WINTER WERK OUT 2019

Written by: Michael Broerman

Photos by: B.Hockensmith Photography

What is the Winter Werk Out: a cash grab, a mid-year Werks reup, or something more?  The first couple years it felt like the formula was being tweaked just a little bit each time.  The first year, 2017, was an open, free-roaming experience with no VIP and just two stages with minimal musical overlap.  With one night of The Werks and another of The Twerks (ft. Dino Dimitrouleas and Mihali Savoulidis) being backed up by co-headliner The Floozies, it was mainly a Werks-centric affair with the next highest names being still-rising acts like Aqueous, who had just done some opening gigs for Dopapod, and Moon Hooch.

This was more of a supplementary event as The Werks moved away from doing headlining gigs at smaller Columbus venues like The Woodlands Tavern. 

The second year, after the rousing success of the previous WWO, the production moved a step further by converting the upstairs balcony into private VIP viewing and actually got a decent sized crowd upstairs.  However this cut off GA fans from switching over from the upstairs to the main stage when one set ended, as the tradition of non-overlapping sets continued.  This prompted many difficult decisions for attendees as to whether to see music or stand in front of an empty stage in order to secure a marginally decent spot.  

The other major improvement to the weekend was the lineup as fellow Ohio natives Papadosio split the bill with The Werks, with Papadosio closing out Friday after The Werks and The Werks wrapping up the whole thing Saturday night.  Down lineup improved as well by booking a still-rising Aqueous, in addition to the introduction of new Werk Out regulars Litz and Zach Deputy.  Also returning was the desire to appeal to EDM fans by getting a jamtronic band like Papadosio as well as psychill artist Phutureprimitive. 

And the tweaking and tinkering continued this year with the elimination of the VIP area and the greatest addition yet: coolers of free ice water and plastic cups throughout the venue.  Also, this duo called EOTO in addition to two headlining sets of The Werks back on their throne.

But the biggest impact on the music was definitely the introduction of a third stage, located in the corner of the balcony and parallel to the main stage.  This year would break from the tradition of non-overlapping music by featuring DJs on the MBFP stage while bands played on the Weird Music stage located at the upstairs bar.  With the doors to both the WM stage and upstairs balcony constantly open, standing in the middle of the hallway between the two stages could tear a person’s head in two.  Of course that’s where the water cooler was.

However we all played nice upstairs and made room for each other to see the true kick off of my weekend, Litz doing their Daft Funk tribute set to Daft Punk.  Singer, keyboardist, saxophone player and frontman Austin Litz has already made the talk-box a focal point of his performance, which made for a authentically funky “Around the World” cover.  Even highly commercialized songs that have been forcefully burned into my brain like “Get Lucky” were transformed into funky, dance jam-vehicles that highlighted the instrumentation of the compositions as Litz grooved into the end of their three week tour.

The next two acts, Consider the Source and Emancipator, were truly emblematic of the energy of the Werk Out, both winter and summer.  The dichotomy of diversity created by putting heavy prog-jams back-to-back with trip-hop DJ and producer Emancipator is exactly the kind of mash-up of scenes that keeps people coming back for more.

But this environment creates an interesting fork in the road for The Werks.  Which direction are they going to go?  Will they attempt to straddle the line between the dance and the jams, the drops and the licks, or will they choose sides?

The band answered that query as only they can by walking the walk between the two moods by opening up with the brand-new “No Prisoner” followed by the classic, “OG.”  But what was interesting to note about the transition was that drummer Rob Chafin continued to hold down the pulsating, dancey beats emblematic of a Werktronic set, but applying them into a standard like “OG.”  This line-straddling continued as “OG” went into another new tune, “Stars Collide,” that is the danciest track I’ve heard from The Werks in years.  It became clear that they weren’t picking sides, as the prog-jam of “OG” melted seamlessly into “Stars Collide.”

The rest of the set followed this inoffensive formula of appealing to both head-bangers and bass heads as The Werks brought out former member Dino Dimitrouleas to sub in for Jake Goldberg on bass to bust out “Better Half.”  But the guests kept coming as the Prontoh horns sat in on a funky cover of “The Impression That I Get” and then an authentic “Lights Out” from Magic that just sounds so much more complete with horns, as it appears on the album. 

Just like last year, Rob Chafin used “Hard to Find” as a drum vehicle to go into a solid drum improvisation.  The only difference was that there was no Mike Healey to battle onstage like last year.  Then a rocking “Onslaught” to encore out the night, sending us back to our hotels with an insatiable hunger for more.

