The San Francisco Observer

Tempest: East Bay Band Hails Celtic Rock
By Frank Zeccola
April 2004

OAKLAND -- Fifteen years into a musical career that has taken him all over the world, Lief Sorbye 
admits that he likes having an American band that is not from America. "The music is a melting pot, 
"the wild-eyed, ceaselessly grinning, Norwegian-born, Oakland resident confirms. Sorbye is describing 
the sound of Tempest, his local eccentric rock n' roll band that draws heavily on Celtic, Irish and 
other 200-year-old European traditions, and contains four other members who hail from Cuba, Austria, 
Ireland, and Fresno. "The music is really international music played with a rock n' roll energy, so 
it makes sense to have international people playing it."

Tempest's present lineup of Lief, who plays a double-necked mandolin, along with bassist Ariane Cap 
(Innsbruck, Austria), drummer Adolfo Lazo (Havana, Cuba), guitarist Ronan Carroll (Dublin, Ireland), 
and American fiddler Michael Mullen tweaks the traditional Northern European sound with heavy modern 
electric amplification and funky rock improvisation a la '70's jam bands like Jethro Tull and the 
Allman Brothers. Their instrumental sections will often last upwards of 30 minutes, all the while the 
band engaging the audience with quirky on-stage antics including humorous wacky choreographed dancing 
and runs through the crowd. And although the band relies heavily on its influences, the ultimate sound 
is truly original.

"We have a musical policy which is steeped in tradition," Sorbye explains, "but each player brings his 
own style. We have five members with five strong influences, and therefore we always come out with 
something that is unique."

And Lief's choice of instrument elevates the sound to a whole new level of uniqueness. He plays a 
double-necked mandolin that he invented and had custom made when he first formed Tempest and decided 
that one mandolin was just not enough. "It's an acquired taste for a musician, definitely a little 
eccentric," Lief notes. "It's an awkward instrument to play unless you're a little tweaked."

Hence Tempest. The band just finished a West Coast tour that included a 15th anniversary show in Davis 
with all five members from the original line-up dating back to 1989, and a rare San Francisco appearance 
at 12 Galaxies on St. Patrick's Day with the current line-up. The 12 Galaxies show treated a joyously 
enthusiastic, if a tad tipsy (hey, we were seeing an Irish band on St. Paddy's Day) audience to over 
two-and-a-half hours of feet-stomping original and traditional tunes from 10 albums and a spoof on 
Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge" as a fitting encore.

When you think about the Celtic-Irish genre of music, you don't imagine high-energy intensity that rivals 
the most cutting-edge party music, but somehow the magical hands of Tempest manage to lead you to the 
realms of frenzy. Songs like "One for the Fiddler" and "Old Man at the Mill," the titles of which evoke 
images of serene, rustic scenes from Irish farms, rocked the 12 Galaxies almost as hard as Spinal Tap 
during their peak performances.