Thankfully, there is Tea Leaf Green.

Guitarist Josh Clark, Keyboardist Trevor Garrod, Bassist Ben Chambers, and drummer Scott Rager even have that rock band look about them: the band is ripe with long and shaggy hair, homemade cutoffs, and 5 O'clock Shadow rivaling Springsteen at his scruffiest. Although the Green are recognized in the jam community as an up-and-coming force in the scene, this San Francisco-based quartet maintains its rock and roll roots. Rock n' roll, you say? Has the time for that passed? Is this not the era of jazz, funk, and organic trance? Fear Not the distorted guitar, fellow funk fanatics: if it is booty-shaking fun you seek, Tea Leaf Green will provide.

Having developed a respectable and loyal following in the Bay area, Tea Leaf Green took off for parts unknown this summer, finally finding themselves in New England, cradle of the second-generation jam movement. For two days, the Green brought their explosive brand of improvisational rock to the great state of Massachusetts: Sunday, August 11 at the Berkshire Mountain Music Festival and Monday, August 12 at Harper's Ferry in Boston.

Berkfest, according to band manager Alan Schnieder, was the focal point of their swing to the East Coast. It was with this in mind that the boys took the Hillside stage a little before noon on Sunday and shook the sleep out of all that would listen. While Berkfest '02 was brimming with the forerunners of the jazz/funk scene (Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Soulive, and MMW headlined the three days of the festival), Josh Clark's guitar let those first few notes rip accompanied by Rager's snapping snare, and the steadily increasing crowd began to boogie.

Don't make the mistake thinking that Tea Leaf Green puts out music that only pimple-faced, mulleted, angry teenagers listen to. While that population would probably dig it as well, the Green offers something that is very rock n' roll, yet much different than senseless crunch and dissonance. Coupled with technically sound playing and impeccable composition, Garrod and Clark offer buttery vocals and sweet harmonies to overlay thoughtful and mature instrumentation. Their collective demeanor, then, is something that appeals to pretty much everyone: accomplished musicians who have just enough Bad Boy in them to be wicked fun, and at the same time attentive and thoughtful enough to introduce to mother.

Tea Leaf Green's Berkfest set began for a sparse, sleepy crowd, but as the quartet forged onwards and upwards with an irresistibly fun on-stage presence and passionate classic rock licks and riffs, the crowd emerged from the shade behind the soundboard and began to get down. From the first song, both Garrod and Clark proved that they could lead the band skillfully into the tension-release jamming style that made bands such as Phish and moe. so popular. They did it, as the two aforementioned bands had, with a certain grittiness to their sound that the proponents of jazz/funk seem to leave out of the equation. More importantly, though, they played with a certain energy and urgency that comes with a band playing for fresh ears, trying to hook listeners into their magic and turn them into fans. And from where I stood near the tapers that scorching Sunday, it worked.

A simple rock n' roll formula is tweaked to Tea Leaf Green standards as they play. The boys have realized the power of catchy vocals, and use it to their advantage. Garrod, while letting fly inspired keyboard lines, will sweetly offer poignant and weighty lyrics that will inevitably catch somewhere in your brain and roll around for a while. When the traditional rock band will rely on simple fours and a standard syncopation, Tea Leaf Green throws in accents and emphasis to spice up their sound. Clark's guitar solos seem to have the same effect; his melodic phrasing has a certain maturity and patience to it not found in the wash of jazz solos on one end or in the guitar shredders of previous decades on the other end. The band will leave room for Clark's solos, as well as a chance for him to crank up the distortion on his Washburn (with lit cigarette stuck near the tuning pegs), throw his head back, and let fly notes that pierce the stratosphere, reminiscent of guitar-god yesteryear. This, coupled with Chambers dropping a low-end bomb on the bass at precisely the right time, made the payoff of the majority of the jams at Berkfest. Recommended listening is their set-closing tune "Freedom," which couples juicy lyrics and instrumental pyrotechnics to a rock and roll climax that is sure to make you yelp for joy and dance your pants off.

All who were smart enough to be awake and lucky enough to be in attendance had their Sunday start right at Berkfest this year. Tea Leaf Green's set was a refreshing dip into the improvisational rock and roll that many had forgotten or forsaken for the jazz/funk flurry. For even fewer, the Green kept things lively at Harper's Ferry in Boston the following night. And finally, before leaving Boston, Tea Leaf Green made a special on-air appearance on Live Live, complete with a lengthy, in-depth interview and studio performance. The band continues their first national tour and eventually will head home to California in September, but have planted a seed in many fans out on the east coast that will surely grow and peak interests, such that when the Green rolls into town next, more fans will know to make a point in seeing this forerunner in the new generation of improvisational rock bands.

Tea Leaf Green's interview and in-studio performance on Live Live will be available for download in .mp3 format in the coming days. Check out http://h0mer.etree.org/livelive for your Tea Leaf Green fix, as well as all the best in the live music community in the Boston area.

-David Taus