MORE!, the latest project from guitarist Tom Hamilton (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Ghost Light), has maintained a bit of an allure over the past few years, playing only a handful of shows since its live-streamed debut in 2020. Friday night, the band made one such rare live appearance, with a two-set performance at the Ardmore Music Hall.
MORE! sees Hamilton reunited with musicians from his high school days, including Brothers Past keyboardist Tom McKee, along with brother Jim Hamilton on guitar. Fellow Ghost Light member Scotty Zwang handles drumming duty here as well, beside Joe D’Amico on bass. Fittingly then, the band seems to be an amalgamation of all older projects from Tom Hamilton, bringing the heartland Americana feel of American Babies, the sonic exploration of Brothers Past, and the darker dramatic touches of Ghost Light.
While MORE! brings again the heavily improvisational nature of all those projects, this time around the jams have a shoot-from-the-hip approach. Sounding slightly more raw and chaotic, just rough enough around the edges, Hamilton, his brother, and their bandmates keep a serious attitude toward creating fast-changing, melodically-filled grooves.
Coming with the advent of this new project as well are a handful of new songs in the Tom Hamilton repertoire, many of which were showcased at the Ardmore. “Utopiary Window”, clearly a favorite from the jubilation of the crowd, strikes close to the bouncy psychedelic sound of Circles Around The Sun. “Head Underwater”, by contrast, has the surlier intensity of the Brothers Past catalog, and it rounded out Ardmore’s second set with a big, multi-song sandwich. “Lady Elane”, the band’s encore send-off for the evening, put an uplifting coda onto a vintage prog rock sound akin to early Genesis or ELP.
Two unanticipated highlights of the evening came in a pair of Neil Young covers. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s “I Almost Cut My Hair” diverted the energy of the first set in a cool way, while “Are You Ready For The Country,” saw Tom Hamilton delivering some of his rowdiest solos of the evening.
Full set audio from MORE! at Ardmore Music Hall is available below. Check out a gallery of images courtesy of photographer Miles Hurley.
MORE! – Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, PA – 2/24/23
[Audio: Rich Stoler]
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