Crumb Clashes Jazz, Psych and Alternative Rock to Create Something New

Last Saturday, Denver’s Hi-Dive hosted 3 bands: Don Chicharrón, a local band, Crumb, a Boston-based band, and Combo Chimbita, a band I unfortunately did not have the pleasure of seeing.

 

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Photography by Sandisz Thieme

Don Chicharrón, self-proclaimed “jungle music warlords,” have a sound rooted in traditional Peruvian Cumbia pop and Psychedelia. In other words, super-fun Peruvian dance music.

Don Chicharrón, a nine-piece band, included a synthesizer, drummer, a bongo drummer, another percussionist, a bassist, a guitarist, another guitarist, a lead singer who also played guitar (making 3 guitars total), and a singing and dancing parrot-man. All of them in Hawaiian-print t-shirts or vacation-style button downs, beige khaki pants, and white shoes – except the parrot-man who was in, well, a parrot costume.

These nine energetic and colorfully-costumed members all dancing and/or singing (mostly) on stage was more than enough to get the whole venue singing and dancing along(although all of the music was in spanish so more dancing than singing as far as the crowd goes).

Crumb, on the other hand, brought a totally different vibe. The Boston-based quartet delivered some jazz/psych/alt rock with some pop-ey undertones that kept the people going.

Live, Crumb may not have been as explosive as Don Chicharrón, but their sound was excitingly unique. The 4 members met while studying at Tufts University in Boston and started playing together “out of a love for [Lila’s] songs, but then it morphed into this creative process that turned into being a band,” bassist Jesse Botter said to Paste magazine. They formed the band not out of common musical interests, but out of genuine love for the lyrics singer/songwriter Lila Ramani had written. The differences in taste make for a very interesting sound, clashing freeform jazz, psych, alternative rock, and a sprinkle of pop music to create the band we know today as Crumb.