Taper’s Choice End 1.0 Era with Dave Harrington at Big Ears
Taper’s Choice on Jam Crusie 22, photo by Jason Myers
Last night, Big Ears Festival returned to Knoxville, Tenn., for the outset of its stacked citywide festival. One highlight of the event’s opening program was a set from Taper’s Choice, which arrived as the jam supergroup’s last show with founding guitarist Dave Harrington. To properly recognize the occasion, the band bookended their set with an exploded run through “The Dave Test.”
Taper’s Choice rushed into the last show of their 1.0 era with the first phrases of “The Dave Test,” the meticulously composed jam launchpad that’s been a staple of their setlists since 2022 and was set to tape on last year’s Prog Hat. For the uninitiated, the track features an aleatoric chance element, where the band reaches the climax of the first section by singing, “Did it pass The Dave Test?” Harington, in turn, will weigh the band’s performance so far and give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, launching them into the free improvisation section with a tone of success or failure. At the end of a set celebrating the powerhouse quartet’s time together with favorites like “Pino Botticelli,” “Doner Wrap” and “Sometimes Man,” Dave gave his stamp of approval.
Since Taper’s Choice first banded together in 2021, Harrington has been an essential element in their distinctive slant on jam, serving as both the group’s guitarist and in-house producer. The band announced his departure on March 19 with a shared post, in which Harrington expressed gratitude for his bandmates and hope for future crossings.
“For personal reasons, I am stepping away from touring with the band,” Harrington wrote, “but I have and will always love the music of Taper’s Choice and my friends Chris, Alex and Zach, the wizards who make it. I hope to continue to be a part of the larger TC universe as we all move forward. Sometimes, man… catch you later on down the trail.”
Taper’s Choice – also featuring bassist Alex Bleecker (Real Estate), drummer Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend) and keyboardist Zach Tenorio-Miller (Arc Iris) – has not disclosed any full-time substitute for Harrington, but noted that CJ Twyoniak would fill in on the band’s upcoming co-headline tour with Eggy.
Taper’s Choice recently wrapped an East Coast tour with two performances aboard Jam Cruise 22, where Harrington sat for a conversation reflecting on the group and his musical identity outside of it. “The diversity of musical interests among the band is my favorite thing about being in this band,” he shared. “I feel like in the Venn diagram of ‘I’m really into this,’ there’s at least two or three people who can latch to that, and then for certain super iconic things, maybe three or four of us, but it’s not like we’re all obsessed with the same music. Everyone’s deepest influences are pretty different, and then there’s a lot of shared commonality.” Read more here.