Night two I walked in the door to the chillest cover of “Hot for Teacher” from Mom & Dad featuring Neal “Fro” Evans (&) and Chuck Jones (Mom) from Dopapod alongside Ben Larroquette (Dad), one of Jones’s and Evans’s friends from the Berklee College of Music.  But it didn’t stay chill for long, as the trio brought out Jason Hann of EOTO for some hard prog jams that would’ve made me just a little melancholy if not for Dopapod’s impending return to the stage in April.

The party then moved upstairs for Southeast Ohio’s premiere Pink Floyd tribute band, Any Colour.  The group made some bold choices for its 60 minute set by playing the lengthy composition “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” followed by all three parts of “Another Brick in the Wall.”  However the decision to spend nearly a third of the set playing all three parts instead of just “Part Two” is one that garnered immense respect from me and many of the older heads in the crowd.  But once EOTO started up, all of the energy at the Weird Music stage was sucked right out the side door into the hallway, culminating in one of the members of Any Colour accidentally referring to the crowd as Athens, the band’s hometown.

And then it was time for EOTO.  As Jason Hann and Michael Travis stepped onstage, neither I nor any other fan, nor the duo themselves, had any idea what was coming.  Watching that set makes one realize what true improvisation is and some of the best looping on the scene today.  None of us knew that they would remix Damian “Jr Gong” Marley’s song “Welcome to Jamrock” and change the lyrics to “Welcome to Werk Out.”  And then, before I knew it, an hour had flown by and I hadn’t moved an inch besides my stationary dancing.  Anybody on a strict jam-diet who’s not even remotely interested in EDM owes it to themselves to check out EOTO as it is non-stop jams from start to finish.  The essence of the improvisational jam band mentality lives within EOTO.

Now it was time for the big one, the final Werks set of the weekend.  The boys came hot right off the rip by busting into a flawless “Flatiron.”  It was hard to believe that it was the same song debuted at the end of The Werkers Union Christmas party back in December.  So clean and crisp, allowing keyboardist Dan Shaw to build up a dark, even evil, ambience behind Houser’s David Gilmour-inspired opening licks.  Continuing the tradition from the night before of segueing new jams into old favorites, the next song was “Looking for the Light,” which established the show as a good old Werkdown before launching into the Magic hit “Into the Moss.”  What was interesting about the introduction to these songs was that the band seemed to reprise Shaw’s driving rhythm section from “Flatiron” as a vehicle to introduce a new song, slowly building up the riff before finally jumping into the song.

Next was the moment we had all been waiting for as The Werks welcomed Jason Hann to the stage with his djembe for a ripping “Cloudhopper” jam that saw some playful percussive synergy between Chafin and Hann.  Next came a real puzzler for me as the band busted out “Dig It” for the first time since 2008, back when Dave Bartoletti was on keys.  This jam, unknown to many, fed into an instantly recognizable cover of “Sandstorm,” which fed back into “Dig It” before launching into another cover, one I’ve been chasing for a while, The Who’s “Eminence Front.”  I had listened to soundboards of a younger Werks playing this one around the Inside A Dream era, but this version was emblematic of the sleek, professional image the band has adopted since Magic and into the present.  The set then ended with an inspirational “Not Alone.”

Then came the encore, or should I say encores.  First we got a concise “Fat Man,” and we all knew that they couldn’t end it there.  The band then segued into a hootin’ and hollerin’ “Plain White Toast,” which, despite the song’s high energy, would still make for a somewhat disappointing end to the weekend.  But then, when finishing out the jam, Dan started banging out those “Dark Farm” intro notes on the keys and we knew that this would be the one.  After ten minutes of head banging perfection, the band finally brought the third annual Winter Werk out to a close.  See you at Legend Valley this August.

But how did this WWO stack up to the others?  In years past, it seems like the WWO audience has been somewhat of a guinea pig for experimentation by the band.  The first year featured a Twerks: Tribute to the 70’s performance, which was then followed by a Twerkapod: Tribute to the 90’s set at Werk Out that summer.  Then the 2018 WWO saw the first “Dark Farm” ever played, and was preceded by the first-ever Werktronic set the night before for the pre-party at The Woodlands Tavern.

So what did The Werks try out on us this year?  What I saw was a group tying together its new, bold direction of the Sonder releases back to its heavy, prog sound of the freshman and sophomore albums.  I didn’t see a band that was tired of its past or weary of playing the hits.  I saw a band trying to make trends, not follow them.  Most importantly, I saw a band having fun.  I know I had fun, I hope you did too.