Three Quarters

By Dallas Embry

If you ever walk into a place and see a four-piece band set up with the drummer at the front of the stage with his back to the audience, you can be 90% certain that you are about to be treated to the sounds of Three Quarters.

I first heard these guys about a year or so ago when they played one of my Artist's Nights at Uncle P's and they knocked me out. They still knock me out.

They play Pink Floyd really well, they play King Crimson and Frank Zappa really well and they play originals that combine all three of those sounds while adding and intermingling their own.

Excellent musicians all, they are: Elliot Truman, lead vocals/keyboards; George Street, electric guitar; Andy Rademaker, bass; and the aforementioned drummer, Sam Gray, who also plays a glockenspiel.

They played heavy metal, '30s jazz, blues, rock and bebop —— and that was just in one song. Every tune they played was very well done and their originals are an incredible amalgam of musical styles a la Tiny Lights, but with less instrumentation.

Unfortunately for this piece of writing, the music went from my head to my feet and when you gotta dance, you gotta dance — and I did. That's why I don't have much detail about their songs even though they gave me a song list in advance of their performance.

So, if you want to hear songs with titles like "States of Confusion, Part VI," "Dr. Please and the Tall One," "Baby," "Penguins Paradise," "Uncle Fester's Room," "Dream with Me," "Mike's Night Out," and "Old Mother," you'll just have to keep your eyes open for a drummer with his back to the audience, or for their tape, Sunny Days, currently available from a band member.