Show Review - Taper's Choice 7/2/25 Boulder, CO
Night Zero
In celebration of Night Zero for Phish’s Folsom Field run this weekend, Taper’s Choice took over Boulder’s Fox Theatre for a night of jams to get the run warmed up, alongside sets from DJ Tad Cautious and Breadbox, a local Jerry Garcia Band “lover” band.
The Choice delivered a set just under two hours in length, packing each song with dense jamming that showed off each member’s excitement to be playing in their jam project, palpable from the first notes of “Running from the Rain.”
Keyboardist Zach Tenorio made the most of his minimalist rig, going absolutely wild on effects and making his Nord create waves of wild organ in the opener’s jam. Bassist Alex Bleeker and drummer Chris Tomson initially kept things in a steady groove, offsetting the jazzy keyboard runs – but as things progressed, the band reached a controlled-chaos zone that is the hallmark of their very proggy influence.
“Pino Botticelli,” a mostly instrumental composition, saw Tenorio and guitarist Dave Harrington grin at each other through a flawless execution of some complex composed melodies. Taper’s Choice is a band who loves a play on words, and the song’s title (and only lyric) bears a striking resemblance to “peanut butter jelly” when sung.
The proggy compositions continued with “Mahi Mahi Fish Stew,” Harrington sticking out with some harmonic octave effects while Tenorio went into bleep-bloop territory. Weaving in and out of the jam, Bleeker’s vocals referenced the altitude in Colorado among some verses that I’m not totally sure about being pre-composed or improvised.
The energy was dialed back a bit for “Close Encounters,” Harrington and Tenorio engaging in some dreamy jazz interplay before kicking things right back into total chaos once again, the song itself anchored beautifully by Bleeker’s bass line.
Welcoming Colorado native and The String Cheese Incident keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth to the stage next, the dual-keyboard Choice worked through “Darkness on the Edge of Midtown,” Hollingsworth and Tenorio trading between who was playing organ and who was playing electric piano in a really cool way.
Taking on SCI’s “Elijah” next, Hollingsworth intro’d the tune with some lovely solo piano before handing things off to Harrington for an Allman Brothers-esque guitar solo, going for a more melodic shreddy approach as opposed to the aggressive jazz sounds he had been leaning into previously.
From there, my personal highlight of the night came within Traffic’s “Empty Pages,” with Hollingsworth on lead vocals and then an extended electric piano duel with Tenorio, both musicians playing lightning-fast runs on a distorted Wurlitzer patch as they went back and forth.
The show closed out with “Doner Wrap” and “Lick the Toad,” some “Guyute”-ish composition leading into more exemplary keyboard work through the final jams as Taper’s Choice closed out their Night Zero set on a high note.
With no shows currently on the calendar – though Bleeker did mention that they will be playing in Colorado no less than eight more times this year – the members of Taper’s Choice will take more time to focus on their side projects and upcoming studio releases, but I can highly recommend seeing them for future pre-Phish events!
Now…on to Folsom!