Glen David Andrews courtesy of Tonya Armbruster
He said:
If I were a local real estate agent, I’d seriously consider setting up a table and chair on Frenchmen every Friday to catch people rushing out of Three Muses during the set break, frantic to sell everything and start a new life in NOLA. The energetic trombonist Glen David Andrews and the intimate Three Muses in combination are the perfect inducement to cast away whatever passes for regular life elsewhere.
We’d seen Andrews before, but in a festival setting. He is a tireless performer, and his approach is big enough to translate to an outdoor stage, which is not ideally suited to every musician. Anyone who snoozed through Emmylou Harris at Jazzfest a few years back will know what I mean. Rumor had it that his ongoing Friday set at Three Muses was electric, and we were eager to check it out. Compressing Andrews into this relatively small space on Frenchmen was likely to yield fireworks, we thought. We were correct.
Peanut courtesy of Tonya Armbruster
In addition to being one of the best new live music venues in town, Three Muses also happens to serve the very best bar food in town. Actually, calling Dan Esses’ creations bar food does them a disservice, as they routinely eclipse much of what is available in more sedate dining rooms around the city. More about the food in our detailed review here, but we’re all about the music today.
We arrived early, table-stalked for about twenty minutes during Hot Club of New Orleans’ early set, and were able to grab prime real estate by the front window, said window later proving to be an ideal dancing platform for my wife. As we settled in to a bottle of wine and a few bites, Chris Starnes appeared to say hello and let us know it was about to get very crazy very shortly. Sure enough, as 11:00pm approached it appeared someone had shoved a giant funnel in the front door and poured Frenchmen Street into it. Crowded it was. Crowded like Dave Matthews at Jazzfest crowded. And the tighter it got, the more intense the energy became.
The moment he jumped on the stage it was clear that Glen David Andrews is made for such an environment. Accompanied by another trombone player, a bassist, and a drummer, he launched into one crowd-pleaser after another, including a take on John Boutte’s Treme Song, I’ll Fly Away, and Saint James’ Infirmary, among others. Not content to be confined to the small stage, Andrews worked the crowd. He’d mentioned to us just before going on that the small venue allowed him at times to work without a microphone, and he took full advantage, moving through the masses and jumping up onto the bar, further amping the full house.
Pianist courtesy of Tonya Armbruster
As Andrews moved from one set to the next, he was joined onstage by other musicians and at least one Big Chief in the crowd. The raspy vocals, brassy tones, packed room, and exuberant patrons came together in a the whole is greater than the sum of its parts fashion, creating a Zeitgeist moment, one of those this is what New Orleans really is experiences. Much of that vibe is apparent in the terrific images captured from the band’s Three Muses performance the previous week, courtesy of photographer Tonya Armbruster. You can check out more from her at NOLAfleur.com., and you should. Oh yeah, and there’s no cover charge for this show. The ability to wander in (ok, shoehorn in) off the street and encounter music of this caliber is perhaps the most amazing thing about living in this maddening, seductive, intense city.
When Andrews was onstage there were occasional problems with his sound system, but that was the only drawback to what was easily the best live set we’ve seen so far this year. Three Muses would probably prefer I just keep my mouth shut, because I really can’t figure out how they can fit anyone else in there, but this has to be on the list of must see gigs in NOLA right now. It doesn’t get any better than this.
