Picture yourself in a boat on a river...no I'm just kidding. But this band does require a certain surrender of the cerebellum to their sound. Toad Head's music is a journey in and of itself, its definitely worth the trip. Now most people these days don't have the attention span for a 9 minute track. When we look back through music history, it hasn't always been so. A classical concerto typically lasts 30 minutes and has at least three movements. I believe the longest song thus far, is The Rise and Fall of Bossanova,” by PC III, which lasts 13 hours, 23 minutes, and 32 seconds. In rock music this speciality is reserved for the realm of the great guides of music; Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Dead, Frank Zappa, and more recently bands like Tool, Widespread Panic, and String Cheese incident. Toad Head absolutely belongs in this category. They let the movement of the song create an odyssey of sound. Are you ready to set sail?

Shadows of the Moon off their 2021 release of Toad Head Live at Pearl Street is an excellent exhibition of their work. Their use of lead guitar and vocal work create the vehicle for which the sound, the drum and bass keep it driving. This 9 minute 13 second song has at least 3 movements. The opening, is upbeat and traveling. It asks the ethereal question of "Where do you go shadows of the moon?" To which the moon shadows speak in response through the lyrical voice of the lead guitar.

This leads us to the second movement which is a repose from the busy start, it's the motion between the vocal start and the instrumental. The second motion is the build. The sound begins like a waterfall of energy tempting the listener to take the plunge. Toad Head operates on the transformational plane. You can only meet this band as deeply as you’ve met yourself. If you’re a lover of the deep then you'll feel right at home in these waters. If you prefer to stick to the shallow end of the dream pool then they are not necessarily your cup of tea. But there's still hope for you.

By the third motion of this song, if you're not totally convinced these guys are the second coming of “the dead" both grateful and reborn as Toad Head, then there's no hope left for fans of good jam bands. So now only one question remains unanswered…Are you ready to enter the mind of the amphibian?

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