For almost nine years The Breakfast has been rocking not only locally, but also playing venues and festivals across the country.

During the last year the band found itself one Breakfast-er short as keyboardist Jordan Giangreco left the band to pursue other ventures. So they decided to try to make a go at it as a trio.

"The trio has been a lot of fun for the past year," says Tim Palmieri, the band\'s singer/guitarist. "I don\'t know if it was perception but it seemed everything died down a little bit, attendance was a little less, people were frustrated with the new sound. The audience would say \'I like it, I don\'t like it... why don\'t they look for a new keyboardist.\'"

The band did just that and they found one in Matt Oestreicher.

"He\'s an amazing player. We\'re pretty psyched that things have sort of geared up from where they had been," Palmieri says of his new bandmate.

While Oestreicher has just joined the band, he\'d been an option for a while. "When Jordan first left, I met him through Jeff Gittleman and he was like, \'man, this cat\'s awesome,\' but we were so focused on playing as a three-piece at the time. We weren\'t into trying out keyboardists, we had no time to do it."

Road reviews of the trio were mixed, according to Palmieri. "It definitely split some of our fan base. Every new person we played in front of loved it. They had nothing to compare it to, and they were like \'this band is freakin\' amazing.\' But the people who knew us with Jordan were like, \'well, it\'s different.\' Some said it took some getting used to, some loved it off the bat, and some said \'I liked the band better with a keyboardist,\'" Palmieri laughs. "Then they\'d stand around and bad-mouth us."

Palmieri says a lot of work went into transforming the songs into something that could work for the trio. "We did all the same songs, but definitely stripped down, completely reworked. I was playing keyboards at the same time. The main difference was no organ, that was Jordan\'s forte and that was completely gone."

Without the keys, Palmieri says the band had "kind of a new-age, rock-n-roll sound" that was "almost like Rush a tiny bit."

When the band finally got home from the road, the process of working Oestreicher into the fold began.
"Adrian (Tramontano, drums) jammed with him somewhere, and he was like, this kid\'s amazing," Palmieri says. So, the band dicussed their options. "Myself and Ronnie (Spears, bass) were content as a three-piece, Adrian always missed the keyboardist. He liked the three-piece, but he always wanted a keyboardist there," Palmieri adds.

They agreed they should meet with Oestreicher, "It was a lot of talking, you know, the business, what state the business is in, and what needs to be done, what we\'re looking for," Palmieri says.

"We needed a fuller sound, I liked the tightness of the three-piece, it was very focused rock-n-roll," says Palmieri. "But Matt is such an incredible player that it helped what we played... it\'s gonna be good."

According to Palmieri, it was more than good when Oestreicher debuted earlier this month at Gathering Of The Vibes in Bridgeport. "The Vibes show was great. We played the free stage, so our fans we\'re psyched they didn\'t have to pay the $70 to see us," Palmieri says. "It was a quick hour set, but it was really great. The people loved it, Matt loved it. We sounded great."

"Me, Ron and Adrian have this telepathic rock thing going on, and now Matt\'s into the whole synergy vibe, and letting go in the moment. He knows how to rock and roll, but he is the most technical of all of us. He really knows his ****."

The Breakfast, for those unaware, have established themselves on a national level on the jam band scene. However, the term \'jam band\' is not one of Palmieri\'s favorite ways to describe the band.

"It\'s like the best of stigmas and the worst of stigmas, yes we jam, we love to improvise. If we were from the 60s or 70s we\'d have had a different title, whether it be psychedelic band, prog band or whatever, now it\'s jam band," he says. "We improvise, it\'s weird, we\'re chameleons, we have songs in every style, and any style we do, we rock it, we\'re not just tapping instruments, we hit them hard, y\'know, no guts no glory."

"I\'ve always considered us progressive-funk-fusion, it\'s complicated. It certainly has funk in it, it has jazz and rock, sometimes progressive-funk-fusion is, admittedly, too complicated for people to decipher," Palmieri says.

The Breakfast is excited to be playing Toad\'s Place, the spot the band considers its home venue.

Palmieri says of his hometown fans, "We have our hardcores, I mean they\'re super supportive, we love them and they love us. They\'re always there for us."

Palmieri says the band keeps trying to showcase their music to new faces. "We have a lot of work to do with our audience and draw." With a laugh, Palmieri says "We have more minds to turn on. We\'re not satisfied."

awesome review!!!

interesting....

but i think i like it overall... good positive review.

gotta love all the recent press.

I don\'t know why but when the Toads show was announced I knew I had to be there.

I don\'t normally drive out that far to shows when I have to work the next day but there is something in the air today

Quote from: kindm\'s;156133

gotta love all the recent press.

I don\'t know why but when the Toads show was announced I knew I had to be there.

I don\'t normally drive out that far to shows when I have to work the next day but there is something in the air today

it\'s def. a not to be missed night.

Quote from: davepeck;156137

Quote from: FreeSpirit;156081

awesome review!!!

Quote from: peaches626;156082

interesting....

but i think i like it overall... good positive review.

where are you people seeing a review of anything? it\'s an interview.

whatever dude, u knew what i meant...