Concert Review: The Ghosts of Jupiter at The Lizard Lounge

My friends from The Ghosts of Jupiter asked me if I wanted to hear them play and take some

pictures during their performance on 1/9/26. As I love their music, I was very excited to hear them again. The Lizard Lounge is a very small venue located just north of Harvard Square at 1667 Mass Ave in Cambridge.  This was my first time at the Lizard Lounge, and it was very intimate place for a fantastic night of music. The sound was great, and the band’s brand of jam music was exceptional.

The music just flows and is driven by Nate Wilson, an amazing keyboardist. As an audience member, you just treasure every minute of the mystical magical trip, and you want this to go on forever.  Their music has shades of the psychedelic rock of the 70ths, but Nate will put in a hint of classical music or jazz and then it goes to more jam rock.  Ghosts of Jupiter are said to draw their inspiration from the riff-heavy psychedelic hard- rock of the 60’s and 70’s (Cream, Santana, and Traffic).  

Keyboardist Nate Wilson, the group started nearly 20 years ago as the Nate Wilson group. The current lineup features songwriter Nate on keyboard, flute, and lead vocals, and includes Tommy Lada (bass, vox), Pierre Aleksi (guitar) and Barrett Goemann (drums, vox). All are great musicians. Their first self-titled album was released in 2011. Their second album Great Bright Horses was released in 2016. In the fall of 2021, the band released their follow up to “Great Bright Horses” album with the astonishing “Keepers of the Newborn Green”.

Beyond the great music, what made this show so special was how intimate the room was. You felt like the band was playing in your living room and the musicians were playing just to you. 

It was so amazing to just be part of that great night that swirled around this room.  During the break and after the show, the band chatted with their fans. It was informative and instructive. As a live rock music photographer, I'll gladly follow the band to any venue after enjoying that outstanding night of music.