5 Man Trio Reunion

5 MAN TRIO: REUNION

Metro Coffee

Hutchinson, KS

© Lydia Lowe 6/30/2012

5 Man Trio-Reunion . . . Metropolitan Coffee played host to this group on Saturday night and this was a show for the record books, if for no other reason than these three guy (Gary Gackstatter, Dave Bostwick, and Chris Mayer) played non-stop for three amazing hours.  Half way through the show one of the barista's from Metro Coffee joined in on his saxophone and the 5 Man Trio briefly became the 6 Man Quartet.  As the band's shirt says," do the math"!

     These guys are great.  When the band began to play they had this instant connection with the audience.  This is a rare quality that I've only witnessed a few times.  It is magical and instantly it's like the band just showed up to play in your living-room and hang out with you.

     Of course with all band these days, there are the usual cover tunes.  Although even then, 5 Man Trio didn't cover the "usual" cover tunes that bands generally play. It was an eclectic mix of everything from "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" by The Beatles to "All Along the Watchtower" which was covered by both Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.

     There were a couple of really hilarious tunes toward the end of the show, "The Perfect Man" which had ties to Ike Turner and Gary sang a portion of the song doing Ike Turner and Tina Turner's parts, together.  And of course, no 5 Man Trio show would be complete without "The Weenie Song".

     Mixed in with all this craziness was lots of solid original music with strong tunes and lyrics that made sense.  At one point, Chris was playing his modified drum kit with one foot playing part of the tune on cymbals, he added in his other foot on the big drum with another part of the tune, finally adding a third portion of the tune with his hands on bongo's.  Each portion of the song was in a different rhythm.  It was truly awesome to behold.  Another song that I really enjoyed, (unfortunately I didn't get the title) started out with one rhythm, switched to a faster jazzier beat, switched again to another tempo and returned finally to the original rhythm.  It was like art for your ears!

     The group will play again on September 22 at an event called "Playing for Change" at Cowley College.  Check out this link: Playing for Change Fundraiser and go hear 5 Man Trio.  This group doesn't get together very often and when they do, it's an event not to be missed.