You Bred Raptors? at the Mercury Lounge

You Bred Raptors? (yes, with an intentional question mark) is an instrumental trio from Queens that wears an array of masks and fuses jazz, classical and funk. Named after a spoken line in the film Jurassic Park, You Bred Raptors? is comprised of Epileptic Peat (aka Peter Rains) on a custom-built eight-string bass and glockenspiel, Zach Schmidlein on drums and Bryan Wilson on cello and glockenspiel. The trio busks in New York subway stations, has worked as a pit orchestra for a local theater group and scored the feature film, The Return to Class of Nuke ‘Em High. Peat and his new custom Conklin bass will be featured in the July 2013 issue of Bass Guitar Magazine. You Bred Raptors? has recorded two albums. The band also has an amusing sense of humor, on stage and on their web sites.

I remember seeing a then-unknown Mahavishnu Orchestra as an opening act in the 1970s and coming away thinking, “I do not know what that was, but it was amazing.” I felt the same sensation upon listening to You Bred Raptors? at the Mercury Lounge tonight. Now in the confines of an enclosed venue rather than an open subway station, the band cranked up the intensity as well as the volume of the music. The most riveting factors were the intricate compositions and Peat’s performance on his unique instrument. How was he able to play classical guitar on the bass? Sometimes he slapped and plucked the bass like Larry Graham. At high peaks, he played the two lower strings like a lead guitar. Other times he played chords like a heavy metal guitarist, and other times he hit the bass strings as if they were percussion instruments. At the end of the performance, he used a bow across his bass strings, recalling Jimmy Page. You Bred Raptors? was simply jaw-dropping.