The New Akronite: Boozled: Time Cat Delivers

Rock and roll, a name that has been stretched thinly across genres as if it were a one size fits all kind of thing, has found itself a new home. Tonight at The Rialto in Kenmore, the harmonious vocalization of the opening act Saint John gave way to something not many would-be fans would have expected. When Time Cat took the stage last night they owned it.
This little trio from Akron aptly describes itself as "a kitten's whisper or a lions roar." When they aren't cooing sweetly in your ear, they are tearing it apart.

There isn't anything polished or neat about the lead vocal's voice, even though you could easily imagine her singing gospel, jazz, or old world standards. If you believed word of mouth introductions you would have thought her only talent was in how she plays her guitar. You would have been wrong. Jeri Sapronetti doesn't just play the guitar. She doesn't just sing the songs. Jeri is, as simply as it can be stated, a born performer of the highest caliber. This may be a beginning for us, but she has been on this road a long time and her experience shows well.
When Jeri tells her audience that Time Cat has the best drummer possible, and that it took years to find him, she isn't kidding. Sam Caler is not only good at keeping the beat, he creates it within us. With the rapid quickening of his wrists he pulls us out of our personal spaces. He starts our toes tapping and our heads bopping. He doesn't play the drums, he makes them speak loud and clear: "follow me", "dance with me", "be with me".

The drums may tell us what to do, but the bass shows us how to do it. Colten Huffman surround us in a cloud of notes so thick we don't think, we only hear and feel. He gives sway to our shoulders and swing to our hips.
The bass is the heart pumping, the drums is the brain thinking, and the vocalist is the emotions that flow. There is only one Time Cat. They are in sync with each other, and attuned with their audience. To use an old cliché, they are perfect.

We are glad to be, as Jeri so aptly called us, slaves to the music. Of all the adjectives I could use to describe them the only one that can do them justice is "better." Time Cat is better than expected, better than they were before, better than their closest equals. They are defining what is iconically Akron, and there is no better time for that than now.
I have heard them described as the "next best thing." That is totally wrong because they aren't the next best thing. They are what the standard should be right now. No matter where they go from here, to this audience everyone else will be measured against them, and rightly so.