Jimmyjohn McCabe

ALBANY -- The ``Looking For Answers'' tour stopped at Albany's Palace Theatre Thursday night, but ``Looking For An Audience'' might have been a better moniker. I've seen more people in the place for a soundcheck.

The final tally of fans numbered about 400, which is too bad really because overall it was a pretty sharp show and a chance for the local music fan base to prove itself. It seems that ``Rock The Vote,'' the organization behind the tour, probably didn't register too many folks either.

The four-date tour is made up of four regional bands; all of them stalwarts of the great Northeast ``freak'' scene -- varied acts lumped in as sons of the Grateful Dead because of their tendency to jam away into the wee hours. Each night features a different running order, and that order is not released so that fans will give each band equal attention while waiting for their fave to appear.

Collectively the groups -- moe. (from Glens Falls), Ominous Seapods (from Albany), Moon Boot Lover (from Woodstock) and Yolk (from Binghamton) -- have caused enough of a stir to prompt a feature article in the Village Voice. moe., on its own, regularly sells out multiple shows at 1,000 seat venues in New York City, and the other acts do just fine on the road as well. But they just couldn't draw a crowd in their own back yard.

The audience was overwhelmingly young too, suggesting the bands' carefully cultivated bar mates wished to wait around for the next beer fest rather than sit down downtown. It probably didn't help matters that each of the acts will be playing their regular haunts in town within the next month. Maybe the tour should have just stopped at one of those clubs -- Valentine's, Bogie's, Saratoga Winners -- and packed the place rather than swimming around in the empty goldfish bowl of the Palace.

The concert wasn't so much about the crowd, however, as it was about music.

Yolk was up first, which was just too bad for everybody else, because they're simply the best band of the scene, and they were burning on Thursday.

They meld more influences per square inch. They funk better. They rock better. And they certainly freak out better.

Yolk sports a horn section in addition to a dazzling pair of guitar players, and it is that mess of interplay that make them shine. Frank Zappa is an obvious influence on the entire scene, but Yolk is the only act that can ape the man and his band in their prime.

Moon Boot Lover took over the stage from Yolk and proceeded to take the energy level right into the basement. It's no secret that this band is on the cusp of breaking up, but if the Palace date was any indication it's no big loss. They call it funk. I call it boring.

moe. put things back in place. They have the most straightforward rock sound of the bunch -- lots of touches of Southern boogie and '70s guitar effects -- and that's probably why they've landed a major label deal. There's something Phish-y about their vocal interplay, which is another calling card that will only bring them more fans.

The stage smoke got a little thick during their set, but their toothsome guitar duels were not obscured.

Ominous Seapods closed the show with a tight set that paced zippy, twisted pop songs between loping, loopy jams.

Guitarist Max Verna sang ``Anything Is Possible'' and then proved it with his guitar, seemingly tearing every note out of the thing while swinging back and forth from his waist. Outside, nature proved its possibilities, too, during his solo as Earth cast its shadow over the moon. Verna didn't seem to notice though. He was too busy casting his shadow over the fretboard.




- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)

Yolk emerged as the best combo on Rock the Vote's four-band Looking For Answers tour when it stopped at the Palace Theatre last month.

And now Yolk is headed back to town tonight for a gala Halloween bash at Valentine's (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany) to prove that that show was no fluke.

The multi-faceted, horn-fueled Yolk -- who hail from Binghamton but play in the Capital Region frequently enough to qualify for honorary local band status -- are often lumped in with the wave of neo-groove-oriented bands like moe. who are stepping beyond the regional level and into the national spotlight. But in truth, Yolk is more akin to the wonderful weirdness of Frank Zappa than the undulating groove of the Grateful Dead.

Following their self-titled '93 debut and their '95 sophomore effort, ``Caution: Social Prescriptions May Case Side Effects,'' Yolk has just unleashed their third album, the aptly titled ``Individually Twisted,'' which the band recorded just down the road at the ClubHouse in Germantown.

Blending together elements of jazz, hard-core, alterna-rock and ethnic musics, ``Individually Twisted'' should earn Yolk the kind of national attention that the band deserves.
- Albany Times Union