You hear the crowd noise first in the opening seconds to “One More Dance,” the second track on Live at Brooklyn Bowl 2.7.20 — the latest in a string of recent releases by the New Haven-based band Eggy.
“What’s up, everybody?” a voice says. “We’re Eggy, we’re happy to be here.” An organ jumps into a pulsing, bubbly line. A guitar adds to the sunniness. The drums first keep time simply, then they and the bass drop into the syncopations the other instruments set up. A sung verse is just a setup for a long excursion, as guitar, keys, bass, and drums weave together with enough groove to keep things going for 12 minutes.
“Years ago they said goodbye,” the voices in the band sing. “But I still came for one last ride.”
Eggy — Michael Goodman on bass, Jake Brownstein on guitar, Dani Battat on keys, and Alex Bailey on drums, with everyone partaking in vocal duties — has been on something of a ride since releasing its first self-titled EP in 2014. The band started making the rounds of Connecticut’s jam-bam scene, and quickly started releasing recordings of their live sets. Those recordings chart both the growth in the band’s popularity and its ability to stay connected to its New Haven roots. Five of its recordings from 2015 are of sets at Pacific Standard Tavern on Crown Street, but Hartford, Bridgeport and Burlington, Vt. show up in the mix as well. By 2017 the band had hit the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn and still managed to play in New Haven and Bridgeport steadily. The year 2018 found them on the much bigger stage of Toad’s. Last year the band released its first full-length album, Watercolor Days. By then, the band was playing Fairfield Theater Company’s big stage, Levitt Pavilion in Westport, and Great Scott in Boston, among other places. January saw the band travel to Florida.
On Brooklyn Bowl, it’s easy to hear why. The opening cut, “Buying Time,” shuffles along on a relaxed Bo Diddley beat before growing into a jam that features upward-curving guitar and organ before settling down once again into verses and traded lines. A cover of Blind Melon’s “No Rain” gives the swinging song a slight reggae tinge before the jams kick in and the energy rises. And the album’s closer, “Today and Tomorrow,” finds the band at its most relaxed, at the same time, its most intricate. The jams ebb and flow, from sparse and pointilistic to full and lush.“She’s yesterday, today, tomorrow,” the band sings in harmony, in a song that could be as much about the music itself as any romantic love interest.
Judging from Eggy’s prolific album releases and show schedule, Live at Brooklyn Bowl is likely not to be Eggy’s last release this year or possibly even this month. But it is a document of a New Haven band on the rise, heading up and down the Eastern seaboard but always circling back home. In March the band heads out to Chicago. April brings Eggy to Colorado, and May to West Viriginia for the first in a string of festivals that takes the band through the summer. No local shows are posted — yet. But if history’s any judge, whether at Pacific Standard Tavern, Toad’s, or College Street, New Haven will have its chance to see Eggy again.
Live at Brooklyn Bowl and other Eggy releases are available on Bandcamp. For show dates, visit the band’s website.
