CIRCLES AROUND THE SUN
I’ll never forget the first time I saw this band play in person — a Phish after party in Chicago, following the Saturday show of Phish’s 2017 Northerly Island run. Casal had a way of stretching out an idea in such a tasteful and exploratory way, and the band used its spacey, soul-driven instrumentals to express emotions with notes instead of words.
After his Saturday night show (the third and final show of a three-night run at 1st Bank Center), Billy showed up unannounced at Knew Conscious, an intimate 450-person music venue/art gallery/club to sit in with a lineup billed with guitarist Ross James (Terrapin Family Band) and banjoist Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon and their Electric Dead Grass project featuring bass player Garrett Sayers (The Motet) and drummer Mark Levy (Circles Around the Sun). They jammed until about 4 in the morning — the stuff of my dreams.
Drummer Mark Levy, of Circles Around The Sun, sat down with Jam in the Stream before the band’s March 15 show at the Turf Club in St. Paul. He discussed a range topics, including the way the body and mind react to listening to extended instrumentals, the way he has approached the role of beat keeper, and Billy String surprise sit in at a late-nite after party in February.