Best Bar Band

A good bar band plays more than worn-out covers and classic rock standards; a great bar band blows your mind with a repertoire that's just as entertaining as anything you thought you ever wanted to hear. This the Weld does with a casual panache that appears effortless but it is actually an alchemy of the most calculated kind. More a moment than an actual band, the husband-and-wife team of John and Nicole Yarling (drums and vocals/violin respectively) hold forth regularly at Mango's with Iko-Iko bassist Mike Mennel and Jeff Taylor of Oomp Bop Sha Bam. This ad hoc supergroup keeps the swingers dancing and the roots fans bopping with the tastiest understated sound in town. Nicky's vocals purr and swoop with the occasional yodel, and the band percolates with a groove you could actually talk over if you weren't listening so intently to the cool numbers this gang rolls out. How many bar bands bust Georgie Fame's "Yeh Yeh"? Only the best.