I went to the show Thursday night in Boston at The Paradise. They\'re not bad. They\'re not particularly good. They opened with "Taught To Be Proud" which I have heard several times on Sirius and is a classic cheesy corny tra-la-la heady song that lots of kids will eat up. I suppose a TLG fan could say the same about Beef Barley or The Vermont Song though, so what can ya do? Gotta have those in there I guess. Over the course of the show they played the same exact Doorsy keyboard-led jam 5 or 6 times. They do this because the keyboard player is the only one in the band with anything noteworthy to offer, so I don\'t blame the rest of the band for hiding behind him. Their best moments are pretty good and usually lasted about 3-4 minutes, sandwiched on either side by 15 minutes of mediocre to slightly better than average playing.
TLG jams top out where Breakfast jams start. No joke. TLG have a very vanilla/safe/predictable jamming style. Not saying that\'s a good thing or bad thing. It\'s not my personal preference but I know tons of people enjoy that so if that\'s your bag, definitely go check \'em out cause they\'re obviously good at that sort of thing. And hey, can ya blame them? I think they could rock a lot harder if they chose to, but that\'s not what sells. Look at the Breakfast. The Breakfast go out and try to rip people\'s minds apart and blow the doors off the building every night. Most people can\'t take it. It\'s just too much. Crowds routinely diminish during second set at Breakfast shows. In today\'s jam world, light and fluffy far outsells hard and complex. How else do you explain how Tea Leaf Green plays The Paradise for 250 people at $12 while The Breakfast play the Middle East for 100 people at $8 when The Breakfast have played over 300 more shows than TLG, over 500 more shows in New England than TLG, and about a dozen more shows in Boston than TLG? Props to TLG for doing so well for themselves.
