04/30/04 + ??/??/04 ulu @ Ramapo Valley Brewery, Suffern, NY

Richard Gehr of the Village Voice called ulu's jazzy funk "Gumby-textured squonk." Sounds about right.

They were one of those talented bands that never moved up to the level of similar groups like Medeski Martin & Wood and the Greyboy All-Stars. It was a treat seeing them in my local haunt.

The highlight was an instrumental version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with an audience sing along.

I saw them once again at the same venue, but the crowd reaction that time was so poor that they didn't even do an encore.

They do a mean cover of the Super Mario Brothers theme song.

02/20/04 Zen Tricksters/Good Rats @ Ramapo Valley Brewery, Suffern, NY

For a brief glorious moment in time, the Ramapo Valley Brewery served their own micro brews and booked some great bands. There wasn't much of a music scene in Rockland besides the community college punk rock and death metal and the stodgy Nyack jazz clubs.

It was a breath of fresh air not having to take an hour drive to any truly captivating music. It was all over before I knew it.

The opening act, Good Rats, was a classic bar band with Irish folk punk flavor and at least one instance of baseball bat/bar stool percussion.

The Zen Tricksters are one of the original Dead cover bands and their members have also played with various post-Jerry incarnations of the Dead.

I remember dropping a conversation to get to the front when they started "Eyes of the World," one of my favorite Dead tunes.