LIVE: Urban Gumbo @ River Street Pub, 9/29/13

Story and Video by Joel Patterson

A funny thing happens to a band like Urban Gumbo, when they are determined to make the album that will be their breakthrough. Everyone starts focusing very specifically, pouring all the psychic energy they can muster into creating this amorphous, vaporous thing – this pounding, throbbing beat that fills the room. They are dedicated to the proposition that this beat has a limitless, uplifting, mesmerizing force – if they do it right, everyone within earshot will be stunned and transported into another realm for a few minutes.

It’s always struck me how incredibly delicate this is: the fine, fine touch it takes to see that it unfolds just right. All the players really need to think as one – which obviously is the result of talent, skills and practice, practice, practice… but it’s something more – something subliminal and magical that will always be mysterious.

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LIVE: Urban Gumbo @ the River Street Pub, 9/3/13