THE WESTERN GROOVE

Location. Location. Location. Sometimes it is as equally important where you are playing as what you’re playing. Such was the case for Underground Orchestra last summer at the Rothbury Festival. “People had to walk by the stage where we were playing to get to other stages,” says percussionist Ben Baruch. “Afterwards, we had so many hits on our website with people saying, ‘We had no idea who you were, and we actually didn’t go see other bands because we stopped and saw you guys.’”

The Los Angeles jam-jazz-prog-funk-rock troupe made a splash in late 2006 with its debut album, Active Ingredient, eventually leading to high-profile gigs such as Rothbury, a location which also saw Baruch guest on a stealth show with Perpetual Groove’s Brock Butler, with whom he grew up in Savannah, Georgia. Baruch notes that the band’s second disc, which it’s working on now, will be a definitive move forward: “We’ve been writing a lot together and we’re really growing, playing bigger shows to develop our sound, and I think people will be really excited about where our direction is going.”

Location. Location. Location. Sometimes it is as equally important where you are playing as what you’re playing. Such was the case for Underground Orchestra last summer at the Rothbury Festival.