Imagine a first gig that went so well the echoes are still ringing out more than half a decade later.
Exactly that type of resounding performance resulted in the formation of LaMP, the trio that brings together a pair of Trey Anastasio Band original members, drummer Russ Lawton and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski, and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead founding guitarist Scott Metzger.
Encouraged to meet by a shared booking agent, the three jam scene veterans initially convened on a December night in 2018 at landmark venue Nectar’s in Burlington, Vermont. Despite busy schedules that kept them from rehearsing in person ahead of the show, the chemistry was immediately apparent. “The tunes that Russ and Ray had brought in were just so easy for me to drop into,” Scott Metzger says. “I could tell we were all coming from the same place.”
The following year the trio set about recording what became a self-titled album. While that landed in 2020, a corresponding tour failed to launch as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and other commitments kept LaMP — name pieced together from the first letters of members’ surnames — apart for a couple of years. During that separation, Metzger found himself revisiting and growing closer to the group’s debut LP. “The tunes are getting better every time that I’m listening to them,” he remembers thinking. “By the time we got to the first gigs in 2022, I knew we had something that I was very, very enthusiastic about.”
That string of dates built considerable buzz, as did the following year’s tour. A two-night run from 2023 at the trio’s old Burlington haunt yielded the recently released “Live At Nectar’s” double-album. “You could tell that the word was spreading as the tour went on,” Metzger says. “We split up after [the last] gig and we were like, ‘Let’s get on the phone tomorrow … and let’s start booking the next ones. Let’s keep the momentum going.’ That puts us where we’re at now.”
LaMP will stop in Richmond on Friday, Aug. 23 to headline the Broadberry for a second time in 2024, though the group’s momentum isn’t limited to touring. Fresh off a week of recording, Scott Metzger spoke with Style Weekly about the group’s sophomore studio effort, about choosing material for “Live At Nectar’s” and about what he most looks forward to when hitting the road as part of an all-star instrumental trio.
Style Weekly: How is the new studio album coming along?
Scott Metzger: It’s going great. We just finished a week in the studio in Burlington, Vermont [at] a place called the Tank — a great recording studio there that Russ and Ray have both worked at a bunch, those two being Burlington natives … We did four days of tracking, just the three of us, and then on the fifth day we performed the whole record live twice to studio audiences. So we got all of the material very well documented. We had played a few of the tunes on the road before, but for the most part — I’d say about 80% of the tunes — we were playing in the studio for the first time, so it was nice to be able to get them up in front of people.
Is there anything you set out to do differently from the first album?
Not particularly. I think that we found a groove in that first record that we like, meaning that it’s different from the live show, in that there’s not a whole lot of jamming on the record. The first record was very concise. It was like seven songs and it came in at just over 30 minutes, so there’s not a whole lot of jamming going on, or soloing, and I think that we kept to that for the most part. There’s a few tunes that barely break three minutes on the new record. We get in and get out. We’re all believers that a good melody is the thing to focus on. As a guitar player, I don’t particularly think that the world needs another six-minute guitar solo on a record right now. Live is a different story, but I’d rather focus on the melody and try and serve the song on a record, then stretch things out live.
Did you enjoy sifting through live performances for “Live At Nectar’s”?
I’ve learned to enjoy it, because I’ve learned over the years that I can’t tell what’s really going on. I know how I feel in the moment, but I’ve learned that how I feel can be wildly different than how the music is actually translating to the audience. The live record was recorded over two nights at Nectar’s, and that first night I came offstage pretty much convinced that it had been a wash and we wouldn’t be able to use any of it, just because of how I felt and how I interpreted it for whatever reason. But when I put some distance between it and went back and listened to the stuff, I think 80% of the live record is from that night that I didn’t think was really that happening. It really comes flying out of the speakers. It’s got a lot of life to it … I don’t want to speak for anyone else but I know I was feeling a little frustrated up there that night, and I think that translates in a really cool way. You can kind of hear a little bit of frustration or maybe desperation [laughs] coming through that’s actually an enjoyable listen on the other end.
With Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, you’re often playing to festival and amphitheater crowds. What do you look forward to ahead of playing club shows with LaMP?
Playing with Russ and Ray is a real dream come true. All three of us are extremely muy simpatico, both musically and personally … They’ve been playing together, the two of them, in different contexts for 30 years. Something happens to musicians when you’ve played that many gigs together, that many thousands of hours on-and-offstage together, that just cannot be duplicated, and whenever we as listeners hear that, there is some sort of x-factor thing that everyone in the room recognizes. “OK, this is special. There is something going on here.” So to be invited in to be a part of that and to try and add my voice onto that is … Every day when I’m on tour with LaMP, I just can’t wait to get out of bed and get to the club and get the day started. I really feel like this is a meant-to-be situation, the three of us playing together.
As far as the places that we play, all three of us, I think, we’re small club music people. All three of us love music that was made in jazz clubs and blues clubs. For me, punk clubs — that was what I grew up on. The first show I ever saw was I went to see the Ramones when I was like 14 at a place that held maybe 700 people, so to me, because that’s in my DNA, that’s what a show is. It’s not an arena, it’s not a big thing. It’s this small-club energy where everybody’s in it together and it’s kind of uncomfortable and kind of sweaty. When I walk into a place like that I feel very, very comfortable, and very much like, “OK, this is the kind of place that I’m here to do my thing.”
On the flipside, all three of us are very fortunate in that we have gigs that are in much bigger places — those guys obviously playing with Trey Anastasio, me playing with JRAD. Not everybody gets those kinds of opportunities, and it’s not lost on us that we’re lucky to be in the game on that level. To be able to do both — that’s like the blueprint for what I would have wanted, so I’m really living the dream here.
What do you enjoy about the trio format?
When I talk about LaMP, I talk a lot about the hookup that Russ and Ray have … Part of why that is so special and enjoyable to play with is I can sort of drop in and out of that. I don’t feel the need to be constantly playing and take up all this space because I know that they’ve got a thing that is worthy of not getting in the way [of], sometimes. I don’t need to contribute to it and it’s still great. So I don’t feel a pressure to dominate the stage at all, nor do I really want to, because I see a lot of bands and I hear a lot of music where there is no space. There’s no room for anything to breathe, and I think that all three of us are very aware that music that has room to breathe feels good, and it is, in this day and age, a little refreshing.
Any fond memories of the Broadberry show from April of this year?
The first thing that comes to mind is – I remember we walked out onstage and Russ turned around to me and he said, “Man, there’s a lot of fucking people here.” We really had a packed house and a great, great crowd that night. Super enthusiastic. Personally I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for rooms like that. It feels like a rock club in there. It’s really nothing fancy. It’s a PA that works. It’s loud, I remember that. It sounded like a loud PA. Long, thin room. The crowd was just great. The main thing that stands out is how enthusiastic the crowd was and how appreciated that is, because we’re a long way from home in Richmond, and we’re hoping [for] and looking forward to a repeat night like that.
LaMP will perform at the Broadberry on Friday, Aug. 23. Sidechick will also perform. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at thebroadberry.com. To hear and purchase “Live At Nectar’s,” visit lampband.bandcamp.com. For more information, visit ilikelamp.com.
