Cameron Campbell, Geordie Greep, & Santiago Moyano

BY JORDAN MAINZER

See former black midi lead vocalist and guitarist Geordie Greep live, and you're reminded again he's not just the person from his solo debut The New Sound (Rough Trade), fascinated by and willing to dive into the mindset of creeps. Among other things, he's an Internet age expert troll, one with a sense of both humor and reverence. Greep is equally likely to interpolate or cover classical music and Chick Corea standards as he is a viral song he saw on Instagram or an ostentatious blues guitar lick from the 70's. He's also a dynamic player and music lover, enthralled by the prospect and result of jamming with his friends. Greep's and his incredible band's show at the Bottom Lounge on Wednesday night was an expert display of prog rock and Latin jazz and an exercise in showmanship.

Moyano, Greep, & Dave Strawn

With black midi, Greep had the type of crooner's voice and tweaking stage presence that made you think he could be from another world, not just another era, a phenomenon that's carried over into his solo career. On Wednesday, the band danced on to the stage, one step at a time, to Francis Monkman's "Taken", a cut from the soundtrack to John Mackenzie's 1980 gangster film The Long Good Friday. Before launching into The New Sound's "Walk Up", Greep improvised a self-described preamble about the Bottom Lounge and Chicago, rife with references to, yes, gangsters, Al Capone, and tommy guns. On paper, it sounds theatrical and ridiculous, but it had that same type of "What the hell is going on?" Twilight Zone effect that came over me the first time I saw black midi.

Strawn & Ethan Marsh

Chalk "Terra", then, as the exact moment Greep revealed a different layer to himself and embraced that aforementioned new sound, finding time to sprinkle dance moves on stage before picking up his electric guitar, percussionist Santiago Moyano and keyboardist Cameron Campbell taking their first solos. The song broke down into different jam sections, and Greep would lock eyes with Campbell whenever the band would return to the theme, smile, and cheer triumphantly. It was as thrilling to watch as it likely was for the band to play. With The New Sound, Greep's grown stronger as a vocalist, his mighty wail elevating "As If Waltz" and the riled-up "Holy, Holy". He's also wearing his influences more explicitly. Moyano led a cover of salsa legend Willie Colón's "Cua cua ra, cua cua", engaging in call-and-response percussion with drummer Charlie Schefft. The band also played "Parabola", an avant-garde jazz song written by Campbell, Greep and guitarist Dave Strawn, donning a Slayer tank top, shredding behind their heads. Put in a blender all of these seemingly disparate purveyors of instrumental dynamism, and you get somewhere on the track to Greep.

Campbell, Greep, & Moyano

By the time Greep and company got to the end of the show, performing The New Sound's climax, the 12-plus minute "The Magician", he and other band members started doing James Brown-style spins on stage. I couldn't help but notice that members of the crowd started doing them, too. It reminded me a little bit of the "Talk About My Kids" sketch from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, where Robinson's character takes his joked assignment to prevent Jason Schwartzman's dad character from talking about his kids at a party, a little too literally, Robinson becoming so ridiculous in his attempts to distract Schwartzman that other similarly aged men start to copy whatever Robinson's doing. Like Robinson, Greep has proved he can obsessively inhabit characters and amassed somewhat of a cult following, and he's easy to laugh with. The combination yields something off-kilter and, ultimately, captivating.

Greep