Megafaun at Club Garibaldi
The building blocks of 20th-century American music—jazz, blues, folk, and country—have been reinvented, re-imagined, and reconfigured so many times that you’d think these powerfully fertile forms would finally be exhausted. And then along comes North Carolina (via Eau Claire) psychedelic Americana trio Megafaun, who conjure the ghosts of our country’s vanished traditions and lead them into a mysterious, weird, and thoroughly exhilarating future on last year’s excellent Gather, Form & Fly. Fearlessly melding banjos with laptops, back-porch harmonies with squalling noise, and experimental soundscapes with salt-of-the-earth songwriting, Megafaun makes music that’s tremendously warm and inviting and yet strangely alien and otherworldly. Imagine extraterrestrials coming to this planet in 2310 and trying to piece together their own form of bluegrass music, and you start to get the picture.
This might all sound a little heady, so it’s also worth mentioning that Megafaun’s mind-blowing set Tuesday at Club Garibaldi also including a rousing chant of “Fuck Gary Sheffield!” amid an ongoing onstage discussion of ’80s-era Brewers. The band clearly was enjoying being back in its home state for a series of shows—including stops in Eau Claire today and Madison on Thursday—and the audience responded in kind, laughing it up during the frequently hilarious between-song banter and standing in rapt attention during the songs, which were mostly culled from Gather, Form & Fly.
Opening the set with the gentle guitar and banjo interplay of the album’s title track, Megafaun sounded so delicate and quiet that the squeaking of the side bar door threatened to drown the music out. The audience, however, didn’t make a peep; as the song swelled, and brothers Bradley and Phil Cook raised their voices in perfect harmony with drummer Joe Westerlund, the bustle of the outside world quickly melted away. From there Megafaun blasted into some backwoods foot-stomping music on “The Process,” and then shape-shifted into the topsy-turvy acid-head suite “Impressions Of The Past,” which took on a whole new life and sense of purpose live. Here, Megafaun’s debt to the Grateful Dead seems most apparent, though “Impressions Of The Past” can’t be accurately described as a jam song. It’s too composed for that; maybe it’s more like Smile-era Brian Wilson producing The Band.
But, really, Megafaun shouldn’t—nay, can’t—be compared to anyone else. It’s not often that you come across a band that seems genuinely unique and groundbreaking—while also not having its head stuck deep inside it’s own backside—so Megafaun should be treasured and closely followed. The gorgeous new song “Volunteers” from the forthcoming Heretofore suggests that Megafaun might only be beginning to hit its stride. You’d be well advised to join them on all future journeys into the unknown.
Opener Conrad Plymouth has been an increasingly ubiquitous presence in local clubs lately, and the constant gigging appears to have paid big dividends. The lineup currently backing up singer-songwriter Christopher Porterfield has been in place for about six months, and the strides it has made as a live unit in such a short time are tremendous. Anchored by scene veteran Damian Strigens on drums, Conrad Plymouth attacked Porterfield’s songs with a newfound sense of focus and force, giving uplifting tunes like the de-rigueur set-closer “Fergus Falls” the anthemic treatment they deserve.
