Who: Lotus
Where: Boot Pub
When: Saturday, Feb. 26
Tickets: $15
Jam bands love the Boot Pub. Repeat visitors Garaj Mahal have marveled in the past about the venue’s mellow wooden walls, which serve as a perfect container for lush, multi-layered hypnotic dance grooves.
As fans of live music of all genres in Whistler are well aware, the Boot is not long for this world. The pub and property’s 2003 sale to Cressey Developments has it slated for demolition and redevelopment. When that comes to pass, any Boot-type acts in demand will get picked up at alternate venues and the shows will go on. But the Boot itself as a room is inimitable and when it dies, a piece of perfect jam-band performance space dies with it.
It’s not dead yet, but with the end clearly in sight local jam fans should be thinking about squeezing out every last drop of Boot experience.
And this Saturday’s show is promising to be a particularly juicy peach.
Something groovy this way comes in the form of Lotus, an instrumental quintet purveying a heady organic cocktail of electronic-style house and drum ’n’ bass beats infused with jazz, funk and world music.
The resulting sound waves have been described as shifting "from spiritual and meditative to jubilant and energetic – from dark dance-floor burners to spaced out waves of ambience," drawing frequent comparisons with The New Deal.
Formed in 1999 in Colorado, Lotus released debut album Vibes in 2002, relocating to Philadelphia later that year. The band released follow up album Germination on Harmonized Records in May, 2003 gaining national distribution through the Home Grown Music Network – a discerning hub home to acts such as The Motet, The Codetalkers The Perpetual Groove and Boot boosters Garaj Mahal.
The band released third album Nomad last September. The first studio recording for Lotus, Nomad turned out to be Home Grown’s number one album of 2004.
"A head bobbing party album fit for a long drive down the interstate, a pre-game warm-up or even a shower serenade," declared Glide Magazine’s Chris Clark, honing in on the wide appeal the band has in both the dance clubs and on the jam festival circuit.
"We wanted to create an album that could complement most any listening situation," guitar player Luke Miller confirmed, "be it a dance party, headphones and a cup of tea, or road trip."
Despite acclaim for Nomad , Lotus remains a true jam outfit; the live show comes first and foremost, a crucial forum for the improvisational side of their progressive "organic, ambient trance-funk."
The Boot Pub has proven itself capable of nurturing whatever sonic innovations Lotus might have up their sleeves on Saturday night. Fans of jam would do best to realize what they’ve got before it’s gone.
Tickets for Lotus are $15 available at the club and online at www.upstreamentertainment.com.
