BAND: Febrifuge
VENUE: Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios
TIME: 9:45 p.m.
On record, Chris Day's music is equally lush and perplexing. But, most of all, it's impressive--thanks, at least in part, the to fact that Day recorded nearly all of his debut release, A Short Instance of Separation, on his own.
Live, however, the script is greatly flipped; At RGRS, Day, seated behind a piano, was joined by the four UNT jazz students that make up his backing band. What comes from these backing musician's talents, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a noted uptick in jazz principles sneaking their way into the Day's musical arrangements.
It makes for a smart sound--far more sophisticated than Febrifuge's on-record sound--but it also takes away some of Febrifuge's lo-fidelity spirit.
But that doesn't mean the band's live show is any less impressive. With Day dressed in an ill-fitting suit and his backing members clad in ties and studious performance poses, this RGRS show was a study in minimalism and unanticipated left-hand turns.
Just like on record, it was lush and perplexing at once. Impressive, too.
A different kind of lush? Of perplexing? Of impressive? Absolutely. But no less captivating.