by Michael LelloWeekender Editor
A lot of bands spend a lot of time explaining that they’re not part of the genre that has been thrust about them. Phish spent years claiming it wasn’t a jam band, then just gave up. Kelly Clarkson says her latest album is not a pop album.
Hot Day at the Zoo, a four-piece acoustic rock outfit from Massachusetts which will perform in Scranton Friday, April 10, is not a bluegrass group, according to its members.
“I’ve played in a bunch of traditional bluegrass bands in my life, and it’s a strict regimen in what you can do,” says HDATZ mandolin player and vocalist JT Lawrence. “How long of a break you can take, stuff like that. In Hot Day at the Zoo, not only do we have a different type of music, a plethora of styles we choose from, we do take time to jam, and we do have more of a loose feel. A lot of the tunes are even more of a ragtime type of chord progression, and blues. It’s a string band, but I think we’re pretty far away from traditional bluegrass.”
HDATZ, which released its second EP “Long Way Home” last November, will play at The Banshee on Friday. The band’s previous NEPA appearance was a sold-out show with Cabinet at the River Street Jazz Caf�. (You can listen to a recording of that show by visiting the online version of this story at www.theweekender.com/music.)
Lawrence, the newest HDATZ member, is joined by Jed Rosen (upright bass, vocals), Jon Cumming (banjo, dobro, vocals) and Michael Dion (guitar, harmonica, vocals).
Dion says the feel of a HDATZ show, which could include some covers like the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha” and “Dupree’s Diamond Blues,” Bob Dylan’s “It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” and numbers by John Prine, the Rolling Stones and David Grisman, is an uptempo experience.
“In general, I think it’s high-energy, balls to the wall,” he says. “There’s ballads now and again, but in general it’s pretty intense. We’re sweating pretty good.”
The band has received positive press from traditional outlets like the Boston Globe as well as jam-band fan bibles like Relix, JamBase.com and JamBands.com, and it is becoming an increasingly popular act on the summer festival circuit. Two weeks ago, the band was added to the bill at Mountain Jam, a Hunter, N.Y., Warren Haynes-promoted fest that this summer will feature the Allman Brothers Band, The Hold Steady, Gov’t Mule and Gomez.
“We’re hoping to add a few more [festivals],” says Dion. “We’re definitely on the potential list for a couple big ones.”
Playing in front of large, diverse, groups of music fans at the festivals has immediate payoffs.
“Oh yeah, big time, there’s no way around it,” Dion says. “You kind of track your CD sales, all our online stuff is trackable, and as soon as you play in front of a couple thousand people, wham, pretty much like clockwork [the sales increase].”
In a few months, HDATZ will begin cutting its third studio record, the first to feature Lawrence on mandolin. A possible live album is also in the works. For now, though, its touring and spreading their sound to new audiences like the ones it’ll encounter Friday at The Banshee.
“I love playing new venues, on a personal note,” Dion says. “It’s a little bit of excitement, playing a new place, and the uncertainty of what kind of sound system you are going to run into. In general, Pennsylvania has been pretty good to us.”
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Hot Day at the Zoo,
Friday, April 10 at The Banshee, 320 Penn Ave., Scranton.
Info:
\myspace.com/hotdayatthezoo, www.hotdayatthezoo.com
