Free at Noon Flashback: SIMO jams their way through intergalactic sonic journey

Watching today’s Free at Noon performance, I became puzzlingly entranced by the genre-bending Nashville trio, SIMO.

Part old school rock, part funky psych, part improv lords, SIMO is like if The Black Keys and the Grateful Dead had a musical brainchild. Then — hear me out here — in an unexplained epic tale, that brainchild somehow, some way, got dropped off into outerspace, with only the sonic power of their psychedelic, rootsy jam seshes able to transport them back to their Tennessee abode.

With famed guitarist, JD Simo, as our fearless leader, he, along with the mega talented crew of bassist, Elad Shapiro, and drummer, Adam Abrashoff, allowed the crowd to tag along on their interstellar ride, where we travelled through time and space and genres by ways of SIMO’s latest album, Rise and Shine.

After a full-throttle start, we took the scenic route for a bit with the bluesy ballad, “I Want Love.” Flowing seamlessly from stripped falsetto to clashes of sound, the two tones found a meeting point at the end, where soft vocals fused in harmony with high voltage guitar.

Leading us into the final intergalactic stretch, SIMO sent us off with a prayer. The closing track on their album, “I Pray” chugged along as a spoken word plea for peace and justice in our world, before Abrrashoff sent us home by punctuating our journey with an insane, minutes long drum solo.

If you missed this spacey, rock n roll trip, you can still catch SIMO in Philly tonight at Dawson’s Street Pub. Find info on the show here, and check out audio and photos from today’s performance below.