"http://www.gbnightlife.com/andy-holzem.html" title="Andy Holzem and the Crispiest Band Review Live at Boehmer's Bar in Green Bay, WI">Andy Holzem and the Crispiest Band Review Live at Boehmer's Bar in Green Bay, WI

By TJ
March 16, 2010
Tonight you could cut the fog with a knife and that was my intention when I hauled down 41 to Boehmer's on Velp to catch up with the very talented Andy Holzem and see him jam out with the band The Crispiest. This was the first that I've heard of Boehmer's having live music so was dying to see how it went down. The first time I saw Andy play live it was about a year ago playing as an acoustic trio outside the Cold House in De Pere. I was immediately captivated by his skills and his laid back folk rock roots reggae style. Since then, I've kept an eye on him. Tonight at Boehmer's he was armed with his electric Fender Stratocaster guitar and had a great group of guys backing him up for what would be some long jams going deep into the night. The Crispiest is comprised of Tamous Kelly on electric guitar, Drew Kelly on bass and Latrick Whithers on drums. When they got jammin it had a very roots, funk feel with clean rhythmic guitar and switching to a warm overdrive tone for some crazy lead parts that Andy would toss back and forth to Tamous. Tamous's guitar style was fresh, leaning heavily to a lot of blue note, jazz chords and some blazing fast scale runs. At the height of it Andy and Tamous would be locked in a musical conversation of guitars in good fun while Drew was holding down the roots on the bass, and Latrick kept it rolling on the drums. It was obvious that they were playing mostly loose jams and walking out on their new feet as a group, it was a lot of fun to see them musically freestyle with a little communication that kept them together in the groove. The original jams were heady and rhythmically induced with a little reggae, blues and rock and roll. I really liked the layout at Boehmer's; the band set up at the half lower level next to the bar so patrons sitting on the upper level could get a look down perspective of the band almost opposite of your typical live music perspective. I sat on the lower level for their first set which meant I was getting an ear full of Andy's amp. I went to get a drink up by the bar and I noticed the sound was more balanced between Andy and Tamous. Boehmer's drinks were quite reasonable too. I got my favorite drink served in a large glass for $4.00, later that night at another bar across town I ordered the same drink for $6.00 and it was served in a smaller glass. Andy stepped up to the mic for a couple of crowd pleasing renditions of like Sublime's "What I Got" and Radiohead's "Creep" along with some of Andy's original tunes. The easy going mood of the patrons added to the velocity of what the band was willing to pull off with the great skills from Andy and Tamous on the guitars. Andy has been very busy playing his folk roots style solo acoustic sets around town at Nakashima's, Montagues, Kavarna and various open mics including one the that he hosts on a weekly basis at the Broadway Lounge on Saturdays. Andy even has free mp3 downloads of his original solo work here. The show was pretty good especially for the amount of time Andy and the Crispiest have been collaborating. With the positive fun attitude of the band, loads of musical talent playing rock and roots a good time was sure to be had.