Sparkplug
Sparkplug
Inferno – Brattleboro, VT
July 1, 2011
Words and Photos by Sue Paquet
At Strange Creek Music Festival (Greenfield MA, in May) this year there was a band that played in one of the late night cabins some time in the evening of I can't remember what night it was. Though the hours and days had morphed into one great mass of brightly colored moments and dancing jingle jangles, there was a scene I specifically remember as I stood outside the mesh covered window of that late night cabin set. Though I was beyond tired and there was no good reason for me to have an ounce of energy at all, there was a sound coming from within this space that did not take long to recognize as something serious, and it crept up on me like some beckoning funky beat that you just can't ignore. I started to move, looking at the girl next to me who had pushed up a little closer to hear it louder too, we met eyes wide and heads nodding, that smile of 'hell yessss'.
The Beau Sasser Band. Who the heck was THIS? There was no way to bust into the crowd inside the doors, so we bee bopped on the grassy spot outside that window, occasionally getting smiles from the folks just inside the screen, who were loving their front row perspective of this, let me call it, ridiculous display of musical talent.
So when I found out that there was a show last Friday night at the Inferno in Brattleborothat featured Beau Sasser and company, I was there. They are a new band donning the name 'Sparkplug'...dubbed so in honor of the late great Melvin Sparks, who to those who were lucky enough to know his music, was known as a genius composer of funk and soul.
Sparkplug, a tribute band made up of members of the once Melvin Sparks Band, rocked the small stage of Brattleboro's Inferno until the crowd couldn't take any more...that is after two sick encores that took us well past our wildest expectations of what a set of keyboards is supposed to accomplish in a band.
But don't let my fascination with Beau Sasser’s keys make you think that this band is perhaps less talented in other areas. The rhythm section had a suprise for us, that in all truth seemed like a suprise to them as well when it was all over. Who knows how it started, but this banter of the beats between percussionist Jamemurrell (Jay) Stanley and drummer Bill Carbone turned into several minutes of pure unadulterated lust... rhythmic, tribal, conversational, syncopated drum love. It was a treat for us all who were there, standing stupified, myself ecstatic for having caught a bunch of it on video. It was like each of the musicians was stretching out their wings for the pure comfort of it, or there's an innate physical need to take the sound of their instrument to the edge of its capacity and ride it there for a while as the crowd just builds its love for this sound. 
Melvin Spark's heartsong. With this band, he can't be gone, his sound lives on. Well, I haven't yet mentioned the compelling performance of David Davis on sax, or the mellow guitar playing Ryan Hommel who sat on a stool midstage and hardly moved at all the entire performance except for his easy, nimble fingers on the electric strings.
Basically, this band is crazy good. People were freaking out on the dance floor. Everyone was having a blast. Music infected our deep human rhythms and the floor was a bouncin. The stomping brought an encore of rare Stevie Wonder and James Brown tunes from the vaults, dusted off and fresh like summer melons. After that, there wasn't much to say. Just don't forget to pay the tab. Support the new owners of Inferno who are doing a great service to us by keeping it alive in Brattleboro, bringing us fresh sophistocated music like that of Melvin Sparks, through Beau Sasser's sure-to-light-you-up-and-get-you-dancin', Sparkplug!
