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Whamburger Live @ The Dragon Theater
Photo Credit: Sam Hausman
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Written by Alexander Most
Having seen Whambergur live at Battle of the Bands last year, I walked into the Dragon Theater expecting to see the same unbridled energy and wacky costumes. What I found is that the band has evolved in the last nine months, their music style and performance changed for better and for worse.
The show overall was not just an exhibition, or a jam for friends; it was a true performance, complete with an opening act and plenty of in show banter. Sam Hausman started the festivities off with some of his renowned stand up. However, Sam’s standup was much stronger in his first half as he spouted off about “current events we all could have predicted.” He then proceeded to do his “Ms. Bin Laden” and “Bro’s and Homosexuality” bits, which both seemed to fall short as he gave away and forgot many of the punch lines. The bit felt like it need a bit more practice and refining of the jokes, but overall, was enjoyable and funny.
The band followed with style, opening the crowd with an energetic and fun rendition of the Mario Theme. After the theme, they finally got around to a scattered introduction, Brett Warren on bass/vocals, Alexander Bercow on guitar, Neil Zacky on drums/vocals, and Brendy Hale on keyboards/synth/percussion/backup drummer/backup vocals.
The music was top notch, somewhere between psychedelic rock and funk, with an impressive display in both Bercow’s hard rock solos and Brett’s simply amazing bass work (I cannot emphasize enough how fantastic the bass work was). They performed everything from country (not a group favorite, but a favorite of mine) to Pink Floyd to Rap. Every song was delivered with style and the numerous bass and guitar solos were fantastic. Overall, the performance was simply, for lack of a better word, excellent – well worth the money and probably worth more.
Although good, the band was still far from perfect. Numerous technical issues slowed them down and even prevented the expected Whamola jam, which was anxiously anticipated after its appearance at last year’s Battle of the Bands. Tech seemed to be the bands major foible of the night. The vocals were too low and often times completely unintelligible, the bass was turned up so loud that even during guitar solos you couldn’t help but let your eyes stray away from Bercow and onto Brett.
However, the fact remains, with all the issues, the performance was above and beyond what anyone could have expected. The audience was too small to give the band the appreciation they deserved. Everyone could forgive the band for minor snafus. In the future the band could work on a cleaner show, but the quality of music more than made up for any issue.
Highlights:
Have a Cigar
Amos Moses
One Better
Ghosts n’ Stuff
Land Down under
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