The Steve Kimock Band

April 28, 2001

Martyr's

Chicago, IL

Steve Kimock capped off a sold-out, three-night stand at Martyr’s in Chicago with an epic show on Saturday night. I took the train down from Michigan on Saturday morning in order to catch this show. Reports from the first two nights had been glowing and I was excited to see Kimock for the first time in a solo setting.

Kimock is still largely unknown off of the West Coast, but that is rapidly changing. After playing in the Bay Area band, Zero for many years Steve was recruited by The Other Ones to play guitar in 1998. This dramatically increased his exposure and suddenly people all over the country were realizing what an incredible talent he is. After the Other Ones tour he became a fixture of Phil Lesh’s rotating Phil Lesh and Friends line-ups. During that time Phil had the following to say about Kimock’s abilities;

"His playing has an indefinable quality I've only found once or twice in my life. Most of the time he sounds like nothing else on Earth. I've heard him do things I didn't think a guitar can do. And every so often he'll play something that sounds like it's not from any instrument, the voice of music. The voice of St. Cecilia, as you might say."

The Steve Kimock band has also had an unstable line-up, at times it has included Alan Hertz, Pete Sears, Prarie Prince and Tom Coster. The most recent line-up is probably the best so far. The foundation of the band has always been Kimock on guitar and Bobby Vega on bass. Vega and Kimock have played together in various bands throughout the years including Zero, KVHW and the Missing man Formation. Playing second guitar is a guy named Mitch Stein who only recently joined. I believe he has a jazz background, but he is relatively unknown. On drums is Rodney Holmes who is most famous for playing with Santana.

Martyr’s was packed and already getting hot when the band took the stage at about 9:30 on Saturday. They lead off with a new tune that I think is called ‘Ice Cream" or "Ice Cream Man". Kimock and company play almost exclusively instrumentals so it is sometimes hard to keep a setlist. The two new members of the band, Mitch and Rodney immediately impressed me. Mitch plays a lot of lead, which surprised me since Kimock is such an accomplished soloist. Steve is never one to showboat though and is always very gracious about sharing the stage with his bandmates. Mitch held his own on lead and also expertly backed up Kimock’s solos with nice, funky rhythm playing.

Rodney Holmes was also really fun to listen to. He is an extremely muscular sounding drummer which is ironic because he such a little guy. He reminds me of Keith Moon or John Bonham because of the sheer power he exudes behind the drums.

The first set also included nice versions of "Why Don’t We all Samba" and "Kissin’ the Boo Boo", both Kimock classics.

After about a 45 minute break, the band took the stage once more for a marathon set that included "Rudson’s Roaches" (a new Mitch Stein song), "Tongue N Groove" and Charles Mingus’ "Better Get Hit in Your Soul".

I want to make note of the incredible bass playing of Bobby Vega too. He can play heavy funk or melodic passages with ease and he often led the band through extended jams.

Kimock is also an amazing creative player, but that is only part of his appeal. He also has this big, beautiful tone that very few guitarists can achieve. I know that Steve has worked long and hard to perfect his tone which is no easy task. He also writes good instrumental songs that don’t get boring. This is partly because the band is so strong at improvising, but also because the compositions are strong in the first place. A Kimock song usually starts out slow and builds until the whole band is playing full-tilt and then the music just as slowly cools down.

The ended the second set after 2 AM and the crowd was exhausted from the heat and dancing. The band looked equally hot and tired. Kimock remarked that he needed to go cool down and that he would see about an encore. My friend Mark and I took off at that point, but I read that the band actually did return for 2 more songs after that. I wish I had seen the encore, but we were cashed at that point. Hats off to the Kimock Band for the stamina and incredible playing. I would think that this band will only get more and more popular as people get turned on to Kimock and the great shows he puts on.