Review: Lotus in Buffalo, 10.20.09

We arrived at The Town Ballroom, to a line of people in costume. As we neared the front of the line we noticed a surprisingly heavy amount of searching by security. I was heavily patted down for what felt like two minutes. I was told I could not bring my camera into the venue, and I explained to the a gentleman holding the "press list" that I was on the list, but did not have a camera pass. Typically I can talk my way into or through any situation. Although tonight, with this extremely heavy security presence, it was not going to happen for The J-man.

As I headed back to my car a made a quick decision to swing by Lotus' bus to see if I could talk to someone about getting a photo pass. Luckily for me there were two gentleman stand next to the bus. One of the gentleman; Luke Miller,(who plays guitar

and keys for Lotus) was kind enough to walk around to the front enterance with me and get me and my camera into the venue. On the walk around the block Luke and I spoke of his opinion of tapers and distributing live music for free. His responses were exactly what I expected based on the amount of live recordings Lotus has on the Archive and etree. In fact about five minutes prior I witnessed Luke trying to talk a security guard into letting a taper into the venue (successfully). Thanks Luke, I do really appreciate your help getting the photo pass.

Once inside; the foyer open up to a circular bar in the middle of a large room strewn with cobwebs. Passing through that room and a ticket checkpoint we entered the Ballroom. A room with multiple levels and a very comfortable vibe, as well as an additional bar on both sides of the room. The opening band will go unmentioned...

... As Lotus took the stage the crowd was noticably excited. The first set had it's moments but overall I was not overly impressed. Their new drummer sounded good and will definately mesh well with the band, however there were a few moments of scrambling that stood out to me. Again, I think he will do the band well, it's just going take time. I thought all together the bands peaks were extremely well done and had the place moving. The new light rig served them well and really provided an awesome visual show.

The second set was a lot more intense, with more peaks and wailing. The jams seemed

more developed and seemed to take the crowd to a great place. Looking around there were lots of smiling faces and lots of movement. The second set went from song to song, through some of the more electronic down tempo sounds to the more natural guitar wailing. I thought the drums came together a lot better in the second set, and the lights really blew me away.