Roomful Of Blues made a stop at Dante’s Firefly’s in Marlboro, Massachusetts last night, and the swinging, blues band put on another spiffy show.
Such a classy, precise band playing in Firefly’s wide open bandstand area conjured an atmosphere of upscale nightclubs from previous decades. Roomful opened with their trademark wall of horn sound and guitarist Chris Vachon’s fanciful, tasteful guitar riffs.
That trumpet, played by Doug Woolverton, gets sweeter and swingier each time, and the dual saxophones of Rich Lataille and Mark Earley made you wonder which one to watch, switching eyes and ears from one to the other as each was doing so much to make that fulsome sound possible. Eventually, you had to pull back to take them all in at once.
Singer Philip Pemberton, who is going into his second year with Roomful, showcased his voice, one with as much richness in its timbre as a Wurlitzer. His soulful approach to “Walks Right In” matched the horn sections’ mounting intensity, and, together, vocalist and horns, had a hell of a swagger.
“All Right, OK, You win” found Pemberton crooning with surefire timing, belting around the twists and turns in the music. He eventually powered it up and let loose, his voice booming. “Black Night,” with its mischievous vibe and cool, crawling melodrama gave the boys a chance to play together well in a quiet, moody mode. Pemberton massaged the lyrics with his soft, pretty timbre and Vachon kept peeling off those sweet, higher pitched notes, making a sound that was on its way to some place sorrowful. Unpacking those guitar notes with clean, clear, precision, Vachon made you feel every one of those morsels of emotion. Eventually, the horn section came in strong, and Vachon matched their fire with his intense, flowing phrase.
Keyboard player, Travis Colby, did a lot of fun things with his keyboards last night. His boogie woogie piano movements, his swirling organ chords, and, even the lattice work of subtle things he did underneath the other melody instruments had his own person oomph to it. Upright bass player Big John Turner could manage the tender drama in the emotive pieces as well as he could power the more dynamic uptempo material. Maybe that’s why they call him “Big John.” He has all the skills in one hefty package.
“Kill Me” is another vehicle to showcase the togetherness strength of Roomful. Tight and compact ensemble playing here, the boys let this one ooze out in quick, short bursts of finesse. Doug Woolverton nailed that large bayou sound of “Jambalaya.” Rich Lataille served up some sweet New Orleans melody on his higher sax notes. Pemberton and the horns left the stage so Vachon could lead a four-piece ensemble through some hard-driving surf rock. The four-piece could have been best described as indescribable. The waves of organ chords and the heavy duty groove from the rhythm section formed the arc that Vachon marched his notes up one side of and down the other.
The horns were swinging, and the organ was thick and zesty on “Baby Loves To Travel With The Band.” The song consists of swirls in the melody and groove, and the vocal here has to fit snugly inside the spaces left open for the singer. The boys , as usual, worked it out with the precision of flying trapeze artists, and with the same dramatic tension in the air.
Another slow song, “Time Brings Bout A Change,” lured several couples onto the dance floor and Pemberton’s soulful poignancy made the piece mournfully beautiful. Pemberton also had the right kind of swaggering attitude for “Pretty Good Love,” and each member got to inject something spiky and punchy.
It was another fine performance from the Providence-based swing-blues boys.