The BreakfastBy: Nick R. Scalia , Staff writer 02/22/2006Combining the chops and adventurousness of a jam band with the up-front grooves and riffs of a funk-rock combo, The Breakfast is just as likely to wow listeners with their songwriting as they are with their finely-honed playing.The four-piece band is made up of guitarist Tim Palmieri, bassist Ron Spears, keyboardist Jordan Giangreco, and drummer Adrian Tramontano, and has been an institution of the New Haven-area music scene since they formed in 1998. They\'ve also had a serious impact nationally, scoring a Jammy Award for Best New Groove in 2004 and earning coverage from the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Playboy, and of course, Relix Magazine. Not bad for four guys from East Haven, who\'ve earned their stripes through extensive gigging and recording - which has so far elicited four albums, with likely quite a few more on the way.
Their last disc, released in 2005, was Real Radio, and it found the band both pushing forward into more radio-friendly territory, and continuing to develop their more experimental side - as on its stunning 12-minute closer The Grand Scheme of Things, a multifaceted instrumental rock opus that the band had played live for years before putting to tape.
While The Breakfast spent last year supporting Real Radio on the live circuit - and playing a few big music fests, like Minnesota\'s 10,000 Lakes Festival - Palmieri tells us they also put in a lot of time preparing for big things in 2006.
"This year for us is very important - we\'re going on a national tour in two weeks," he says. "Our main thing for now is to get back on the road, we\'ve been here in the northeast for a while now, so, we\'re ready... we\'re ready to tour."
"...And writing new music," adds Tramontano - some of which, the guys say, they\'ll be playing during their dozen-plus city trek around the U.S... and maybe, if we\'re lucky, at the Birthday Bash as well.
We sat down with the whole band - a complete Breakfast, if you will - to catch up before their PLAY gig and the national tour to follow.
O Favorite second album of all time?
Ron - "Led Zeppelin II\'s good."
Adrian - "Sabbath... Paranoid."
Tim - "The Doors\' second album, or [Red Hot Chili Peppers\'] Freakey Styley."
Jordan - "Metallica\'s Ride the Lightning."
O Where did you play your second gig ever?
Tim - "Nataz, when it used to be in North Branford. I can even give you the date..."
Ron - "That was a Halloween show."
Tim - "Yeah... October 31, 1998."
O What two bands/artists would you love to have opening for you?
Adrian - "You wouldn\'t want them to be too good, because they\'d be opening for us..."
Tim - "I\'m fine with Zappa, Zappa could open for us. And... the Red Hot Chili Peppers."
O If someone had to listen to only two of your songs, which ones would you pick and why?
Adrian - "Buquebus and Grand Scheme, I think."
Tim - "They were both written early, when the band was first starting to play together. Grand Scheme is a long instrumental that has a lot of parts to it, so we\'re always been proud of that, its complexity.
And Buquebus is very groovy, it\'s another long song, it has some jams in it, and we really get to explore it live."
Ron - "Those two songs can be different every time we play them."
Adrian - "Pretty much, those songs transmit the most energy from the band."
O What two things can\'t your band live without?
Ron - "Music and beer."
O Second encore - good idea or overkill?
Tim - "Awesome."
Jordan - "It\'s usually awesome, because if the band wasn\'t that good, I wouldn\'t be there in the first place."
Adrian - "I get tired by the end of the night." [laughs]
Ron - "When it comes to a lot of bands that I go see live, probably the encores they play are songs I don\'t want to hear anyway - usually those are like all the really popular songs, the crowd pleasers... usually."
Tim - "We had a double encore once..."
Jordan - "But it\'d have to be a really awesome show for us to do something like that."
O Proudest moment of the past two years?
Ron - "Winning the Jammy Award."
Tim - "Yeah, I was gonna say winning the Jammy Award."
O Two words to best describe what you sound like?
Tim - "Fast and Furious"
O Where do you see yourself two years from now?
Ron - "Hopefully touring the world, that\'s definitely what we\'re looking for right now."
Tim - "Yeah, selling out theaters. And Adrian would like to have his own cooking show on tv..."
O If your band was a movie sequel, which one would you be?
Adrian - "The Empire Strikes Back!"
http://www.playnewhaven.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16167413&BRD=2639&PAG=461&dept_id=531126&rfi=6
