Bambara, 1.25.09

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Here’s Bambara in a nutshell: frenetic drums, fuzzy bass and screeching guitar form a wall of sound. Singer Reid B. paints punkish vocal graffiti on the wall. The wall is illuminated at various times by a naked light bulb placed behind the drum kit, which is switched on at key moments of each song. It shines through the clear drum kit and makes for a sweet visual effect to match each song’s punked-out psychedelia.

Let’s talk about those frenetic drums first, because they are the first thing you will notice about Bambara. Drummer Blaze absolutely beats the shit out of his kit, which is clear and looks like it’s made out of plastic or something. Somewhere, John Bonham is smiling when he sees how hard this kid hits the drums. Bass player William actually had to help Blaze keep control of his kit, as the bass drum was moving under the force of punishing kicks. The drums provide the energy to balance the band’s otherwise psychedelic edge.

"... he struggled to get rid of horrible amp noise, which sounded approximately like putting your ear to a conch shell and hearing kittens being fed into a jet engine.”

William’s bass sound is heavily influenced by his “Big Muff Pi", the famous fuzz pedal from the 1970s. He keeps it right next to the footswitch that controls the lights, and generally stomps on both at the most intense section of each song.

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As a guitarist, Reid is definitely from the Kurt Cobain school of tone. He favors harsh distortion and oddball, pawnshop effects pedals. Unfortunately, equipment difficulties finally forced him to abandon the pedals and plug straight into the amp, abandoning the effects which make up a big part of Bambara’s psychedelic punk sound. I felt bad for Reid as he struggled to get rid of horrible amp noise, which sounded approximately like putting your ear to a conch shell and hearing kittens being fed into a jet engine.

As a singer, and Reid would probably kill me for saying this, but I would compare him to Jared Leto -- not on “My So Called Life”, but on his musical project 30 Seconds to Mars.

Despite their equipment struggles, Bambara finished the night strong with a crowd-pleasing cover of “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads. William thumped appropriately on the iconic bass line as the crowd sang along with this in-your-face version. When it comes to intensity, Bambara was clearly “fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better” than the original.

For more info, visit: myspace.com/bambaraband