The Tony Furtado Band/Sex Mob

Live at the Gothic Theater, Englewood, CO, September 7 2001

Chris Dahlen

This past Friday, the Gothic hosted an East-meets-West double-bill: New York downtown scene jazzbo’s Sex Mob, and local act the Tony Furtado Band, "a high-energy, folk-groove experience."

Sex Mob opened, scaring some people to the back of the room and drawing the committed musicos to the front, where they stood motionless and soaked in the noise. This tour supports their new album of covers and "reworkings" of James Bond movie soundtracks. The horns (leader Steven Bernstein on slide trumpet, and Briggan Krauss on alto sax) play the kind of high-energy, squaky but intelligent but fun lines you expect from Knitting Factory-style jazz stars. By the time you’re ready for the noise to become melody, they’ve already switched back, then switched back again. Tony Scherr played upright bass the way James Bond jumps out of a plane in a tux – muscular but smooth. Kenny Wolleson on drums played it straight with a little swagger, occasionally displaying the more erratic playing that I like in some of his other work (with Myra Melford, or Bill Frisell).

The Tony Furtado Band headlined with a set that went on for at least two hours, maybe three or four – we had to call it quits at some point. The set started slow. Furtado soaks in the ambience of the nearby Rockys in a "John Denver meets the Dead” style that’s big with the kids out there; his percussionist is decked out with plenty of chimes; several songs have lyrics about digging the mountains. The “good vibes” can be a turn-off. But then Furtado lets loose and everyone gets up and starts dancing like white people, and it’s all a good time. Furtado is a genuine star on banjo and guitar, and the banjo solos were terrific, especially on the more Celtic-inflected jams. His vocals are fine - they get the job done. His band that night was crackerjack. They sustained enough energy to support some long jams, including one where they were joined by Sex Mob’s Bernstein and Krauss. This was the kind of spontaneous and sincere jamming that the college kids deserve.

Related resources

Both Sex Mob and Tony Furtado have official sites.

You can read how Denver prepared itself for Sex Mob's appearance here and here.