Charlottesville - In an effort to warm up the cold winter air, I’ve been on a quest to find bands that I knew nothing about, catch a performance and add to the ever growing songlist in my head.  Other than listening to a couple of their tunes online, the night I saw David Wax Museum was really the first time I heard their music.  I went through the door of the Southern Café and Music Hall filled with curiosity.  After all, what kind of band has the word museum in their name?  By the time I left at evening’s end, the curiosity was replaced with respect and admiration.

The New Best Recipe, a local bluegrass outfit warmed up the stage for the main act.  I don’t know much about them, but I can tell you they were good.  A five-man group, headed by Luke Wilson with the ever popular, Landon Fishburne on guitar, they had a nice sized following in the audience.  They performed eight songs, including an original written by Wilson called “Fool” which drew steep applause at song’s end.

Four people walked onstage when it came time for the headliners to pick up their instruments.  I was expecting two.  The posters for the evening showed a picture of David Wax and Suz Slezak sitting atop a wood chest with their instruments neatly displayed to the side.  The picture, nicely done, made them look like traveling minstrels.  My best guess was that they were the band.  The foursome quietly plugged in, got set and went into the first song without a word to the audience.  An appreciative applause followed the conclusion of the tune, and they embarked immediately into their second offering.  The end of that tune produced a carbon copy of what transpired following the opening song, and then we were off into song number three.  As they were performing that third tune, I thought to myself, I like the music, but I’m not feeling it.  I’m not feeling the love, something was missing.  How am I going to write this?  Despite the fact that they were coming off four sold out shows in a row, I was getting a little worried.

By the time the night was over, the story had written itself.  My initial fears were laid to rest at the conclusion of that third song.  It was as if the coffee kicked in, and someone hit the "on" switch.  They opened up and mentioned how Jordan’s (David’s brother and the band’s accordion player) accordion had a little mishap, and that he was now playing a brand new instrument, purchased just two days ago.  Mike Roberts, playing alternatively both the electric guitar and the upright bass, was introduced after fourth song.  He would be with the band about a week and a half and was happy to be on the road because of all the beer to be drunk.  As they drew the crowd closer, the mood on stage seemed to lighten which appeared to heighten the band’s own enjoyment.  By the time David told a self-effacing tale about blowing the chorus of a Springsteen song at a big event in December, the uneasiness I felt at the start of the show was long gone.

After winning a contest last year to gain a spot at the Newport Folk Festival, they were called “cheerfully aggressive” by NPR.  Nevertheless, the same review also stated, “the group had gathered a fairly enormous crowd, which it proceeded to win over in an increasingly big way.”  That cheerful aggression serves them well.

Halfway through the set, they went into a very energetic number in which Suz played a quidaja, which is actually the jawbone of a donkey.  When she picked it up prior to the song, I could not imagine what it was!  I had never seen anything even resembling this very odd-looking instrument, which did have a very memorable sound.  Fortunately, after the song, for all the first-timers in the audience I’m sure, she informed the crowd what it actually was.

They beckoned the crowd for audience participation stating, “Next song you got to let it loose.  Don’t hold back.”  Never had I heard a band tell the audience to make noise while they were playing, but that’s what they wanted, and that’s what they got.  The band split up with two of them playing right up front and center and the other two joining the audience and playing from the floor at the foot of the stage.  The house lights were turned up and the concert turned into a celebration.  Those who had seen the band before came prepared.  One man brought a dinner plate that he was tapping with a fork.  The scene made you feel as if you were at a boisterous event in the backyard where everyone got together and started making joyful noise.  Not often does the audience get the opportunity to jam with the band, but that initial foursome had grown to a room-sized orchestra.

On their Facebook page, their music is labeled “Mexo-Americana.”  Makes sense, there were songs where I looked for the mariachi band to make their way on stage.  But it goes beyond that label.  Their sound and energy goes to the bare roots of music, where a stomping foot becomes an instrument itself, holding down the beat on the front porch of a house in the countryside where neighbors and passersby regularly stop to join in.

 David Wax does an outstanding job of fronting this band.  Suz Slezak, a Free Union native, is a force in her own right providing a rocking fiddle and a voice that adds a sweet, harmonic touch as well as a second strong soloist.  And let’s not forget that quijada!

They played a second song from their new spot before returning to the stage for “Look What You’ve Done to Me” from their new CD Everything Is Saved.  That was followed with "Beekeeper" from their 2009 release, Carpenter Bird.  Suz sounded truly disappointed when she announced that they had reached their final song, “unless you want an encore...”  At the completion of that song, after they had come back for the encore she nearly apologized for suggesting it.  There was no apology necessary, however, as the crowd wanted them back as much if not more than they wanted to keep going.  The two songs performed in the encore were done so off stage, the entire band joining the crowd in the middle aisle of the Southern.  A performance by David Wax Museum starts out a concert and turns into a party.

DavidWaxMusuem.com

MySpace.com/DavidWaxMusic

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