South Florida is still recovering from a heavy dose of Phish-flavored jam. And, with the return of Jam Cruise after a six-day sea escape, bands will extend the tuneage back on land. While a number of highly anticipated shows happen over the weekend through Fort Lauderdale, supergroup Holy Kimoto hits Miami's White Room this weekend. The String Cheese Incident, EOTO, and Steve Kimock side project debuts there Friday night. Jason Hann, Michael Travis (of EOTO and String Cheese), Kyle Hollingsworth (of String Cheese), and Kimock unite for the first time in a much-anticipated, all-night dance party. Crossfade recently caught up with Hann by phone. After chatting with him, it's clear to us there's nothing left to do but polish up those rage kicks.... 
via glittergluproductions.com
Holy Kimoto, with the Heavy Pets. Friday, January 8. White Room, 1306 N. Miami Ave., Miami. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Ages 18 and up with ID. glittergluproductions.com
New Times: The buzz is traveling nationwide about the big Holy Kimoto debut. The predicted sound seems to be a live composition of Steve Kimock's funk laced with EOTO's rhythm rage. Can you confirm?
Jason Hann: Let's also include Kyle Hollingsworth's keyboard wizardry in that mix. It's really a great gathering of musical styles and players.
With Hollingsworth and Kimock aboard Jam Cruise, this leaves no time for practice before the historic gig on Friday night. How does this add to the anticipation for the show?
That's the fun part. That's the edge that will push us to find those magic moments during the night. We all know we can play and that we come from different places, musically. Finding that common ground that we know is in there will produce something as a group that we wouldn't achieve in our other projects.
EOTO is a huge breakthrough in high-energy improvisational sound, as seen at the White Room show December 30. How will the EOTO style fuse with Holy Kimoto?
We've played with both Hollingsworth and Kimock on separate nights, but never both in the same night. From those shows the usual approach has been using EOTO's sound as the base for the evening - it will be a dance party all night. That being said, we are open to where the solos and textures of Kyle and Steve will take us. For instance, there may be moments where it feels right to get off of the rhythmic grid and take things to another place. There may be a song that someone hints to that we all recognize and go for. Then again, the feeling that we get from the audience, in the moment, may take us even further to another zone where we'll see what Kyle and Steve do when dubstep falls into their lap.
Mum's the word with details on this supergroup. Can you break down the actual Holy Kimoto formation for curious fans?
It worked out where we (EOTO) knew we were doing a Florida tour after the New Year. Since Jam Cruise is happening during that time, we wanted to find a way to do something with those participants who are returning from that trip the day our tour ends. And we just played Miami on December 30, so we wanted to offer something different than what we presented the week before. We don't have anything planned as Holy Kimoto after this event, which makes it super unique to check out. Like all projects, if there's enough demand for it, we would probably try to make some other shows happen. Right now, it's all about the one Miami show, and how we can fully enjoy that experience.
The four of you have shared the stage together, but not in one single side project before. How did talk of Holy Kimoto begin?
We had a lot of help from our promoter Brian Manning of Glitter Glu Productions, who ultimately put the details together to make it happen. He also came up with the name of the group (a playful combination of Hollingsworth, Kimock and EOTO).
There seems to be a lot of hype regarding the post-Jam Cruise shows. Holy Kimoto's first appearance will be going up against Karl Denson's Tiny Universe (Culture Room) and Zappa Plays Zappa (Revolution) the same night, Friday, January 8. Any nerves surrounding the competing lineups?
Nah. All of these groups have their own vibe. People will be a bit spread out, but our show is the only one that people didn't already see on the cruise and may never see again. There's been a great buzz surrounding our show, so we feel good about holding our own for the evening.
Miami is honored to host the first ever Holy Kimoto show. If the chemistry is there - as expected - is there talk of an extended or future tour?
But of course. None of us will know 'til we dive into the evening and see what comes out. We've had a great chemistry playing with Kimock and Kyle on separate occasions and it's really hard to imagine anything but a stellar collaboration this Friday. At the same time, this is one of those things where it's worked out mostly. I'm anxiously waiting to see how it all goes down!
