The road may only let you go 65 but Eminence Ensemble at Summit Denver will have you raging at 100 all night long!
On the last day of November, Denver was graced with one monster of a co-headlining bill when Eminence Ensemble and Magic Beans graced the stage of Summit Music Hall to play the month out in style. Starting their set off, Eminence Ensemble prompted the crowd to settle in for their feature experience with the iconic drum march of the “20th Century Fox Introduction” theme ringing through the speakers. After the triumphant introduction, the band got down to business as the grizzly opening riff to “The Road” started up the crowd. Following the strong opener, the band settled into “Hacer Sex”, a cosmic voyage of an instrumental that entranced the crowd which was rapidly packing in and getting denser by the minute. As the band cruised through the peaks and valleys of the tune, the crowd felt like it was truly coming alive as hands flung exuberantly in the air, pumping with the bands every beat.
Eminence kept the energy level high, seguing immediately into an upbeat new song which is currently untitled. The tune fluctuated between a synthy space-rock vibe to more funky solo sections with hip-hop beats. The tune was executed impeccably and had a good placement in the set to keep the crowd moving. Stopping for mere seconds, the band then launched into their cover of Steve Miller’s “Swingtown”. Taylor’s strong vocal work on the intro called the crowd to attention and had them mimicking his roaring Oh’s. The song led into a blissful prog-rock jam which helped the band stamp a bit more of their identity onto the cover tune. As the jam darkened and began to move further into the pocket, the crowd went with them, slowly picking up pace and rhythm, fully engaged in the performance. Eventually this transitioned into my personal favorite tune of theirs, “My Own Hell”. The chorus is a soaring vocal feat with a fierce melody that is pretty much impossible to keep out of your head. The song would fit perfectly in pretty much any 80’s action movie. Frankly, this song would have even ripped in “Flashdance”.
The next section of the set contained some of the more interesting musical moments of the show. “The Way” featured an interesting outro which sounded like they were jamming on electronic rain-drops. It may have been a marimba but honestly, I couldn’t see, either way it sounded great and I wished it would have gone on for another couple of minutes. After the super fly “Swimsuit” the band went into another epic, “Clarity”, which featured one of the best keys solos of the evening. As the song galloped a long through its various phases it constantly felt fresh. The jam in the middle has several builds with satisfying pay-offs which all coalesce in the outro’s strong vocal harmonies.
Loosening things up, the band performed the Steely Dan classic “Josie”, once again injecting their flavor of funky prog-jams into the mix and making the song very much their own. Closing things down, the band gave the crowd one last instrumental to dance to in the form of “Wunderbar”. Whirling guitar solos over tightly syncopated percussive rhythms brought everything home as the band put the finishing touches on a set that never seemed to let off on the accelerator. When your night starts with a set like this, you know you’re in Denver.
Eminence Ensemble | 2018-11-30 | Summit Music Hall, Denver, CO
-= One Set =-
01. 20th Century Fox Intro >
02. The Road
03. Hacer Sex >
04. New Song (Untitled)
05. Swingtown (Steve Miller Band cover)
06. My Own Hell
07. (Banter)
08. The Way
09. Swimsuit
10. Clarity
11. Josie (Steely Dan cover)
12. Wunderbar
Thanks to Eminence Ensemble and Summit Denver for supporting taping/sharing shows. Go see live music and tip your bartenders! #spacetapes
LINK: https://archive.org/…/Ensembe2018-11-30.AKG.P170.CA14.cards…
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