Ellis Ashbrook delivered fantastic exploratory rock at Ralph’s Diner

Last night’s line up at Ralph’s Diner in Worcester, Massachusetts featured the Brooklyn band Ellis Ashbrook, a four-piece featuring singer/keyboardist Natalie Lowe, a stunning talent and stage presence who can whip up all kinds of effects on her synthesizer and vocoder microphone.

Ellis Ashbrook opened with a song called “Therefore, However, and So Forth” from their 2008 CD Assemblage. The song was a flavorful hodgepodge of hard rock and funky organ riffs. The true fire burned in this band as guitarist John Barber played fiery, penetrating melodic phrases.Lowe sang lead vocals with her eerie, silky voice on “We Laughin.‘” A quaint, likable rhythm guitar darted through the song and in funky unison with Jonathan Granoff’s smooth, knobby bass notes. Lowe held vocal notes forever while the band funked out behind her. Her thick, zesty organ chords were full of spunk. There were moments of funk overtones in Barber’s guitar while Lowe made these cool, twitching synth sounds.

“Mr. Anyone” made full use of Lowe’s experimental, explorative synth effects while Barber’s slide guitar screamed out some high pitched squeals. There was a lot of character in Barber’s guitar playing throughout the set. He not only plays crackling, dynamite guitar, he is a powerhouse singer who delivered his verse with a neo hippie sing song cool. At one point Lowe and Barber impressed by singing in unison an avalanche of quirky lyrics. Lowe had a telephone receiver attached to her outfit and she sang part of her song into the phone to create a technologically odd sound.

Bass player Granoff unleashed every funky bomb in his arsenal to great response from the audience. Granoff and drummer Alex Major had their crowd dancing, swaying, and bobbing heads with much enthusiasm. Ellis Ashbrook is what King Crimson would be if King Crimson was cool and had a sexy woman playing keyboards amidst their complex melodic phrases and challenging polyrhythm.

Lowe has a soft timbre that worked wonders singing harmony with Barber and as a lead vocalist she doesn’t sail over the music but sort of gently scales up it. Some of Ellis Ashbrook’s best moments came when Lowe and Barber were playing intricate melodies in unison before bifurcating into challenging melody and counterpoint melody.

The evening headliner, TickleBomb Orchestra, were quite entertaining, a fun and interesting mix of musical talent and comedy. Someone in the crowd next to me called them “an Irish drinking band.” The singer could rap as well as sing a variety of genres in a strong, confident voice and his commanding stage presence was another plus for this group.

TickleBomb Orchestra has a keyboardist who ranged from a 1960s pop rock sound to an earthy almost-bluesy R&B flavor. The band is definitely appropriately named, as they tickle your funny bone through out their talent-packed set. At one point they were singing an original song called “Don’t Be A Prick” before easing into The Monkee’s tune “Stepping Stone” and then eventually playing a cowboy western film score sounding epic that went on a long time, supported by an authentic twangy electric gee-tar.

Each member of TickleBomb gets time to shine. The keyboardist made up a large part of the band’s songs in the first half of their set while their drummer is a human metronome who can keep perfect time in any of tempos and genres in their potpourri of styles. Their bass player often made people feeling like clapping their hands and tapping their feet to his variety of beats and grooves. Yes, their bass player helps keep the beat on specific numbers.

By the end of the night the audience had been treated to Ellis Ashbrook’s new, self-defined exploratory rock sound as well as the fun, entertaining quirky mesh of styles presented by the high-flying TickleBomb Orchestra.

Second band on the bill, Hard No. 9, was a huge entertaining package of fun, much in the vein of pure rock and roll joy like Bon Jovi and Kiss. These boys know how to party, and their local hit song “Another Shot Of Whiskey” went over big with the crowd. This band was full of power chords and their lead singer was a total belter in a 1970s classic rock tradition. Opening band The Mad Cowboy was an unusual mix of hard rock and blues. Their guitarist/vocalist sang and played like a lot of simple techniques with a passionate fury. He did have the true energy level and he earnestly aimed for some kind of interpretation of hard rock as defined by the likes of Ted Nugent and Z.Z. Top. Harmonica notes, played by the most talented player in this band, were blowing all over this driving rock, becoming the most interesting element.

It was a night of great music and great experimentation and entertainment at Ralph’s Diner last night. This Worcester night spot certainly puts together an interesting, intriguing mix of exceptionally good and exceptionally unusual bands.