Taking full advantage of the three-day weekend, Mercury Lounge packed their July 3rd line-up to the brim, featuring Brooklyn-based psychedelic band, That’s Right. Other acts grooving at Mercury Lounge included Alex Rudin and his band, Shapes on Tape, On the Sun, and Banditas. The night was a well-crafted mix of jazz and funk, R&B, dance-pop, rock, and psychedelic rock.
That’s Right is an immediate rush, and plays out like an expedition with unexpected curves. The band features Griffin Novie on guitars, keys, and vocals, Dylan Bessler on drums and vocals, Artie Greenberg on bass and vocals, and Tyler Kamen on guitar and vocals. That’s Right carries the show with an element of swagger and sense of humor. Somewhere between meticulously harmonized vocals, an impromptu drum solo, and roaring guitar solos packed with reverb and dusted with distortion; memories of Frank Zappa and Jerry Garcia rise from the music.
That’s right finished with an encore of their song “Fear”, gently reminding the crowd that fear is only a temporary situation.
After the show, I had a brief moment to stop and speak with drummer, Dylan Bressler in order to get to know them better:
Michelle: Who are some of your influences? You guys seem to borrow from a bunch of different styles.
Dylan Bressler: As a band we really like Tame Impala, Blind Melon, Rush. We like Phish, the Grateful Dead. We like a lot of 60’s rock, 70s rock, little bit of 80’s rock, a lot of 90’s rock, and rock of today. Some of us like hip-hop, some of us like funk, jazz, blues, ska, punk. And metal.
M: I first saw you on Bridgeside Live and noticed all of you were singing. How do you come up with who sings what part when you’re writing?
DB: The main songwriters in the band now are myself, Dylan, and Griffin who plays guitar and keys. So if Griffin writes a song, which he writes more than half, he sings those songs and we’ll sing some back-up. I wrote a few of the songs, and I’ll sing that from the drumset, and then everyone else will sing some back-up.
M: You’re also a music therapist, that’s your day-job. Do you ever tie-in the music that you play with the band with the music therapy and vice-versa.?
DB: Definitely. Absolutely. Sometimes I’ll write a song and I’ll demo it out at work, and I’ll have one my clients– I’ll work with them on creating the song, even though I created it, and then it’s a song I plan on bringing to the band. So that’s how some of the things work. At work I can make music, and there’s no boundaries, and here I try to be creative as possible.
To keep up with That’s Right, make sure to follow them on their Facebook page.
Photo credit goes to Leonardo Mascaro Photography.
