Brendan O'Hara and the Humble Ones
Brendanohara.org
For a piano-based trio, Brendan O'Hara and the Humble Ones can rock a room. Animated and expressive, O'Hara stands and delivers from behind his keyboards -- no piano stool needed for the lanky, bearded frontman, thank you -- a marked contrast to his stoic (but hardly static) rhythm section of bassist Billy B. Bowin and drummer Jon Weiner. Mixing elements of funk, rock, blues, jazz and hip-hop, O'Hara provides additional propulsion as he pounds the keys like a honky-tonk madman, sings in an emotive and bluesy shout and even rocks the mike like an MC when he steps out from behind his instrument. It's not as though Weiner needs the help, but O'Hara will steal a piece of his drummer's kit and perform a drum solo, too, as he did during a recent show at China White. The band has a new album on the way, following last year's Perceptive Inception, behind which the Humble Ones did an East Coast tour. And true to its name, the group has played tsunami and Hurricane Katrina benefits, as well as at their pal Aaron Jackson's Planting Peace fundraiser for an HIV orphanage in Haiti. Did someone say rock stars? Oh, hell yeah.
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