Tea Leaf Green's 2004 double disc Live at the Independent is a live album that captures the band in its element. With the jamband genre void left blasted wide open with the departure of Phish after a mud soaked bow in 2004 and the ever widening void between Bob Weir and Phil Lesh (along with Phil's ongoing health issues) making the likelyhood of any post-Jerry regrouping of the Dead more and more unlikely, people are looking for alternatives to grab the helm. Welcome bands like moe., the on and off Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident et al. Underneath the obvious behemoths though, are a 100 bands riding the scene and its passion for the live show. Enter Tea Leaf Green, formed in 1999, but really not making a big noise until 2004 and there major 2005 studio release Taught to Be Proud. Live at the Independent came out right before and shows a band simmering and at times exploding at its pinnacle. The guitar work here is great, mixing funk, rock and straight out space jams. Is it heavy, yep...does it funk, yep...is there a laid back GD feel, yep..does it have hip-hop, yep...huh, yep...Live at the Independent has everything. The only pigeonhole I can stick is with the 2 hip-hop takes on Snoop and Planet of Green Love, which I feel are a little too obvious and immature in the context of the rest of the show. YA, we get it, you smoke weed, we smoke weed, weed is cool, people who smoke weed are cool...move on. But I guess a little comic relief is all part of the Tea Leaf Green live experience, which ranks high on the board. The beauty of this album is being able to listen to a band cresting, about to catch the wave. It's pure liquid energy from beginning to end, with a few bows to the sunny, pastoral hippy vibe that began the scene in the first place. Good Stuff!

The band has just released a new live DVD/CD combo called Rock n' Roll Band, directed by Justin Kreutzman (yep, GD's drummer's boy) that is getting some great reviews. I haven't seen it yet, but I will and I am sure I can recommend it as an armchair companion to seeng the real thing.

Check It Out:

http://www.tealeafgreen.com/

http://www.tealeafgreen.com/dvd.php#rock-n-roll-band

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8578539219782582796

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8865272161607354341