Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad invades the Waterhole
Adirondack Daily Enterprise
6-27-08
By Andy Bates
SARANAC LAKE - The last time the Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad rolled through Saranac Lake, it was the middle of January. Nevertheless, once they got going, the crowd that gathered at the Waterhole Upstairs Music Lounge quickly started shedding layers.
It's a testament to the reggae genre, surely, but it's more a testament to their style and sensibility.
They call themselves a roots reggae band, and a listen to their only album to date, "Slow Down," definitely conjures up the bare bones, heavy rhythms and lyrical style that marked the genre's golden years in Jamaica in the late 1960s and the following decade.
It's worth a listen, and tracks like "On the Moon" show not only a commitment to the roots sound, but also to a similar message calling attention to human injustices.
But where the album's tracks take its cues from the title and keep the listener on a slow and steady reggae pace, the live show they offered in January was downright blistering at times.
With Matthew O'Brian on guitar and lead vocals, James Searl on bass and lead vocals, Christopher O'Brian on drums, Dylan Savage on guitar and vocals, Rachel Orke on Fender Rhodes, clavinet and melodica, Buddy Honeycutt on percussion and vocals and Aaron Lipp on the Hammond B3 organ, Giant Panda can take a roots tune, bend it and speed it up in an experimental, instrumental dub jam, and just when you're fully entranced, they can turn on a dime and pull it right back to the rootsy one-drop with which they started.
What stood out probably the most about that show was that no one band member really stood out. That's not a knock on anyone's musicianship but rather an applause of the cohesiveness with which they took the stage and how they've developed their sound.
After only a few years together in the current seven-member incarnation, the band has used their stage performances to work on that cohesion, playing roughly 180 gigs a year. And it's not a stretch to think they've worked out some new wrinkles and sounds during the half-year they've been away from the North Country.
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad will take the stage at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 28 at the Waterhole Upstairs Music Lounge. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and tickets cost $10 in advance.
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