Degrees Plato Taproom and Bottle Shop
4251 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland
May 17, 2025
Honestly, I’d thought that bandolier-looking thing was for show, an affectation: a tough guy bullet sash without the bullets. When the band Blues Traveler was popular in the ‘90s and all over television, frontman John Popper could be seen wearing a khaki one in almost militant fashion. I didn’t know that the “ammunition” in its many pouches were harmonicas with different sound qualities and octaves. And until last Saturday I didn’t even know that “harmonica bandolier” is, in fact, what that sash is called. Perhaps part of my ignorance is because—gasp!—I don’t care for blues music very much. Call me a philistine, a vulgarian, an uncultured meathead, but I also don’t get Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, or the Rolling Stones. Thankfully, Omigato! was a bit more funk than blues last weekend at Degrees Plato.
Their outdoor lot is a pleasant place to chill out with a draught beer and some Mexican food. My partner and I hadn’t visited for a while, and not for an event since last October: their monthly “Chuckling Beer” comedy show. This time around the weather was warm and the sun was beginning to set. I got a golden-hued, hoppy Maibock, “Wondrous Spring Bock,” and my partner ordered her usual dark beer, “Mountain Moonlight.” How one can drink an oatmeal stout when it’s nearly 70 degrees baffles me; to each their own. We also shared a fried chicken torta and some chips, guacamole, queso fresco, and salsa, all delicious.
The place was already hopping for this early performance. Much of the audience were young families with little kids who played on the Astroturf and later began dancing to the music in that spazzy kid way. We were able to grab a couple seats despite not getting a table.
The six-member band got onstage in front of the shiny Airstream trailer backdrop: band leader and harmonicist Angelo Tomandl, percussionist Travis Porter DeLeon, bassist Michael Toth, guitarist Ryan Shaeffer, trombonist Victor Imbo, and flautist and vocalist Hannah Murphy. I was happy to see that the ensemble included a flautist; I played flute from elementary school through high school. My partner and I also recognized trombonist Imbo (pictured above) from our local neighborhood grocer Farmer Joe’s, where he works days.
Flautist Hannah Murphy.
Their opening number was a bit too unstructured for me, rather jam-sesh-esque. I learned that after this early show here in Oakland they were headed across the bay to the Boom Boom Room for what would indeed be a jam-session, so maybe they were warming up. The second number was funkier and much crisper, a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” with Murphy on vocals. The little kids loved it, and the Astroturf soon became a playground of dancing tots.
“Isolation,” featured Tomandl’s energetic virtuosity as a harmonicist and showcased his and Imbo’s skill. The ensemble was well coordinated, though at times I wished there was a trumpeter to bring up the brass and really get the funk going. But percussionist DeLeon was very tight, especially during the sixth number, “Spondylus,” an original by Tomandl with his harmonica and DeLeon’s drums playing off one another across numerous time changes, the harmonica riffs between trombone bits lending the background a kind of slow, lovely, melancholy feel.
Funky fresh finale!
“This is the biggest harmonica in the world,” Tomandl, who has been playing the instrument for over 30 years, told me during a short break, pulling out an enormous, two-foot-long harmonica that didn’t fit into his leather bandolier. “It’s a Polyphonia number 5 from the 1930s,” he said.
I asked about the name of his song “Spondylus” and he informed me that in ancient Incan times the spondylus—a spiny seashell—was used as the medium of exchange. “When you’re down you take something and make it positive,” he said of the song, a composition that honors his Peruvian roots and the nostalgia of missing one’s homeland, which he left in 2008 to move to the Bay.
I still don’t really like blues, or bluesy funk, yet the band impressed me with its dedication, coordination, and musicianship. I’d learned that a harmonica bandolier is meant to hold a plentitude of the instrument’s octaves; and educated on the ancient economic trading practices of the Inca. And what’s better than a warm spring evening of beer, food, and music?
Oh-my-gato!
Check out Degrees Plato’s instagram to keep up to date on their event calendar.
