Since forming in 2020, The Third Mind has been on something of a bender with the kind of prolific output that puts bands decades younger to shame. It feels fair to call them a supergroup of sorts, with the combination of Dave Alvin, Victor Krummenacher, Jesse Sykes, Mark Karan, and Michael Jerome manifesting their psychedelic and improvisational impulses. They have released numerous albums featuring sprawling, often jammed-out interpretations of classic songs. As with any project that Alvin puts his stamp on, the results have been exceptional. On Friday, March 13th, they released their latest endeavor Spellbinder! and celebrated with a show at Portland, Oregon’s Mississippi Studios as part of a quick West Coast jaunt.
Taking the stage shortly after ten, the band wasted little time as they launched into “Sally Go Round The Roses” and kicked things off with a loose and moody sound before Alvin took a brilliant psych-blues guitar solo and passed the baton to Karan, who dove deeper into the blues. Sykes’ darkly soulful vocals took the spotlight on the sly funk vehicle “Groovin’ Is Easy,” with more scorching solo trade-offs from Alvin and Karan that levitated into Grateful Dead-style territory. A few songs in, Alvin remarked to the crowd about the vision of the band and their music, “most of which is unscripted and teetering on the clam.” Whatever that meant, it seemed to be a-ok with everyone in attendance as the band dropped into the 17th century British murder ballad “Pretty Polly” and surfed a wave of haunting and darkened folk before injecting the tune with Tom Petty-style rocking to complement Alvin’s jagged slices of guitar.
If there is a signature of The Third Mind, it’s their love for taking the kind of lyrically deep and often dark and disturbing lore-filled songs and transforming them into vehicles for rock and roll exploration. They did exactly this on songs like Paul Butterfield’s “In My Own Dream” featuring some of Jerome’s most impressive drumming of the night and thickened jams, and a deep blues take on the Michael Bloomfield via Otis Rush tune “Reap What You Sow.” Other highlights of the set included their haunting folk take on The Youngbloods’ “Darkness, Darkness” that saw Alvin’s signature driving style of Western guitar rock in fine form, bleeding straight into a blissed out, jazz-tinged rendition of Pharaoh Sanders’ “The Creator Has A Master Plan” with plenty of soloing from both Alvin and Karan. Given our current moment of war and destruction as well as the passing of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, the inclusion of “Morning Dew” was especially poignant. It was little surprise that Karan, a longtime collaborator with Weir, laid down the famous Jerry Garcia solo with flawless precision.
The Third Mind’s ability to take ominous tunes – often about some form of death, doom, or destruction – and make them feel almost cathartic and celebratory with free-flowing jams, makes them a band perfectly suited for our current moment. Yet, onstage in Portland, they were hardly wallowing in the kind of nihilistic, dead-eyed dread of younger generations. Instead, these talented and seasoned musicians seemed intent on taking the bad and putting it through the Third Mind ringer, ultimately making the kind of joyous music that reminds you life is worth living. Spellbinding indeed.
All photos by Greg Homolka
