Jam-band power trio LaMP made a stop at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale on March 8, illuminating the crowd with their wild originality.
The group is composed of drummer Russ Lawton and organist Ray Paczkowski, known for their work in Soule Monde and the Trey Anastasio Band, alongside guitarist Scott Metzger, best known from Joe Russo’s Almost Dead.
The trio first began performing together in 2018, when Lawton and Paczkowski connected with Metzger. What began as an informal musical collaboration at Nectar’s in Burlington, Vt., quickly evolved into a touring project built around deep improvisation and groove-driven songwriting.
LaMP’s main selling point is their chemistry. At the show, it is apparent how much each musician listens to the other.
During their many extended jams, the artists bounce melodies and rhythms off each other to see what sticks. There are few groups touring today that even come close to the togetherness exhibited in LaMP’s jamming.
The crowd at Mr. Smalls responded enthusiastically to the band’s exploration. During quieter passages, listeners leaned forward attentively, while the more funky sections sent dancers spinning across the floor. By the time the band locked into one of its deeper grooves, cheers erupted throughout the room as the musicians pushed the improvisation even further.
“Sometimes it just clicks,” said Lawton. “Fortunately, it’s amazing how that chemistry — either it’s there or it’s not. You play with somebody else and they don’t have that thing and it’s like, ‘Why am I not grooving tonight?’ It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not with my boys.’”
LaMP’s most recent album, titled “One of Us,” provides what the band sees as the cleanest “distillation of their sound yet.”
The album treads a lot of ground over its 10 tracks, beginning with “Cosmo,” a song which Lawton says rhythmically harkens back to his days in the Afro-fusion band Zzebra.
“We try to mix it up every night,” said Lawton, “but we love ‘Cosmo.’ We play that every night.”
The album shifts gears with the songs “Nice Girl (Walks Loud)” and “Jasper’s World.” The band refers to the songs as a “muscular Zeppelin stomp steamed into a humid shuffle.”
In “Nice Girl (Walks Loud),” Metzger’s heavy, fuzz-filled riff lines up perfectly with Lawton’s driving rhythm. Meanwhile, Paczkowski’s organ masterfully swirls in and out. Their live performance of the song at Mr. Smalls was even heavier than the album version; the band leans heavily into their rock ’n’ roll influences.
“Recording is like therapy for us,” Lawton said. “Everyone is always writing, and we’d built up a new batch of songs that we wanted to get down.”
LaMP’s live shows are a masterclass of being in the pocket.
The musicians listen very intently to each other, and it shows. From beginning to end, the band is fully locked in and ready to go where the music takes them.
Constantly ready to turn on a dime, the band keeps the audience guessing while still supplying some highly danceable tunes.
LaMP rejects the tight creative confines of the traditional funk-organ trio. They don’t sound like anyone else, and they like it that way.
