientist, Moontooth, and The Tea Club at The Pyramid Scheme club in Grand Rapids MI.

The Tea Club Opened things up with a relatively short set of material from several of their albums. I had seen them at ProgDay back in 2011 and I think they have improved quite a bit since that time. Their material is what I would call traditional progressive rock. The band uses two lead vocalist / guitarists so there was plenty of nice vocal harmonization, and nice duel fretwork. The keyboards, drums and bass were all solid as well. Along with the original material they pulled out a very nice tribute to Greg Lake performing the closing section of “Epitaph”. Some of the younger members of the audience may not have known what it was, but I was moved by it. The band got mixed reviews from the people I was with, but I dug it.

Next up was Moontooth. I was totally unfamiliar with this band, and before the show someone compared them to Mastodon which is not too far off the mark. These guys were loud and heavy. Not sure that it was really progressive rock, but there were prog tendencies to their material. The guitarist almost looked like a young Ted Nugent with long hair, full beard, jumping up (and off) of his amp and shredding like a pro. The whole band was tight and very good at what they did.

The headliner Thank You Scientist did not disappoint. I have seen them 3 times, all at progressive rock festivals, and the vibe in a club environment was a bit different. The band played a good chunk of their new album along with several tracks from the previous one. These guys are pretty unique and don’t really sound like anyone else that I can think of. Along with the prog element, there is definitely a bit of a jam band flavor to what they do as well. Towards the end of the show the band did a mash up of cover tunes (reminded me of Umphry’s McGee) that was a lot of fun. With a band this size they were a bit cramped up on the smallish stage, but the whole set was a lot of fun.

The turnout seemed to be pretty good for a snowy Tuesday night as I would say at it’s peak the place was about a third to a half full (capacity is 400). This is a great little tour if it comes to your town with 3 quality bands. Advanced tickets were only $12 so certainly the concert bargain of the year for me.

Approximate set list based on memory and cheating from other shows on set list FM:

THE TEA CLUB:

UNKNOWN SONG
EPITATH (GREG LAKE TRIBUTE)
THE MAGNET
I SHALL CONSUME EVERYTHING

MOOTOOTH:

I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH THEIR STUFF SO DO NOT KNOW SONG TITLES

THANK YOU SCIENTIST:

THE SOMNAMBULIST
CAVERNS
FEED THE HORSES
KRANUS
MR. INVISIBLE
CONCRETE SWAN DRIVE
BLUE AUTOMATIC
RUBE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
PSYCHPOMP
COVER SONG MASH UP (SIR DUKE, STAR WARS CANTINA BAND THEME, STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN, THEME FROM JURASSIC PARK, THEME FROM THE X-FILES, AS DAYS GO BY, HEAD OVER HEELS)
ABSENTEE
MY FAMED DISAPPEARING ACT

[jeffworman]

This was an excellent show and worth far more than the $12 we paid. All 3 bands were impressive in very different ways, but that was part of what made the show so enjoyable. If you like any of these bands, go see the entire show - - you won't be disappointed!

[boilk]

You don't have to convince me! I saw them Thursday night in Toronto, and they were sensational. Like you, I enjoyed opening act The Tea Club. I had heard of them, but had not heard their stuff before. It was a good blend of melodic prog, with flourishes of heaviness, and good song writing and singing. I bought their newest album.

Moontooth brought a lot of energy and passion to the stage. A little more like straight-up rock to me (they even did a cover of Manic Depression), and not quite my thing, but they were fun to watch.

Thank You Scientist tore it up, and the crowd was going ballistic, most of the night. There was a good-natured, bouncing-around 'pit', lots of fist-pumping and sing-alongs, from a mostly young, enthusiastic audience. The band was on fire, and Sal was totally into it. He grabbed a guy's cell phone and filmed himself and the crowd for awhile, and later jumped into the pit and sang a whole song from there! They played a couple of new songs, and it looks like a similar set list to yours (no Blue Automatic, though), and we may have gotten an extra encore - The Amateur Arsonist's Handbook - and all-in-all, it looks like they are really enjoying their first head-lining tour. About 120 showed up, quite good for a snow-stormy Thursday night in Toronto.

SEE THIS BAND!!!

neil

[SteveSly]

I forgot to mention that after the show I had a nice conversation with Tea Club keyboard player Joe Dorsey. I thought he looked familiar and turns out he was a NEARfest regular who had been brought to the festival by his parents, and I think that is where I had seen him before (I don’t think he was in the band when they played ProgDay). He seemed like a really nice kid, very enthusiastic, and obviously very talented.

[SteveSly]

and we may have gotten an extra encore - The Amateur Arsonist's Handbook - and all-in-all, it looks like they are really enjoying their first head-lining tour. About 120 showed up, quite good for a snow-stormy Thursday night in Toronto.


neil

Unfortunately we did not get any encores. I assume they were right up against curfew time as it was just before midnight when their main set ended.