Loving the QQQ!
Some old friends came up to Dartmouth last night for a concert and it was great! QQQ is my old bandmate Jason Treuting and his wife Beth Meyers along with Dan Trueman and Monica Mugan. Dan plays a Norwegian Hardinger Fiddle that is an endlessly alluring instrument (he always gets the good shout outs for this) and the core of the bands sound. The beauty of the group is that they play these amazingly well crafted tunes with all of the compositional rigor of “serious music” (I will use that title today…) and all of the warmth, thoughtfulness, and silliness the is at the core peoples personality.
I think the highest praise that I can give these guys is to say that this music is incredibly honest and true to the members of the group. It is really refreshing to watch people find a musical environment where they can be themselves. I am often a critical guys musically and was in love with this show. It was jam packed with good music and positivity. It had plenty of charming rough edges (mostly in the on stage banter) that made the show great!
Lastly, Monica, the QQQ guitarist, does lots of amazing things during the course of a set. I just mention her as she frequently flies under the radar. She mentioned that audiences often comment that they cant hear her. It is not that you cant hear her, it is that cant hear her play the thing you thing you expect a guitarist would play. She plays selflessly and spends most of her time musically jumping around the ensemble, finding places to make the other players sounding bigger, better, and more complex. She is the super-tasty point guard of the classical guitar!!! Check them out here!
Also, check out Dan and Monica’s duo Trollstilit here! This is Dan and Monica’s first group and the predecessor to QQQ.