Boss Tweed Twist Sweet Pain at Ortofest (2008)

Location: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: April 2, 2008
Attendance: 60
Ticket price: €7.00

Boss Tweed, the intriguing Brooklyn trio from New York that plays an extremely seductive blend of blues, rockabilly, surf and rock n’ roll, is the kind of band we rarely see on Slovenian stages. The trio came through for a short Slovenian tour with four shows in total (part of a wider European run), and it didn’t skip the traditional Ortofest in Ljubljana.

This is a trio with a completely original style running through their own repertoire, seasoned musicians who also work and collaborate outside Boss Tweed in various other projects and genre bands, so there’s hardly any point wasting words on the high pedigree of the individual members. Still, it doesn’t hurt to point out a few “basic facts”. The heart and soul of the band is the boss herself, Carolyn Sills, a singer with special charm and charisma, and her seductive, sensual, erotic soul voice, which makes no secret of longing and pain, is one of the defining features of Boss Tweed’s outward identity. Keeping her company are the likable guitarist Gerard Egan, a refined master of technique when it comes to blending rock n’roll, rockabilly and blues on his Gretsch Hollowbody guitar, and the versatile drummer Eric Reed.

The follow-up, the swaying, passionate and more melodic Bottles & Cans, also from the EP “Lie to Me”, quickly shifted the playing intensity up a gear. With the intriguing crossing of surf and rock’n roll that Gerard laid under Carolyn’s vocals, the guitar showed just how important a factor it is in building the basic identity of Boss Tweed (alongside the vocals). Gerard above all, with his refined sound, is the one who fantastically brought the late fifties and early sixties back to life with natural, metallic, deep-ringing tones. The basic framework of the songs isn’t that convoluted as far as chords go, but Gerard kept impressing with all sorts of tricks that smashed the cookie-cutter predictability of the basic guitar phrases and thereby justified them. Most of this magic came from Gerard’s use of tremolo on his gorgeous orange Gretsch beauty, which felt like the massive brass door handle of grandma’s safe in the attic of some godforsaken vineyard cottage somewhere in the Tolmin-Kobarid hills. He approached the whole thing with exceptional control, softness and sensuality. Not a drop of saccharine anywhere. Playing with real taste, and it was especially breathtaking how he fused elements of blues melos with surfy tunes, and a few times the guy also cut loose with some rocker tones. When he’s not with Boss Tweed, Gerard actually plays in a “Guns N’ Roses tribute” band called Mr. Brownstone, which earns bonus points for his versatile guitar expression.

As a compact threesome, Boss Tweed really did pull in the people present, just with their uniqueness alone. They came across as natural and real, and that’s why the appeal worked, on me personally, almost hypnotically.

Gerard and Carolyn had their effects pedals set up right on top of the amp heads rather than on the floor, as is usually the custom. Apparently they’d been warned beforehand that we Slovenes like to spill beer when we get rowdy at gigs. Besides that, the duo several times showed how well their differing vocal colors go together, especially in the moments when they took on harmonies in joint duets (I Never Cared For You). Boss Tweed also confirmed their musical artistry with covers, which they wrapped in a disguise all their own. Mona Lisa – originally by Nat King Cole – was particularly on fire.

The crowd kept a firm distance of about 3 meters from the stage the whole time. That was down to poor familiarity with the band, and perhaps also the general mood of mourning and pain the band created during their set, which kept heads (and little heads) in the small hall of Orto Bar from accidentally overheating and their actions from slipping out of rational control. Still, the surf and rockabilly rhythms had an intoxicating effect, and in the second half of the gig some three couples decided to show the world their dancing skills. Otherwise the crowd stayed rather cool toward the band throughout, and there was hardly any applause even between songs, except at the end, when the band played an encore and closed the show with a rock-charged medley of instrumentals.

The sound during the gig was downright ideal for a club atmosphere. Boss Tweed created it themselves in just ten minutes of “sound check” beforehand, supervised by drummer Eric. During the show they didn’t need a sound engineer at the mixing desk at all.

The performance by the likable Boss Tweed conjured up a one-of-a-kind atmosphere, a special musical extravagance that only this band possesses. With a fusion of different musical influences, which gives the band the room to maneuver it needs for its own development and for keeping a recognizable identity, the musicians co-created an extraordinary dynamic interweaving of moods and brought it unforgettably to life in Orto Bar. As said. In the moment. Totally their own and seductive under the skin.

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