On a recent beautiful June summer evening, Burlington's newest band, Zephrus, took to the South Burlington's Higher Ground stage for their first public performance.

The evening was the first of a series of events that feature local bands, called Northern Exposure.  Zephrus, a 3 piece rock ensemble from Burlington, features the talents of guitarist Corey Cranston, drummer Troy Cyphers, and bassist Scott McGrath.

Alongside Vermont bands Flowting Bridge, November Guest, and Cash is King, Zephrus took the stage unassumingly and performed a 45 minute set of almost entirely original music.  Starting with the low, building instrumental warm up Of Space and Time, audience members got their first taste of what Zephrus was all about.  As deep, trance-like drones, punctuated by Native American flute phrases rang from the homemade synth and sampler setup at McGrath's feet,  Cranston and McGrath began trading solos.  All the while Cyphers' capable drum skills were evident yet restrained, through creative cymbal work, completing the atmospheric vibe of the intro.

After a few minutes of mood setting, the 3 exploded into the rock original Port Starboard, a heavy track featuring Cyphers on vocals.  It was immediately clear that singing was not any sort of distraction to Cyphers' drumming, as he lay down a solid and thick rock groove underneath the dark motif of McGrath's chorused bass and alien synthesizers.  To finish the song, Cranston played a blistering solo and the band wrapped up with a tight, cut ending.

Next up was Tranzatlantic Zepplin, a majestic and oceany instrumental in 6/8 time.  Again, Zephrus' note and chord choices, along with periodically dischordant drones of synth and bass incorporated into the song, created a distinct overall sound that was omnipresent through out all the songs.

After a quick intro of the band and some thanks to Higher Ground, the band launched into their only cover of the evening - a peppier and re-imagined version of Sugarloaf's Green Eyed Lady.  This version came with use of trippy digital delays on Cranston's guitar, wonky and psychedelic takes on the solo stabs from the original, and overall a very interesting interpretation of the song adapted to a trio.  At one point the song, as an energetic and splitting guitar solo by Cranston, riding high on the wave of McGrath's and Cyphers' solid and powerful rhythmic kicks to the gut, all in a moment came crashing down to a sparse recapitulation of the main verse bass line, the crowd erupted in applause and cheering, an action reminiscent of a bebop jazz concert.

As the writing has been shared among all of the players in the band, Breaking Ridge was a song whose chords and lyrics were written predominantly by McGrath.  After an abrupt launch into a blistering but brief guitar solo intro, he took to the mic and, impressively, sang a heartfelt and powerful lead while playing bass AND running synth.  The middle of the song was marked by a quieter and thoughtful interlude, over which McGrath performed a tasty, flowing solo with his chorused and delayed bass.

The band closed their debut performance with the wild Citrus Squeeze, an energetic original whose sound walks the line between rock and electronica.  Cyphers' tight drumming took on an almost drum machine like sound, while McGrath's bass lines driving and repetitive basslines would quickly glissando up to, and back down from, a higher octave in the blink of an eye - portraying synth-like accuracy, yet retaining the organic feel and performance interest of a real stringed instrument.  Cypher's vocals entranced listeners leading up to a blistering lead from Cranston over the top of McGrath's arpeggiated synth.  As the song came to a close, only the synth continued behind the band as they approached the front of the stage, took a bow, and walked out - leaving an audience screaming and cheering their applause.  If we can expect more shows like this from Zephrus, I for one, will be looking forward to it and I suspect many others in the Burlington area will soon find out..

Zachary Treamer