Dan DiMonte and the Bad Assettes, with Goose Town and Lewis Knudsen
The Mill — Thursday, Apr. 14 at 9 p.m.
Coming off the release of a new single, Iowa City-based jazz-infused rockers Dan DiMonte and the Bad Assettes return to The Mill tonight for a show with Goose Town, based out of Cedar Falls, and the Quad Cities’ Lewis Kundson. Tickets are $7.
The Bad Assets are made up of Dan Padley on guitar, Reid Turner on keyboards, Blake Shaw (also of Goose Town) on bass, Jonathan Birdsall on saxophone and Carlo Kind on drums. On the two songs of the band’s new single, they are a solid, rooted foundation for DiMonte to play atop. The first track, “Dance with Her,” is a jazz-pop tune with a focus on the lyrics, delivered by DiMonte’s distinct vocals. The orchestration is as layered as a Ben Folds number, starting out simply and then building in intricacy.
The fun really starts, though, on track two, “Tea Trees.” The rollicking instrumental gets off to a slow and deliberate start. Eventually, Birdsall’s tenor sax takes over the storytelling, the searing lyricism bolstered by Kind’s ever-intensifying drumming. By the time the melody is handed off to Padley’s guitar, it’s a runaway train that you don’t want to stop.
