American jam band Perpetual Groove is riding a wave of momentum with its improvisational rock and energetic live shows. The band will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at The Mobius, 281 Fourth St., Ashland. The momentum for Perpetual Groove began in 1997 when two of its founders, guitarist Brock Butler and bassist Adam Perry, met after their freshmen orientation at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. To the dismay of their dorm mates, the two spent many late night sessions jamming with other musicians. The original band lineup was formed, and Perpetual Groove performed at venues in South Carolina and Georgia. The group's favorite haunt, though, was J.J. Cagney's, a local bar in Savannah. The new band put together a demo recording that later became known as the "Jungle Funk Demo." Butler and Perry were both taking minors in sound engineering at Savannah College, so they decided to utilize the school's studios and record a studio album. Their self-titled album featured eight tracks, and just five hundred copies of were pressed. The original band lineup dissoved when two of the members graduated college and left Savannah to pursue employment. Butler and Perry continued to pursue music, and the two spent time writing, playing and working on ideas for new projects. Each worked various jobs and hosted open mic nights at J.J. Cagney's as a way to earn a little money and get to know other musicians. It was at one of the open mic nights in 2001 that the two boys met their future band mates, drummer Albert Suttle and keyboardist Matt McDonald. The new quartet quickly became a regular act at Cagney's. The band members began to connect and be comfortable with the music they were creating, and together a new sound emerged. Things took a professional turn for Perpetual Groove when it took on its manager Ben Ferguson. The band began picking up a fan base in 2001 and 2002 while performing in Atlanta with C. Robie and The Dunhams, landing a gig at the city's Annual Music Midtown Fest. Things were rolling for the Groove members, and it was time to put a marketing approach together. The group started distributing free live CDs and hired a booking agency. Soon Groove was touring and performing full-time in the Southeast. In 2003, the group recorded its first release, "Sweet Oblivious Antidote," at a friend's studio in Atlanta and headed into the Midwest to tour. Groove finished the tour with a sold-out performance at The Georgia Theatre in Athens on New Year's Eve. The band toured harder in support of its new album and got a lucky break when its members were invited to open for rock band The Big Wu on its Northeast tour that spring. Groove began its own national tour later in 2003, performing at venues across the country, such as the High Sierra Music Festival in California and the Berkshire Mountains Music Festival in Massachusetts. The band is still ridin' the wave with its second CD release, "All This Everything," in 2004 and a third studio recording — yet to be titled — to be released this year.

On Saturday Oct. 21, at 9 p.m. The Mobius welcomes funk/ jazz/ trance group Perpetual Groove. Admission is $10 for this all-ages show. Simply put, Perpetual Groove is the perfect jamband. So it makes sense that "All This Everything," the quartet's sophomore studio effort, weaves a hodgepodge of styles and sounds into a single, slightly manic statement. This quartet from Savannah, Ga. has a long list of accolades. They were named one of the top ten bands to watch in 2005 by Relix magazine, they performed to over 20,000 people at Bonnaroo, have made appearances at High Sierra and been have selling out the Georgia Theatre since New Years Eve '04. Perpetual Groove throws down a funky blend of reggae, tribal-style trance rhythms, heavy funk, jazzy improvisation and synth loops, intertwined with inspiring and sentimental lyrics. Their high energy and meticulous craftsmanship keep their songs fresh and surprising. With veteran producer Robert Hannon at the helm, P-Groove successfully synthesizes the source genres of jazz, rock, funk and trance into a series of tight, polished compositions. In the process, the collective also manages to create a studio-sounding document, still fluid enough to be filed under jam. "All This Everything" (Harmonized Records 2004), produced and recorded by Hannon launched the band out of their home in the south and onto the national radar. Based around the euphoric guitar solos of Brock Butler, "All This Everything" often favors melody over funky grooves, linking its well-charted jams together with government precision.

