W
HEN
speaking about The Third Mind, Dave Alvin keeps returning to asingle phrase like amantra: “We don’t know what’s gonna happen!” According to the former Blasters guitarist, he and his all-star band of musical explorers –including Camper Van Beethoven bassist Victor Krummenacher, Counting Crows’ David Immerglück and singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes –don’t rehearse when they get together. They pick asong and the key to play it in, and then let it fly.
It’s apractice that’s served them remarkably well on the two albums they’ve released to date, 2020’s The Third Mind and last year’s The Third Mind 2. Both feature loose, spacious takes on an impressively wide range of material, from Alice Coltrane to the 13th Floor Elevators, as well as some original numbers –all of which get taken to grander, cosmic heights via the tangled interplay of Alvin and Immerglück’s guitars.
Alvin with Victor Krummenacher and below, Jesse Sykes, setting the mood and the tempo
For only their second ever live show, The Third Mind are supported at Portland’s Mississippi Studios by Alvin’s old LA compadres Rain Parade, the classic Paisley Underground ensemble led by guitarist Matt Piucci and bassist Steven Roback. The group initially fizzled out in the mid-’80s but returned to action in 2012 and last year released Last Rays Of A Dying Sun, their first new album in 38 years. It proves to be aperfect pairing, with Rain Parade’s sunnier psych-pop serving as alovely contrast to the seamier, darker tone of The Third Mind. But as with the work of Rain Parade’s most obvious influences (Love, The Beatles), the shimmery surface of the music barely obscures some of their spinier lyrical sentiments.