Beautiful and nauseating, jazzy and fierce, tumultuous and contained, precise and loose…one of these adjectives could be applied at any given point during one of Blame Game’s sets. Atlanta’s Blame Game is a band of extremes that somehow always makes sense.

For those in the audience, the meticulous attention to detail displayed by the band’s compositions (while retaining a strong attachment to playing loose when needed) is apparent from the get go. Anchored by the rhythm section of Alex Lambert on drums/sax (also a member of free jazz trio Lie and Swell) and Chris Ware on bass, the band defies nausea-inducing easy labels by giving the listener a quick ride through their assorted influences. In just one song, faint glimpses of Captain Beefheart, Ornette Coleman, and Don Caballero will appear but that glimpse is quickly washed away as you realize that you are seeing something more substantial than a band with great influences. The mark of a great band is one that takes its influences and refuses regurgitation.

Blame Game molds those influences to create something that is new and very refreshing. The churning and weaving of guitarists George Asimakos (ex-Camaro Crotch) and Andrew Wiggins (ex-Left to Rust) leaves very little to be desired. Odd time changes and dynamic shifts are just a few of the tricks that Blame Game has in its hat to leave the audience cheering for more at just about every stop they make.