We hate set breaks at the Crazy Horse. They suck. Why can’t bands just play straight through all night long? Oh yeah…they need to take a piss, have a drink or a smoke. That’s understandable, but they always seem to happen at the most inopportune time. Like the other night when Bumptet was throwing down the soulful funk and thirty people from Texas had just paraded through the door. They paid the cover, the music was going off and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about that. We hope the bar is fun enough with good company and the jukebox selection. But there’s no substitution for live music.

After Bumptet filtered off stage, we noticed that they had a friend who was getting ready to play a “tweener” set to fill the space during setbreak. This guy named Brian Rogers stood there with his bass, making us all wonder what he had in store. He looked like a cool cat with dreads and a keen fashion sense so we were optimistic. He dove right into a Michael Jackson medley and ears perked around the room. It’s hard to go wrong with MJ and one could sense an injection of juice rippling throughout the saloon. White people started to exhibit the indications of movement known as dance. “This is pretty cool,” we thought.

Ten or so minutes later, the music was in transition and the, “where the heck is this going?” thought crept into our minds. Then something borderline miraculous happened. Rogers tapped in to a source of pure creativity and we all get sucked into an elevated dimension of improvisational brilliance. Before we knew it, he was in command behind the drum kit while his programmed bass loops maintained a deep pocket of groove. Pulses raced and eyes dilated. We were in the presence of rare talent. As his set stretched on, audience admiration seemed to grow. Surely there must have been one or two people who were actually disappointed when Bumptet reclaimed the stage. But not for long as Rogers soon joined them for soul-shuddering versions of “Superstitious” and “A Change is Gonna Come.” This was the Crazy Horse at its most righteous.