Bakersfield band Soulajar: Big 2007 CD release at the Spotlight Theatre - By N.L. Belardes

Soulajar at the Spotlight

This was by far my favorite Soulajar performance. The Spotlight Theatre was packed. I had a full stomach. Joel Jacob opened the show and kicked his snare like a mad dog. Oh, and the Ska King was absent, which meant Big Ray of Bakotopia was the emcee.

By the time this story posts, Soulajar will still be getting their groove on down at the Spotlight...


Joel Jacob rocks the Spotlight Theatre

Let's start with Joel Jacob. He grew up partly in the South Pacific. I think I could hear the island influences, the island reggae riffs in his crooning. Yet he is more than just an island boy with a guitar strapped to his side. He's jazzy, hip-hop, funky, funny...



He sat and kicked a bass drum and snare while jamming on the guitar, singing, and stopping to blow some harmonica. That was just one song. He mixed it up here and there and I dug the past KELLY 95.3 winner's hip-hop the most. The crowd roared approval.



But then the mothership landed.


Close encounters with Soulajar

The lights dimmed. Blue sparkles of lights emanated from the stage. This was a full-on Soulajar production and I even heard someone from the crowd joke, "Aliens!" Well it was what Soulajar wanted anyway: a close encounter with their fans... and they did. Right away I jammed down to the front. I had an excuse: I had a camera in my hands. But really I just wanted an up-close peek of how these improvisational wizards of jazzody could rock (When in doubt with a word to describe the unexplainable complexities of improvisational jazz, just make up a word like "jazzody").







Seriously, I dug the deep soul voice of their guest, Jim Ranger. He hid beneath his hat, chomped his gum, sipped his water, then belted out some boisterous vocals that melted every girl in the audience.

If only he wouldn't have hid behind that hat.



Now, Soulajar is really made up of three core members: Brian Boozer, Ryan Fergon, and Greg Bettis. Guests at the Spotlight gig included Jim Ranger and keyboardist...? Didn't know his name. It wasn't Stacey Ericsson. Might have been Chris Pedersen.



As I mentioned, this was my favorite Soulajar performance. It wasn't just the cool lights shining up the scene. It wasn't just the packed house. It wasn't simply the smoky mood. It was the music of Soulajar. How can you go wrong with a song like "Jagerfunken", an instrumental with so much musical complexity and spirit that you wish you could just melt onto the stage with the sound and foggy lights...



More happy notes included I finally got my copy of the Soulajar EP that I thought would never come, and I got to see Big Ray, who is one cool cat with his band The Fuzzy Pink Slip-Ons...


Big Ray emcee talking to the audience and throwing out the bako-goods

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Saturday, February 10, 2007. You can leave your response.