TAUK Destroys The Funky Biscuit On 11.6.14

Posted 07 Nov 2014 in General News, News, Performance

Be warned in advance. If I get a little carried away and start rambling in this review it’s because TAUK left my jaw on the floor last night with the show they put on at The Funky Biscuit in South Florida. You’ve been warned.

TAUK blowing up at The Funky Biscuit in South Florida.

Let me start by saying that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard TAUK. I had the opportunity to (no pun intended) talk to guitarist Matt Jalbert this summer and since that point I’ve been listening to a decent amount of their music and watching a lot of clips of performances (if you want a good example look for their set from Summer Camp). But this is the first time I got to see them in person. Needless to say (but I’m gonna say it anyway) they were AMAZING!

So who is TAUK? If you go to their website they are described like this:

TAUK is heavy instrumental rock fusion created by Matt Jalbert (guitar), Charlie Dolan (bass), Alric “A.C.” Carter (keyboard-organ), and Isaac Teel (drums). The transcendent instrumental band seamlessly brings together genres as diverse as melodic rock, fusion, gritty funk, progressive rock, ambient, classic rock, hip hop and jazz.

That’s perfect but if I were to make any edits to the description you can bet I’d include the words Nasty, Funky and for some reason the word Stankface keeps coming to mind. You know ‘StankFace’ ie. the involuntary face you make when a band is in that pocket, grooving so hard and sounding so good that it confuses your senses for a second and all you can do is make that semi-confused face like you smell something terrible. Yet, its so damn good! If you need another reference basketball fans might refer to that facial contortion as the Dunkface. Anyway…we’re here to talk music not basketball.

Did you hear that?

What the hell did I just hear?

I planned on writing a review of the show but decided to go in a different direction. It’s still a review but I’m not going to break down every song because I could probably write 3,000 words about each one and who the hell has time for that? Instead I’m going to try and tell you more about what the music “felt” like.

The venue for the show was The Funky Biscuit. South Florida musicians and music fans are very familiar with this place because of the quality of local and national acts that are cool enough to roll through this part of Florida. As a music fan I can’t begin to explain how frustrating it is that so many bands skip South Florida because logistically we are so far out of the way. You almost have to either start or end a tour here to make it work and that sucks for me because I’d like to see more acts down here. Anyway…this isn’t an article about the state of the music scene in South Florida so back to the real story. My point was that The Funky Biscuit is a great venue that puts on a shit ton of great shows just about any night of the week.

One last thing and then I’m talking TAUK! The Fritz took the stage first and nearly blew the roof off the place. I know that’s very cliche to say but they did and when they left the stage I wouldn’t want to be in a band that had to follow that. I hope to talk to the guys from The Fritz soon so stay tuned for more about them. In the mean time check them out for yourself at their official website.

The Fritz rock The Funky Biscuit

After giving the crowd some time to catch their breath (cough cough Amendment 2) TAUK hit the stage. From the opening note to the very last cymbal crash they powered through a set that I don’t know I was fully prepared for…even after being quite familiar with their music. If you see enough bands play there’s usually at least one point in a set where you kind of feel a lull or things are dragging but I didn’t think that for a second last night…and judging from the way everyone in the room was grooving and rocking (including the band) I’ve got a feeling I wasn’t the only one thinking this. There were several instances during the performance where you could see various band members looking at each other with various degrees of smiles.

I bet if you could hear the internal dialogue of the band during those moments it would sound something like this.

Damn we’re jamming so fucking hard I need to catch the attention of my bandmate. Ah good…he’s looking my way. The look I throw back says ‘did you see/hear what the fuck I just did!?!’

The returned glances from the band say:

Holy shit man! I certainly did hear that! Now watch this…

I may be getting a little carried away here (I told you I was going to ramble) but I’ve seen enough shows to know when a band gets ‘IT’ and these guys seemed to have plenty of those moments last night. The way they play off of each other is so smooth and polished. If my memory serves me (and it’s quite possible that my short term memory might not be accurate if ya catch my drift…so I could be totally wrong) there was one point where something was screwey with Matt Jalbert’s guitar. No problem…the band didn’t miss a beat, Matt kept playing while the tech handed him a different guitar and then he was right back in the pocket. When I say smooth I mean friggin S M O O T H!

The music was tight, funky, loud, soft, high, low and they float through so many styles and genre’s even in a single song that its really hard to explain unless you just listen to them. I probably shouldn’t speak for everyone in attendance but in my opinion the crowd ate it up too! Nothing sounded forced and each groove and hook were so catchy that I woke up today still hearing them in my head.

The band went from one song to the next only slowing down for a quick shout out to the crowd (the only vocals of the night) between songs. That’s right. I said the only use of vocals during the show. They are a band without a singer which isn’t uncommon but it certainly isn’t easy to pull off and its equally as hard to hold the attention of a crowd without at least some lyrics.

This isn’t an issue for a band like TAUK…

Let me elaborate on that thought for a second. One of the people I met there is a fan of a certain type of music. At one point during the show she said “I feel like I’m at Burning Man.” It took a second for that to register but in my opinion what she meant was that the music grabbed you and you really didn’t have any choice but to move and dance. Talk about awesome….

I could keep going with this but I think you’re starting to understand where I’m coming from right? These guys know what they are doing and the music is top notch and fun and if you saw someone like say…D Wade at a show he would be leaving looking like this.