As always, Five Alarm Funk brought the funk out for a sold out crowd at the Slice, June 9.
Unfortunately they didn’t start until after 11 p.m. But the crowd was primed and ready to dance. The Funk were happy to supply the toe-tapping soundtrack for it. Most of them were shirtless before they even played a note.
There was lots of horns, great funky bass and even some wicked harmonized guitar combining elements of jazz with
Caribbean music, a lot of funk and even some progressive rock.
Tom Towers was a maniac behind his bongos for the first set which began with “Wash Your Face,” from their new CD “Rock The Sky.”
They played a lot of instrumentals as expected which got the sweaty crowd jumping and dancing in front of the stage.
Both the band and the audience got quite a work out. It’s probably illegal in some places to keep still at a Five Alarm Funk show, or at least frowned upon, though it would be near impossible to not at least tap your toes and sway with the beat.
Their first set lasted just over a half hour, but everyone needed to take a breath anyway.
As expected, things got a little weird in the second set — the costume set.
Towers came out in bright red tights, aviators goggles and a rainbow clown wig that must have been three feet tall, falling over his eyes.
He eventually dropped it on the stage and disappeared briefly only to reappear in his King Kong mask and gloves and eventually dropped those too.
He jumped up and down, pounding his drums as the crowd jump
ed with him. The rest of the sweaty band got lost in their music as their guitarists stepped forward to take a couple more outstanding harmonized solos.
The horn section was relegated to the shadows, but you could sure hear those blaring horns.
Carl Julig also sported a couple costumes while tapping at his timbales, including a mask and a policeman’s hat and glasses, jumping forward to share a mic with shirtless drummer Tayo Branston, thrashing away at his kit and growing out the odd vocals in his gravely voice.
