Music Matters: New York trio Consider the Source returns to Savannah

Consider the Source - Gabriel Mann (guitars), John Ferrara (bass) and Jeff Man (drums and percussion) - join forces to create what they describe as a "fourth voice," dubbed Sci-Fi Middle Eastern Fusion.

John says that being a "no genre" band is their biggest challenge because "when one first hears 'no vocals' or 'out there stuff,' most people have no point of reference to base whether or not they'd like what we do. That makes it hard to sell our sound to people without them actually hearing us. Once people do, once they experience the live energy, how we feed off of our audience and take sounds from tons of different genres and cultures, I think most people can relate to it and then get into it. It's just that initial exposure people need."

The band's name is an attempt to honor the different origins that combine to create their unique sound.

"When we first started studying all this different music from around the world, the phrase made sense. As we grew as a band, the name really came more into significance. We really try to learn the rules and origins of the music we study so we can play it authentically, but when we write and play together we fuse things together and do things that would be pretty far from tradition," Gabe says.

John credits the evolution of the group, which formed in 2003, to their initial approach.

"We started just doing complete improv. One of us would play a riff and then we'd just go with it. We gradually started writing actual songs, some with jams in them and some just as composition to stand alone. At this point our music has taken on more of an electronic mixed with electric sound and the compositions I feel are more mature but still maintain the rawness when it's need and the delicate sound when that's needed."

While defying musical categories can be a challenge, it also has become a strength for Consider the Source.

"We have no boundaries. We explore music from around the world and use all or our technical and creative and spiritual faculties to make them co-exist in a totally new way. Our purpose is to show people of all cultures that music can be a binding tool. It doesn't matter what your background is or what kind of music you're into. There are commonalities if you consider the source (pun definitely intended!)," John says.

"The fact that we don't fit into a pre-existing genre means that we get billed with bands from all sorts of genres. We play with jambands, jazz groups, metal groups, jazz/metal groups, psychedelic, funky, you name it we've played with it. No doubt being exposed to such a wide variety has rubbed off on us."

Gabriel promises that showgoers will "hopefully have an experience they haven't had before. Both musically and emotionally, we try to bring an intensity every night. But also, this music is really fun for us to play, so there is some humor mixed in with all the craziness. And our fans are a really mixed bunch; we have all sorts of music fans and age groups, so that's a really cool thing that we love."

For more info, visit considerthesourcemusic.com.

SEE THE SHOWS:

10 p.m. Dec. 6, The Wormhole, 2307 Bull St., wormholebar.com

Other Wormhole shows:

Dec. 7, PANIK EDM Dance Party

Dec. 8, Ceschi (hip hop)

OTHER VENUES

The Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave., 912-232-4447, sentientbean.com

8 p.m. Dec. 10, Old North State (pop/bluegrass), $5

Live Wire Music Hall, 307 West River St., livewiremusichall.com

10 p.m. Dec. 7, Crushed Out (formerly known as Boom Chick

9 p.m. Dec. 8, Dark Water Rising with The Royal Noise

10 p.m. Dec. 10, Riddle Jam with Fat Drunk and Ugly and the Train Wrecks

Wild Wing Cafe, 27 Barnard St., 912-790-9464, wildwingcafe.com

6-9 p.m. Dec. 6, Bucky and Barry, then late, Listen 2 Three

5-8 p.m., late Dec. 7, Brian Conner & Friends

1-4 p.m. Dec. 8, Jason Courtenay, then Silicone Sister

1-4 p.m., 5-8:30 p.m. Dec. 9, Bucky and Barry

Screamin' Mimis, 10 Whitaker St., 912-233-0655

10 p.m. Dec. 7, Habitat Noise, The Joy Kills, Concord America

10 p.m. Dec. 8, Culture Vulture

The Jinx, 127 W. Congress St., 912-236-2281

11 p.m. Dec. 7, Fable Cry, Cigarette Trees, $4

11 p.m. Dec. 12, Out Come the Wolves (Rancid tribute), Tim for Sayonara

Congress Street Social Club, 411 W. Congress St., 912-238-1985, congressstreetsocialclub.com

Dec. 7, Jubal Kane

Dec. 8, Jubee & the Morning After

Dec. 11, Voodoo Soup

World of Beer, 12 W. Broughton St., 912-443-1515, wobusa.com/savannah

9 p.m. Dec. 6, Kyle James Hauser

9 p.m. Dec. 7, A Nickel Bag of Funk

9 p.m. Dec. 8, The Resusicatators

Blue Turtle Bistro, 66th and Paulsen streets, blueturtlebistro.com.

Dec. 6 and 8, Jackson Evans

Dec. 7, Jackson and Maggie Evans

Shawndra Russell can be reached via Twitter @ShawndraRussell or her website, www.shawndrarussell.com.