Regardless of whether your head turns in the genre's direction, or you'd just as soon let the dead bodies pile up before taking a glance, Perpetual Groove is making it difficult to not notice the jamband realm. Granted, vehicular catastrophes make even the most narrow-minded folks rubberneck, but this Savannah band is no freeway sideshow carnival. The group's instrumental arrangements (okay, "jams") are well-suited for the lazy landscapes of sleepy South Georgia. A (s)low country boil, the rusting tin roof, the goats peeking through the barbed wire fences, the u-pick-'em peach orchards and the Baptist fellowships offering church-endorsed words of wisdom on signboards: these are the images that flash by the passenger side window and litter the listener's mind. Don't get me wrong, this is not outright Southern rock - or even Southern-tinged rock for that matter - but Perpetual Groove does provide a fitting score to the South's sweeping and aging landscape. In the towns where men use John Deeres and haven't a clue how fashionable their ball caps are, and in the towns where the same last names run for sheriff or commissioner year after year, the band's latest effort All This Everything comes through my speakers. It's a perfect audio pairing to my rural, real-life Sunday drive. Down South where nicknames like Bud or Big Dave stick for life, and if you have a son he's expected to be a Junior, I receive subtle doses of Taoism and a heavy ladling of kaleidoscopic guitar licks. The cinematic experience reaches new heights at the Georgia Theatre this weekend as P-Groove unleashes new tunes and the road-tested mainstays in full Dolby 5.1 surround sound, a feat rarely attempted by live acts. David Eduardo

Perpetual Groove drummer Albert Suttle ponders “Moon-Groove,” his band’s collaboration with fellow Georgia jam-rockers Moonshine Still: “If it had a taste, it would be kind of like an aperitif, that you would take between courses at a meal. Something that cleanses your palate and gets you ready for something new.” One of the blessings of live music is the ability of artists to create and collaborate onstage, to alter the music in new and exciting ways. Moonshine Still and Perpetual Groove will offer this kind of collaboration in action when they take the stage together for a special “Moon-Groove,” set on Oct. 11 at The Blue Note. Moonshine Still, a six-piece ensemble out of Macon, Ga., formed in 1996 and has become a live staple in the Southeast at clubs and festivals alike. The group combines an eclectic blend of influences, from warm, exotic Middle Eastern and Indian overtones in guitar solos and percussion to vocals that hint at the slow and soulful Georgia gospel style. The group combines the styles with skilled musicianship, which is exemplified by keyboardist Trippe Wright’s distinctive ability to blend the sound of a church organ with psychedelic jam-rock sensibilities. Drummer Jon Joiner attributes the band’s ability to defy the stereotypes of both the typical Southern band and the typical jam band to its growing fan base. “There’s definitely a Southern-rock thing that I personally grew up around,” Joiner said. “But it’s also something that we’re trying to grow away from. We’re making sure that new fans we’re trying to get understand what kind of music we are.” Despite its desire to tour nationally, the band is still beloved in its home state, consecutively selling out the Georgia Theatre in Athens for its annual New Year’s Eve show. Perpetual Groove was born in 1997, the brainchild of Savannah College of Art & Design classmates Brock Butler and Adam Perry. The two began collaborating in a series of dorm room jam sessions with the original keyboardist and drummer, both of whom would later leave the band. Suttle and current keyboardist Matt McDonald met Butler and Perry in the spring of 2001, during their stint as members of a band while in the Army at Fort Stewart near Savannah. As PGroove gains new fans and new experiences across the country, its members continue to develop a great appreciation for the new collaboration opportunities. This is not limited to merely other bands, but holds true for members of the crew. When asked what the highlight of the latest tour had been for him so far, Suttle said it was the addition to the PGroove team of sound monitor technician Newton Patrick, a former production manager for bands such as The Who. Suttle describes Patrick as “an absolute blessing.” Often, bands that hail from the same area and play similar styles of music will fall victim to competition and establish rivalries. But the members of Moonshine Still and Perpetual Groove were able to forge a sense of mutual admiration, which led to the creation of the “Moon-Groove” set. Both