Live at SteelStacks, at first glance, may seem like a paltry offering or holding action. Project Grand Slam’s new EP boasts five tracks but newcomers and longtime fans of Robert Miller’s band of virtuoso musicians and a knockout singer will both come away satisfied from this collection. Five tracks cannot even begin to do justice revealing the breadth of this band after multiple studio and live releases but Project Grand Slam doesn’t let the listeners down as their playing is as robust and evocative as one could ever hope to hear.
It opens in sensational style with the opener “Redemption Road”. Marilyn Castillo, man, where to begin? She has a voice that, if the PA died and she was lost in the moment, there’s a good chance everyone in the SteelStacks concert venue would have continued hearing her sing. There’s no overkill, however, and emotion drips from every line without drowning the listeners in histrionics. Many listeners will be thrilled by the song’s melody and the band really lays it all out there with the assertiveness and energy it deserves.
“I’m Falling Off of the World” has a breakneck pace that the band handles with hard-hitting skill. This is live, without a net, a group of superb musicians well-versed playing alongside each other steering the composition through an assortment of twists and turns that would leave lesser musicians flailing and gasping for air. Castillo sounds like he’s riding a lion with her head held high and in full control of the situation. There are few moments better than this heard during the course of Live at SteelStacks.
Its equal arrives with the track “The One I’m Not Supposed to See”. This is a dramatic and gliding example of a rock band at full power. It isn’t the simple-minded cliché version of what a rock band means, caveman riffing bashing and thudding listeners into oblivion, but rather sleek and polished songwriting. It’s sincere every inch of the way too. Castillo shines again and sinks her teeth deep into this lyric rife with a bevy of emotions.
It’s hard to match that song but the band does it with “Yeah Yeah” as well. It is far less predictable, though predictability isn’t always a bad thing obviously, and illustrates the band’s songwriting and arranging versatility. Project Grand Slam are seldom going back over ground they’ve already covered and, instead, are always pushing themselves in performance, looking for a new groove, and invariably finding it.
Much of the songwriting builds around bassist Miller and drummer Joel Mateo’s teaming. Their playing during “Yeah Yeah” has the same elastic physicality heard in the band’s other songs and punctuates this EP with an outstanding exclamation point. This is no holding action or half-cocked cash in, reader, but instead a brief yet wallop-laden reminder of what this band can do and how far they are from finished. There’s more to come from Project Grand Slam, as always, so stay tuned, because it’s certain to be well worth your time.
Chadwick Easton