Booty Band in da House!
What would compel a guy to drive seven hours from Virginia Beach to Asheville? A Booty Band show, of course!
Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band returned home to Asheville, NC on March 21 for a brief stop before heading out West on their current tour. I’ve been a big fan of this band for awhile now. The last time I saw them was June of 2013 at the Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach. There might have been 50 people there, and I was disappointed and embarrassed at the turnout. Well, that certainly wasn’t an issue for this show. The Orange Peel was packed with fans who were ready for some funk, and they didn’t leave disappointed! Now, the Booty Band has always had a bad ass, funky groove, but they had plans to step it up a couple of notches for this show. How do you do that? Well, it’s not more cowbell, it’s MORE HORNS! How about Kofi Burbridge (Tedeschi Trucks Band) on flute (and keyboards and Moog Liberation keytar as well)? Done. How about an extra trombone, plus some trumpets and saxophones? Got that covered too, with members of Empire Strikes Brass and Travers Brothership sitting in (Alex Bradley and Ben Hovey on trumpet, Dean Mitchell and Greg Holowell on sax, and Kyle Snuffer on trombone). It was an incredibly funky night, to say the least, with some blistering horn solos that blew everyone away.
The show was kicked off by Green Sunshine, a hip-hop, funk octet from Tampa, FL. They opened for the Booty Band on March 13 at The Social in Orlando, and gladly made the trip up to Asheville for this special show. (Oh, did I mention that my daughter is their trombone player? That may have been a factor in my decision to make the drive out for the show.) This band is full of energy from start to finish, and they get the same out of the crowd. You don’t even have time to consider heading for the bar as they roll from one song to the next with smooth transitions. They performed a mix of original tunes from their albums Interstellar Funk Patrol and Soular Power, along with some funky covers that included Montell Jordan’s This is How We Do It, Blackstreet’s No Diggity, and DJ Kool’s Let Me Clear My Throat.
Set List:
Funky Fanfare ->The Get Up
Do What U Wanna
This is How We Do It (Montell Jordan) ->No Diggity (Blackstreet)
Make it Funky ->Wake Up ->Alive ->Funks Not Dead
Shoes Off Hands Up ->Spodie Odie ->Space Patrol ->Apache (Jump On It) (The Sugarhill Gang)
Let Me Clear My Throat (DJ Kool)
Fresh
Next up was Porch 40 from nearby Cullowhee, NC. I didn’t have a chance to check out their music, and when they took the stage I wasn’t sure what to expect. They looked like they could be a metal band, except for the saxophone and violin. And when they announced that their first song was entitled Leather Pants, I was ready for anything. In the end, their own description of “progressive Southern funk rock” was right on target! This was greasy, Southern funk music with some impressive sections of distortion-infused lead by the bass player. Their all original set definitely pumped up the crowd, and they fed off the energy as everyone danced and jumped enough to make the floor actually flex. They finished with a feel good tune called Cheesy Grits, a crowd favorite that they hadn’t played in awhile.
Set List:
Leather Pants
Left Handed Cig
There’s a Point
Uncle Default
Think About Her
Only Against the Law
On the One
Taxes
Kudzu Shuffle
Schwamp
Cheesy Grits
Now it was time for the main attraction. Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band took the stage to thunderous applause and launched into their set. I was so enraptured that I lost track of time and songs, so there’s no complete set list. I do know they played @$$ (you may know it better as the Badonk a Donk song), Lovin’, Horn Star (an appropriate selection that gave the guest horn players an opportunity to strut their stuff) and Chaos.
One prominent feature of this set was the vintage Moog Liberation keytar (ca.1980) that both Mary Frances (Mama Funk) and Kofi Burbridge took turns giving a workout. The instrument was on loan from the Bob Moog Foundation (http://moogfoundation.org/) and it added a very trippy dimension to their sound. And guess what? You could own this piece of synthesizer history. The foundation is raffling off this particular instrument, and you can snag a ticket at http://moogfoundation.org/moog-liberation-spring-2015-raffle/
The set continued with other Booty Band favorites like The Message and The Chase, and ended with a cover of Rage Against The Machine’s Renegades of Funk. It was a fantastically funky night of music at a great venue. Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band has a new album, Funk Life, that drops on June 2. You can pre-order the CD and listen to a free track at http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/funklife. Check out the links below to learn more about the performers.
http://www.traversbrothership.com/
http://empirestrikesbrass.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Porch40?fref=ts
http://www.greensunshineband.com/
Written by John Phillips / MusicFestNews
Photography by John Phillips / Festy Shots Photography
