When the last note hit, the dingy and sweaty room exploded into applause, and the whole band began pacing on stage, grabbing cords and gear. “Encore, encore!” Sloan Hill said, and as they began playing the opening chords to something saccharine, they quickly corrected themself: “I’m just fucking with y’all.”
On Saturday, September 28th, Mockjaw—the young Jazz-fusion band featured on our very own Local Live—played at the Pearl Street Co-op to a room packed with easily 50-70 people, a shockingly large crowd if you only considered their 9:45 showtime. But that audience knew that, as soon as you see Mockjaw on the flyer, you must show up in time for their set.
Mockjaw’s act feels highly personal, with each member and each instrument responding to each other as if they’re having a conversation. They follow flights of fancy, jam with their own songs, and have an envious amount of fun on stage. Each member of the band contributes and each member is notably given their time to shine.
Sadly, when I saw Mockjaw at Pearl Street, they didn’t have their keyboardist Keith Galloway. Galloway was dearly missed on the ivories, but I was incredibly impressed with what happened that night in their absence. For those forty-five minutes, the audience was enraptured by their sound.
The participants may have changed, but the conversation was as stunning as ever. It seemed to me that drummer Colin McCord had taken the role of conductor, keeping both time and balance on the tracks and at points coaxing out the other instruments’ solos.
It was the kind of show where you look down, awash in sound, consumed by the desire to frame your neck, and let it hang, gently bobbing even a couple seconds after the song is finished.
In Mockjaw’s performances, they’ll often allow a dynamic, versatile solo from the keyboard, drums, bass, or guitar to act as vocals in the jam. These monologues stretch the band, the other instruments making room for the soloist. Of these solos, the bass is the least common. But at Pearl Street, it was clear that bassist Tanner Hoyt was set to fill the silence in Galloway’s absence. Hoyt took a couple of solos that night, switching between bass and guitar, playing his parts as well as Galloway’s.
Interviewing Hoyt a week after the show, he told me: “I always miss Keith when they aren’t there, but when they can’t make it I’ve been playing guitar and bass at the same time doing Keith’s job and my bassist job…it’s super fun!”
When the last song started, the audience wasn’t quite sure if it was an encore or part of the set list. (It was a Pearl Street gig, after all.) Still, the heads started bobbing, and our crowd pushed forward. The conversation took over the space and ended in a beautiful duet between Hoyt’s bass and Hill’s guitar. Then, that last note hit.
With their next single Ego coming out soon, I can’t wait to see where Mockjaw goes next.