A&E

WHCL brings The Jauntee to the Hill

By Alex Witonsky ’17

Another successful Filius Events Barn music-bonanza in the books. It has been a fantastic academic year for on-campus performances. So far we’ve seen Shaky Graves, Chadwick Stokes, Nate Taylor, Wild Child, Paper Route and…*sigh* almost the pop-powerhouse Vance Joy. We can now add The Jauntee, a jam-band out of Boston, to the list.

The Jauntee played to a sort of neo-psychedelic Barn. Hearty throngs of Hamiltonians were illuminated by radiant glowsticks. Basking in the glow, the band wasted no time in starting the show. One downbeat and we were stuck-fast into the heart of The Jam. It was fast and then slow, lyrical then groovy, improvised but sliding along and controlled. The crowd gets down to it. Carton Sollenberger plays wildly on the guitar, throwing around tones the likes of which likely were never heard before in the Barn. Scott Ferber administered a whomping to the drums (the crowd pounds along to the beat) and Anthony Cerullo stroked the keys, then pounded them like a deranged quarryman would some rocks. John Loland kept it tight on the bass.

A quick lesson for those unfamiliar with the storied past of jam-banding: first, know The Grateful Dead, and second, know Phish. Know too The Allman Brothers Band, pioneers into the Land of the Slide Guitar. You can pretty much trace the origins of The Jauntee’s sound from Phish back on up to The Dead. The Jauntee is a self-described “Psychedelic-JazzBluesFunk with a touch of Latin based reggae” kind of band. Basically, The Jauntee is like all three of the previous bands while claiming to be a bit different. And that’s fine, at least the crowd loves it. They played one jam after another; knowing the starting song isn’t all that essential since they devolve (or evolve, depending on your preference) to the same kind of guitar shredding free-styling.

So go the industry tropes–“sure, their albums suck, but they sound great live” or “yes their live-sets suck, but the record’s worth a listen.” Not so with The Jauntee, not so. Going to see a jam band play is typically unpredictable: either it all goes wildly, cartoonfully well, or it just doesn’t and you’re wondering why you wasted your time and money in the first place (shout out to WHCL: this one was free!). My limited experience with The Jauntee’s 2012 Enjoy The Ride was a wildly different experience from the concert. Both had their merits.

Overall, The Jauntee put on a solid rock offering. While the crowd wasn’t the largest to fill the barn this year, or even this semester, a significant showing enjoyed the music. A job well done to WHCL!

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