Chicago based fusion band Kick the Cat made a stop in Albany NY at the newly renovated Lark Hall for their second show of the tour on Friday night. It's not often these days that I discover a band that I love, but also get to see them live. The quartet came ready to play and tore into a number of tracks from their 2021 release "Gurgle".

They kicked things off in rocking fashion with "Ow! My Eye" and played their asses off the next two hours. I was dazzled by the stellar musicianship, and the groove they seemed to find together. The songs are catchy, but leave plenty of room for the members to play and improvise off of each other. There were a number of audience members dressed in Umphrey's McGee attire who came to see drummer Kris Myers, and got in the spirit by spinning and dancing in front of the stage the entire evening. Guitarist Chris Siebold was the master of ceremonies, talking with the crowd between songs, and he is one hell of a guitarist. Siebold seemed to get lost in the music as he unleashed his amazing and seemingly effortless lead work throughout the evening. The band is rounded out by bassist Chris Clemente and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak. I was mesmerized for most of the evening watching these masters at work.

Lark Hall is in the heart of Albany NY, and the venue has been restored and equipped with state of the art sound and lighting. I had never seen a show at this venue and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. A spacious room with high ceilings, it is a perfect setting for shows, and hopefully they will be aggressively booking. Local band NEQ (Hudson Valley Based) opened the show with their original instrumental music that blended a number of styles. Guitarist Todd Nelson has an impressive resume (NRBQ, Aimee Mann) and was a member of local legends Fear of Strangers. I came away so impressed I bought the bands CD "Nevertheless". What a great night of music!!

Eric Porter