Eric Tessmer Band Heats Things Up at Antone's

Nothing is more human or more cosmic than an electric guitar in the right hands. if you’re craving some soul-warming power to balance out this cool December air, the Eric Tessmer Band’s got you covered. When Tessmer strums, the blazing frequencies resonate with the whole body, pulsing through the soles of the audience’s feet. While skeptic heads may cock at comparisons to Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, they’ll thank themselves for taking the challenge: Tessmer’s the real deal. His finger-blurring riffs and deep, rumbling vocals make for a night of Blues rockin’ transcendence.

Tessmer plays like a physical extension of his guitar. Though self-taught, he learned the instrument at age eight, taking cues from his guitar-playing father and grandmother. He hasn’t yet permitted any labels to snatch up him, but his new album, Green Diamond, comes out later this month. Meantime, he and local avant-garde storm-chanteuse Leila Bela are collaborating on “To beya”, a heart-wrenching Persian folksong. Like Tessmer’s multigenerational guitar reverence, this song has a long lineage in Bela’s family. Her great aunt and cousin recorded the song in all its traditional sorrow and resignation, but Bela imbues it with a driving, visceral passion and gorgeously moving operatic force that only Tesmer could keep up with, which explains why perfectionist Bela even considered him for the role. A master of the craft, who never loosens his grip on the soul of what he’s doing, this will be the best eight bucks you spend this week. You’ll swear he’s set his guitar on fire, but you won’t see any flames.