Sound: Banyan is a project centered around drummer Stephen Perkins, and energized by the bass playing of Mike Watt. Their sound is somewhere inbetween jazz, funk, techno, psychedelic rock, punk, and virtually everything else. The guitar playing is amazing, due to the presence of Nels Cline, the guitar player in Wilco and a few of his own side projects. His blend of unique genres contributes very much to the sound of this album especially. Mike Watt's mastery of the bass guitar is demonstrated to its fullest, and shows chops you didnt think were possible on an indie album. for a live album, it's mixed remarkably well, and given the nature of the group, its very high-energy and pumped up. The band is also remarkably tight and responsive to eachother. // 10
Lyrics and Singing: This is an instrumental album, therefor there are no lyrics, however as mentioned before, its a very responsive group. In many a solo, you hear Nels and Memphis Willie(trumpet) shooting riffs back at eachother, playing copycat and syncopating with eachother within eachothers solos. This makes for a very cool sound, and demonstrates the caliber of the band members, who are all extremely talented. I'll give it a ten since I dont want to lower the percentage of the review. lets just say, if they had lyrics, they'd be awesome. // 10
Impression: Compared to other Banyan albums, I think this one kicks total ass. The studio CDs are good, interesting, etc, but none of them are even close to the liveliness and exploration of "Live At Perkins". I think one thing very special about Banyan is what they really are a jam. They didn't seem to show that as much on their other albums, although I think it's their most valuable and special trait. What impressed me was the range of music, going from funk all the way to moody Spanish sounding slow jams. I don't know what I'd do without this album, it's inspirational, beautiful, and always in one of my CD players. // 10
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