Guest post by Sabato of sabatobox.com:

Virtuosic jazz trio The Bad Plus recently paid a visit to the Northampton Iron Horse. Pianist Ethan Iverson, Bassist Reid Anderson and Drummer David King put on a fantastic concert of mostly original material for a warm audience of aficionados and assorted hipsters. The concert itself was in question early in the evening, as an afternoon lightning storm knocked the power out of the entire block. But that was no obstacle for the Bad Plus who offered a couple of “unplugged” songs in the dark, starting with their lovely arrangement of Stravinsky’s “Variation d’Apollon.” Once the lights returned, the band played an electric selection of old favorites, including “Empire Strikes Backwards,” “Giant,” “Cheney Piñata,” and per fan request, “Lost of Love.” They also played some of the bouncier tracks off their latest album Never Stop: “Beryl Loves to Dance” and “Super America.”

On stage, the trio share a charming chemistry: Iverson carries himself with a serious if somewhat ironic intellectual rigor, Anderson appears to be enclosed in a Zen bubble when he plays bass, and King’s wildly joyful drumming provides a great contrast, as he hovers over his drums layering beats with light speed and a unique exuberance that borders on jouissance. You can see for yourself with Audiocred’s first ever bootleg footage. The first is the classic Bad Plus song “And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation” and the second is the encore, a song from their new album titled “The Radio Tower Has a Beating Heart.”

Here are some of their in-studio offerings:

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(from their new album)

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