Bad Luck is a drums and saxophone duo with Chris Icasiano and Neil Welch, two classmates of mine from the University of Washington days, who have taken off on an amazing path of music-making since then. Chris has gone on to work in a diverse range of settings, from free jazz to rock to West African music, and Neil has been leading a 7-piece group that fuses Indian music and jazz, releasing an album, as well as playing with Chris and squeezing in a road trip that spanned almost all 50 states!
That being said, I was very excited to to see the Bad Luck CD release concert on Saturday night and hear what Chris and Neil were up to. I had not heard the group since Hardcoretet played a show with them months ago at Lucid, which I still look back on regretfully and with some guilt, as the owner of the club asked us to cut Bad Luck short that night, and we did that rather than stand up for them and refuse to do so.
That unfortunate experience has done nothing to slow the duo’s momentum, however, and it was evident at the show on Saturday. The Good Sheperd Center was packed, and it was definitely the place to be if you were a Seattle musician. The compositions moved from wildly energetic and raw to achingly delicate and introspective, sometimes in a very short span of time, and Chris and Neil were on the same wavelength the entire night. It was inspiring, interesting, and new, something any music scene needs as much of as possible. Congratulations guys!