bands contend that the collaborations started out of a combination of friendship and mutual convenience. “We just kind of got to know the guys, slowly but surely, and then as we started touring and started doing more and more stuff, we started getting billed with them,” Suttle said. “And we did it enough early on, that it didn’t really matter who was opening for who. It made more sense to make a seamless transition between the opener and the closer.” Joiner, who joined Moonshine Still this summer, came into the band after the “Moon-Groove” collaborations had begun. He attributes the ease and success of the tours to the sense of community and commitment to the music the band members have with each other. “They were just friends from the same area who were in two different bands,” Joiner said. “They thought it was just a good idea to team up and do some shows together and even do some short tours together. And it just worked real well with the styles of music and the personalities of the bands. Everybody just got along real well. We help each other out and exchange each other’s fans.” Both Suttle and Joiner said they have grown as musicians and gained much from collaborating onstage with members of the other band. “You might be on the stage with someone who’s such a badass that it raises your game to a level that you’d either forgotten about or didn’t even know you had,” Suttle said, “and that, to me, is the inherent beauty of it.” According to both drummers, collaboration allows musicians to bring out the best in one another and discover more about their individual playing styles. Although the future of the “Moon-Groove” tours is uncertain, Joiner is certain that the experience has been more than beneficial. “I think it’s going to help in the future as much as it has now,” Joiner said. “Whether we stay and keep doing this in 20 years or we do other things, we’ll make the connections. Seeing live music is something that’s so important for musicians, and being on the road as much as we are, it’s hard for us to see live shows, so when we get to play with people and we open for them or they open up for us, I get to see different influences that I wouldn’t be able to see.” The musicians gain the same insights the fans do from watching live performances, from diverse musical styles that will later impact the music to merely waiting for the spark of unpredictability. “If (“Moon-Groove”) had a visual aspect to it,” Suttle said, “it would be like an urban jungle with trees growing out of buildings, something that doesn’t seem like it fits together at all, but it still works.”

Relix Magazine, Jambase.com and the Homegrown Music Network all hail Perpetual Groove as one of the best young jam bands on the scene right now. They have appeared at such high-profile festivals as the High Sierra Music Festival, Langerado, Wakarusa, 10,000 Lakes, Bonnaroo, Jam Cruise, the Xingolati Pacific Groove Cruise, Jazzfest and New York City’s “Largest Earthday Celebration in the World,” the Green Apple Music Festival. Earlier this year, the band ventured far across the Pacific Ocean for its first-ever tour of Japan. Under their collective belt, the band has recorded two original studio albums, 2005’s All This Everything, recorded in Atlanta’s Tree Sound Studios and produced by Grammy-winner Robert Hannon (Outkast, Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris), and 2003’s Sweet Oblivious Antidote. As of late, PGroove is working on their third studio album, also being recorded at Tree. Their rise up the jam band ranks hasn’t affected their evolution or compromised their musical integrity, though, as their new studio album promises to be another jam-filled, eclectic mix of all-over-the-map influences. Entering a new era of traveling via tour bus, their current tour finds the band crossing the nation, leaving their van and the Southeast club circuit behind for multiple sold-out nights at venues like Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse and Athens’ Georgia Theatre, and making Saturday’s intimate Rhythm and Brews show that much more sweet. Despite all of their forward momentum, it’s still all about the music. “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” says PGroove front man Brock Butler. “My dream is to play.” And while their rise to the big time hasn’t given them big heads, it has afforded the band one noticeable luxury: a bigger light show. The band has added eight new lights to their setup and hopes to show them off on Saturday. Butler says Jason Huffer, who designs and controls the light show is “the fifth member of the band.” “The inclusion of the light show is integral to the entire experience,” he says. “Without Jason, we would be a lot less.”