Winged Wheel played Union Pool

Winged Wheel wrapped-up their week-long tour with a stop at Brooklyn's Union Pool on Sunday night and delivered some epic jams.

"There's usually more of us, but tonight it's just us three" uttered Fred Thomas, guitarist of Winged Wheel and the lone spokesman for the instrumental group that took over Union Pool on Sunday evening for a short set of some hyper-extended tunes that begged the question of just where the groove ended and the jam began. You might not think there's a strong correlation between these usually noisey musicians and the jam band ethos, but the trio of Fred Thomas, Cory Plump, and Steve Shelley really made you question the existential thought of just when does the line between the two blur and was this, in some sense, a bit of a jam band experience. As Thomas riffled away on his fret board and Shelley dusted his cymbals with careful brushes of his drumsticks, there was a sense of ease that led into the tracks that the trio so effortlessly brought to life in the Brooklyn hall and as the motorik rhythms stretched on, Thomas extended his solos and let the songs breathe with life as the band slowly flexed their muscles and allowed the songs morph into shapes all their own. Of course nothing careened into chaos, these jams were still under full control even when they began to stretch out, Plump's plodding bass lines enough to hold things together and never let them get carried away. "More Frog Poems" was a particularly heightened tune that Thomas fashioned into a properly effective moment that highlighted their true ability to just jam and let loose at the exact right timing, showcasing their knack for being able to keep their songs in flight while trusting and knowing the tendencies of their bandmates and allowing it all to unfold in real time. Even with the show's overall brevity, the band made sure to use every second to make it count towards their feverish sound. Locked in together, their nimble energy was light and spry, the numbers grooving along at an unhurried pace, another attribute linking them to jam band brethren. As the songs ebbed and flowed through valleys of decay and melody, the group charged forward, relaxed and at the helm. In a reduced faction, this inception of Winged Wheel still manages to navigate their extract the core of what makes their tracks ring with despair and dissonant refrains.