The atmosphere is always supercharged with magic when two bands who love each other share the stage for a concert. You’ve probably seen it many times in your experience. Another of those occurred Saturday, August 24, when The Reality and shoeless soul joined forces for a great night at Dunedin Brewery. The packed house soaked in that magic for four glorious hours.
shoeless soul led off the evening with what they claim is “Prozac pop.” What they really do is blend some great rock music with excellent lyrics and touches of reggae, funk, blues, and more. For this set, the quartet was augmented by Tina Praino, vocals, and Austin Llewellyn (Row Jomah) on keyboards. Both are frequent contributors, adding to the magic of the set.
Rene Schlegel (guitar) and Dave Gerulat (drums) match up so well on vocal harmonies and unison singing, and Praino was the icing on top of the vocal cake. The set was full of favorites such as “It’s All Good,” “Time,” and “Greed,” the opening of the set. Llewellyn knows the band’s catalog well and was a real asset, standing out on “Greed.”
“Smile” featured vocals from everyone in the band and a dynamic trombone sit-in from Dan Jones of The Reality. “Time to Move On,” like “Travellin’” earlier, hit that easy-going reggae groove. There was another trombone guest as David Tatro of The New Rulers lit up “Happiness.”
It’s easy to get caught up with guests and forget about the main dudes. These main dudes deliver wonderful positive vibes every time they hit the stage. Mike Ratza blows a ton of tenor saxophone, just part of shoeless soul’s signature sound. So is the man who holds down the low end with a never-ending smile, Sladjan Vidic. He is a beast. The best-attired drummer in Florida, Dave Gerulat, punctuates each song with perfection (a superb percussionist as well). And you almost don’t notice the excellent guitar work offered by Schlegel, whose singular vocal accent is just one more piece of this great puzzle.
As they closed their set with perhaps their best song, “Obviously Oblivious,” Ratza got in a great solo before the band left lots of space for Llewellyn on electric piano. Start to finish, a magnificent set.
[shoeless soul: It’s All Good, Time, Greed, Travellin’, Keep In Stride, Mr. Phillipie, Smile, Modern-Day Pioneers, Time to Move On, Happiness, Bubble Song, Obviously Oblivious]
The set break was short, as house sound engineer Chris Fama again worked his magic getting everything reset for The Reality. We were at DunBrew six of 11 nights, and he had everybody dialed in perfectly.
And out bounced The Reality, each member gloriously attired in a terrycloth hooded onesie (shorts), white with green stripes and adorned with their beloved pineapples and other fruits. They eased us into the set with a new tune, “Sweetness,” Dan Jones switching from guitar to trombone mid-song. Jones, drummer BA Jones (hereinafter referred to as BA), and Caleb Bone on bass all contributing vocals. Keyboard wizard Josh Kim and Bone got into a nice exchange of synths and bass.
The “easing in” didn’t last long as they segued directly into one of their best compositions, “All My Time,” as many in the crowd acted as backing chorus. Bone sang “Don’t Care Anymore” while Kim again danced over his keyboards. And then something happened. We firmly believe this is the fault of Guavatron, electronica jam masters from West Palm Beach. What had happened was that The Reality… went over to the dark side, to jamtronica! And it was awesome! (The Reality and Guavatron also love each other; polyamory is alive and well in the band world!)
“Set Her Free” introduced another new song, this time “Get Tipsy,” with BA on vocals and Bone on synth bass. Then out poured — by far — the weirdest song we’ve encountered (so far) from The Reality (and that’s saying something). It was called “Smelly Cat” and sounded approximately like that.
They followed that with their new single, a great funky dance tune titled “Wanna See You Dance.” Jones is a tremendous guitar player and can shred and play that chunky funky stuff with equal aplomb. That yielded into the “Night Rider” theme, then more jamtronica, finally into another of their true “hits,” “Sweet Tooth,” Jones gyrating on trombone.
There was old-school goodness with “Right Place, Wrong Time” and a “Let’s Groove > Fantastic Voyage > Let’s Groove” sandwich and a new ballad called “This Too Shall Pass.” As the witching hour approached, “I Can Dig It” led to even more jamtronica with “Multiplayer” and then a synthesizer tour de force by Kim on “Hall of the Mountain King” (Grieg from Peer Gynt Suite). And that led to a drum feature by BA, always the intro to closer “Dancin’ in D.”
You bands just keep right on loving each other, ya hear?
[The Reality: Sweetness > All My Time > Really Don’t Care > Fat Fanny Pack, Set Her Free > Get Tipsy, Smelly Cat, Wanna See You Dance > Night Rider > Sweet Tooth, Right Place, Wrong Time, This Too Shall Pass, Let’s Groove, I Can Dig It > Multiplayer, Keep the Faith > Hall of the Mountain King > Dancin’ in D]
