An unedited review of my new favorite band - Beta Play
I am not a dancer. I am a very white girl and I dance like a white girl, and therefore I generally refrain from dancing unless copious amounts of alcohol come into play. So when a band makes me want to dance, there is something really special about them.
Beta Play is a band that is fairly unknown, particularly to the east coast, but thanks to their tour with the Plain White T’s – a tour that brought just the right kind of audience out to witness the magic they put out on stage – they will not remain unknown for long.
From the opening chords of their set, front man Tom Cantillon gets the audience pumped up. He has a specific presence about him that makes it feel like you’ve known him forever and if he asks you to move in closer, you do it; if he asks you to dance, you do it. You get the idea. They are everything the PWT’s could have asked for from an opening band – I’ve never seen anyone get a crowd more excited for songs they didn’t even know.
Cantillon may only be blood-related to one other man sharing the stage with him – younger brother Michael plays the keys and sings backup vocals on virtually every song – but when you are watching them perform, it is pretty clear that you are watching an entire family come together to present an audience with their incredible music. Drummer Matt Palermo smiles adoringly at his bandmates often, a look of pride on his face. Newcomer Mike Dyer jams out on his bass guitar and sings along, even when he isn’t needed on the microphone. They are a completed puzzle and they have come together to create quite an impressive image.
While their set combines their latest self-titled EP with a full-length album under their old name, Tommy and the High Pilots, every song sounds both familiar and brand new. Beta Play creeps right into your soul before you realize it is happening. Tom Cantillon’s exaggerated movements on stage make it difficult to photograph him, but easy to appreciate just how in-the-moment he is. Whether he is singing about someone telling him he has been “burning since the day [he] was born” or telling someone he needs them, he bleeds them, he can hardly stand still from all of the excitement he holds inside.
Beta Play has not a dull moment in their set. Every song is alive, and seemingly an extension of the band itself. They gather energy from an audience that is only clapping along, and Tom teaches them the choruses and the “oohs” as he sees fit so that they can get involved – and every audience just wants to be a part of the performance itself. Beta Play makes that happen.
There is something interesting – in the best way – about watching some bands unload and re-pack their own equipment and sell their own merch. Watching them on a stage on the other side of a barrier or a tall stage you can’t reach the top of makes it feel as though they are untouchable, no matter how close they get while bending over and singing directly into the audience. Tom does his best to get as close to the audience as possible, walking over wires and in front of speaker boxes in what seems to be an incredibly dangerous way, but to an audience, a band will always be “other”, in the best way. But when the lights go down, Palermo breaks down his own drum set and Dyer packs up quickly and runs out to the merchandise area to meet any potential customers who enjoyed their set too much to wait until the end of the show. And in that way, Beta Play remains entirely human to their fans – new and old. They will take as many pictures as it takes and make any face you ask for. They will model your purse to make you laugh and they will turn anything you say into a song.
The last time I made a prediction, it was in a blog post I had published about David Buchanan when he was still in Triple-A – it was more of a suggestion to promote him than a prediction, but within weeks, he was playing in the major leagues. Well, whatever the major league of music is, expect to see Beta Play there soon.
