Roomful Of Blues rolled into beautiful Londonderry, New Hampshire last night and treated their fans to a couple of hours worth of their best material. Lead by singer Phil Pemberton and guitarist Chris Vachon, the band was in fine form, offering a lot of their combination of fine ensemble work while leaving openings here and there for each player to offer up something to showcase their own individual contribution to the enormous Roomful sound.
Opening with an instrumental workout gave the musicians a chance to showcase how they architect their towering sound. Trumpet player Doug Woolverton shine playing his vibrant melody line before saxophonists Mark Earley and Rich Lataille joined in to blow a huge, swinging swell of trademark Roomful sound.
Pemberton joined the band, starting his set with “All Went Down The Drain,” finessing those timeless lyrics with his distinct soulful rasp, pushing the song forward with his strong delivery. The rhythm section had its sneaky groove fully intact, making one feel like dancing if Tupelo Music Hall wasn’t set up like a concert hall with seating. Waves of organ, swells of horns, and Vachon’s burbling melodic phrase all swung mightily around that enticing groove. It was a good omen of all the good Roomful selections to come.
A hit with Roomful fans these last few years, “All Right OK You Win,” bopped merrily along. It was marked by Rusty Scott’s fancy, old time piano line and the three horns blowing a storm of melodic joy. A couple bass solos from John Turner were marked by his deep, steady notes, knobby plucks that make each ring out with something solid in his low end line.
“Easy Baby” was another crowd pleaser from this exuberant and lively octet. Its sly instrumental movements within its shifty groove made one feel all of the motions inside the song. Vachon combined a dry blues lick with a little bit of 1960s effects to arrive at a melody line both fetching and sprawling, carrying the line as easily as walking a dog. Pemberton caressed the lyrics with his easefully smooth, soulful vocal, making it one of those moments when you’d swear this cat was personally designed by God to pull the hearty depth of out meaningful lyrics.
Rusty Scott proved he’s worth his salt when he played his boogie woogie style piano on “Boogie Woogie Country Girl.” Scott put a lot of feeling into his honky tonk flavored piano riffs, rollicking lines that found a good home within the jaunty groove beneath him. “Just Keep On Rockin’” found drummer Chris Rivelli playing some magnificent rolls on his toms, bumpy, bouncy drum notes that, strangely enough, felt compelling and alluring in their primitive pull. Pemberton exercised one of his more forceful vocal approaches, going toe to toe with the blaring swells from the horn section.
Another crowd favorite at Roomful Of Blues shows was “Jambalaya,” which was played, as usual, as a good time, Louisiana flavored blues romp. Lataille’s precise, lean, and colorful tenor sax notes make you want to strut down Carondelet Street to Bourbon Street until you get close enough to the French quarter to smell the gumbo cooking. Moving onto the high stepping beat of “Body And Fender Man,” Roomful covered the Johnny Adams classic with their usual penchant for sly, movable R&B beats underneath instrumental flair. Vachon whipped out an intriguing guitar line, squeezing out a blend of lead and rhythm guitar in one phrase.
A couple of instrumentals let the Roomful musicians strut their stuff while letting their music breathe, freed from the verse-chorus structures. A guitar, bass, keys, and drums instrumental let the boys offer up interesting guitar lines and swirls of B3 Hammond organ while the rhythm boys kept things lean and sturdy. A horn instrumental was ignited by a brief knobby solo from the upright bass before Rich Lataille’s mellifluous tenor sax line helped to define what is so classy and elegant about the Roomful sound. Mark Earley blew a rich line from his bari sax, an instrument he plays to great effect here and there.
For their encore, Roomful came back out on stage to play “Hey Yeah,” a hand clapping, audience participation number that highlighted the band’s bond with its audience. The boys had no trouble getting their audience to rise up from their encumbering seats to move with the groove.
The fantastic sound quality was managed by the band’s veteran sound man, Mike Lebeau who used a huge console on lights, switches, and a computer screen to keep every single vocal and instrumental note at the right dynamic. It was another good night for Roomful and their fans. Tupelo is a room they like to play in, and it showed in their personal enthusiasm. Maybe some day Tupelo’s owner will figure out that Roomful is a dancehall band, not a concert hall band and remove those damnable chairs.
http://tupelohalllondonderry.com/
