Third Mind Supergroup Brings Psychedelic Rock to Eugene's WOW Hall

A supergroup built from the scattered pedigrees of American rock's margins descended on the WOW Hall Thursday night, when The Third Mind brought its loose, improvisational brand of psychedelic blues to 291 West 8th Avenue for an all-ages show at 8 p.m.

The five-piece band reads like a who's-who of indie and alternative rock credibility. Dave Alvin, founding member of The Blasters, anchors the project alongside Jesse Sykes, the vocalist known from Jesse Sykes & The Sweeter Hereafter. Bassist Victor Krummenacher, a veteran of both Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, holds down the low end beside drummer Michael Jerome, who has logged time with Richard Thompson and John Cale. Guitarist Mark Karan rounds out the lineup.

The Eugene stop supported Right Now!, the group's third full-length album, described as a collection of blues and classic rock covers with a few originals folded in. Alvin has described the band's animating principle as keeping "a few compositions in mind and just see what happens — both on the stage and in the studio." That approach surfaces in how the group handles its source material: folk and blues numbers stretched into extended territory, the way Elizabeth Cotten's "Shake Shugaree" gets reinterpreted into a Grateful Dead-style jam. Sykes' bluesy vocals center the group, providing a compass through the jam-band haze, and Alvin has noted that the members' divergent histories feed the collective sound. "Everyone's different backgrounds — who we've played with, where we've come from — all add up," he said.

Eugene's own Ripple Vision, a psychedelic funk-rock band, opened the show.

The timing of the Eugene date carries additional significance for fans of the band's studio work. The Third Mind released Spellbinder!, a companion EP to Right Now!, the day after the WOW Hall show. The EP features rearranged and remixed cuts pulled from the Right Now! sessions, effectively making the Eugene concert the final night before a new chapter of the record arrived.

Tickets were priced at $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and $40 for preferred seating through WOWHall.org. The WOW Hall tour stop was part of a short West Coast run that continued with a March 14 date at Tractor Tavern in Seattle, followed by The Alpine in Reno on March 17 and the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma on March 18.

The WOW Hall's spring calendar continues with Shadowgrass on March 13, Anna Moss on March 22, and Corb Lund on March 25. The venue can be reached at 541-687-2746.