Going to see South Florida acts in a festival setting can lack the element of surprise. Those events are usually themed, and even expected top area blues, jazz, or alt-rock artists will usually give listeners only exactly what they came to expect.
So it came as a jolt — even among the folk-to-punk stylistic swath presented at the latest all-purpose 561 Music Fest — when youthful Loxahatchee-based quartet Mount Sinai (Mount Sinai Music at bandsintown.com) opened one of the festival’s two stages with a Frank Zappa-esque mix of creative compositions and spontaneous improvisations March 30. It was as if an act from Los Angeles had infiltrated the locals-only festival, qualifying as a refreshing rarity that brought the sound of surprise.
Those last four words were the title of a 2001 album by Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, a genre-bending jazz/fusion group led by since-retired drummer Bruford, whose previous résumé included a holy trinity of progressive rock acts: Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson. Mount Sinai, true to its Biblical name, likewise offered a sonic blend of all that came before it and beyond.
Picture Bruford’s polyrhythmic drumming foundation mixed with the theatrical vocals of Peter Gabriel, alternate tunings of guitarist Jimmy Page, unorthodox ideas of bassist Flea, and a combination of jazz/fusion icons Herbie Hancock on keyboards and Michael Brecker on wind instruments.
All of those artists started out in the 20th century, before the Mount Sinai band members were born. Each musician is 24 years old, yet an old soul seasoned beyond his years (as evidenced by their vintage hairstyles). Not to mention Alex Quiggle’s thought-provoking lyrics, with imagery encompassing multiple realms.
Quiggle sang while playing keyboards, harmonizing vocally or instrumentally with Nicholas Guerrero’s electric guitar. When he wasn’t singing, Quiggle often played an electronic wind instrument, commonly referred to as an EWI and not usually seen outside of the jazz world, if anywhere. And bassist Matthew Susich added impactful harmonic lines, occasionally slapping for accents while creating those polyrhythmic patterns with drummer Luis Triana. The four appeared to be music students, but that proved to be a product of natural creativity.
“Nico studied a little guitar at Palm Beach State College,” Triana said, “and he’s into jazz, Zappa and Led Zeppelin. Other than that, we’re all pretty much self-taught. But we’re not looking to fit into any one musical genre. I don’t think any of us would allow that to happen.”
Musically, the 3½-year-old Mount Sinai practically offered as many elements as the periodic table. There were the classical music embellishments and unpredictable, uneven rhythms found in all great British prog-rock groups; Middle Eastern figures à la Zeppelin, the left-of-center undercurrent of Primus, psychedelic lyricism of Pink Floyd, and jam band mentality of Phish. Even Mount Sinai’s four-on-the-floor rock tunes took stylistic detours live.
“I like a lot of ’90s alternative and grunge music,” said Triana. “Lately, I’ve been listening to more folk-type stuff, and punk music. We all listen to jazz and classic rock, too. And Matt’s a fan of a lot of more modern-day progressive metal bands like Tool. So we’re an unusual mixture of tastes and influences, but what comes out isn’t exactly like any of that.”
The third annual 561 Music Fest took place in the open-air beer garden at Mathews Brewing Company in Lake Worth Beach. Presented by its podcast’s hosts, Ben Childs and Hector Diaz (who are members with fellow singing multi-instrumentalist James Galiano of the Palm Beach Gardens-based roots music trio The Killbillies), the all-day event featured afternoon sets ranging from original pop (At the Starlight) to rock (Ambush) to punk (Billy Doom Is Dead), all leading up to evening closers The Killbillies.
Mount Sinai played electrifying material from its Quiggle-engineered, seven-song 2023 debut Half of a Yellow Sun, available on streaming services. And the tracks, especially longer-form, improvisational and experimental pieces like “Counselor,” “Fingerprints of the Gods” and “Atomic No. 3,” all written collectively by the band, tended to go even beyond their outside-the-lines recorded versions. As the festival’s second band to appear, and the first on its east stage, the quartet turned heads by giving a headliner-worthy performance. They have two new singles set for release in the near future, both likewise recorded in their soundproofed garage studio.
Six weeks after the 561 event, the band presented an alter-ego acoustic show indoors at The Dancing Elephant, a bookstore in downtown Lake Worth Beach. Susich played bass seated on the floor; Triana used brushes on a hybrid set of drums and percussion instruments. Guerrero played a hollow-bodied guitar, and Quiggle employed the EWI, a miniature Korg synthesizer and more of his falsetto vocal range, adding to the quartet’s stylistic collage.
“Musically, we’re very bipolar,” Quiggle said afterward. “I listen to mostly obscure stuff. Like a bizarre jazz-folk-punk band called The Taxpayers lately. And I didn’t study formally, but I’ve learned music theory like intervals and scales, which mostly help with our songwriting.”
In addition to hearing any of the artists mentioned above live for the first time, a maiden voyage into Mount Sinai’s music can likewise be a whirlwind experience; a similar-yet-different feeling to first witnessing the likes of fellow multi-genre acts like UK, Weather Report, Jeff Beck, Return to Forever, Tony Williams Lifetime, Tribal Tech, Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Screaming Headless Torsos, Hiromi Uehara, or Medeski, Martin & Wood.
“Maybe we’ll eventually sell out,” Triana said with a smile, “and release a ska album. But I doubt it.”
Even other original area rock bands simply don’t sound as original as Mount Sinai. Here in increasingly regressive tribute act territory, these 24-year-olds offer the exact opposite — progressive combinations of sounds that listeners have never heard before.
If You Go
Mount Sinai performs a monthly multi-act showcase at Black Flamingo Brewing, 3260 N.W. 23rd Ave., Suite 400E, Pompano Beach.
When: 8 p.m. June 22 with Regarding Waves, Waterplant, and Like Pirates
Admission: $5
Info: 954-933-1960, www.blackflamingobrewing.co