Menahan Street Band @ Southpaw -- Album release party!
Tuesday, 04 November 2008 12:17
Though it was Menahan Street Band’s second live show together, somewhat already familiar fans packed the Southpaw nightclub in Brooklyn, as avid followers of the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, the Dap-kings, the Budos Band and the masterminds of the Amy Winehouse Back to Black flavor welcomed in this new team comprised of players of each. Make the Road by Walking marks Menahan Street Band’s first recorded album, and has the potential to re
ach and borrow from similar fan-bases. This monumental album release party was already testimony of that.
The Menahan Street Band is another product of the resurge retro-soul/funk phenomenon. They have come to grace us as the most en vogue thing right now, and not to anyone’s great dismay due to how universally relatable and reliably good it is in both live and recorded forms. Our most notable local hero of this genre is of course Sharon Jones, who was also present this evening—disappointingly to us—as only a spectator.
The opener The Phenomenal Handclap Band entered the stage a little after 10pm, and sought to dramatically wow the audience in their head-to-toe white linen and polyester ensembles. Although one part psychedelic, two parts funk, and two parts classic rock sounds like the potential for a dynamic (or in the least interesting) get-up, they might have relied too heavily on the novelty portion of their recipe, which ended up being their biggest downfall. Their sound was void of a good horn section, and the vocals were flat at best. Those were notably the greatest flaws of an otherwise good band. The highlight of this performance was when the band played a song with a guest vocalist and guest trombone player, which proved to be their grooviest song of the evening.
The Menahan Street Band played nothing short of an amazing set. Although somewhat conservative in their approach, there is little less than perfected clarity, and seamless arrangements to be expected from this band, and that is exactly what they delivered. The icing on the cake was Charles Bradley’s dynamite guest performance accompanied by back up vocalists, including his full body belting of “The Word” that brought audiences to their knees. He not only tore the house down, he set it on fire, and audience members had to stomp and clap it out for the remainder of the night—secretly—or not so secretly wishing that there was more to come. The set itself (including an encore) was no more than 45 minutes, which was the biggest complaint of the evening.
ach and borrow from similar fan-bases. This monumental album release party was already testimony of that. The Menahan Street Band is another product of the resurge retro-soul/funk phenomenon. They have come to grace us as the most en vogue thing right now, and not to anyone’s great dismay due to how universally relatable and reliably good it is in both live and recorded forms. Our most notable local hero of this genre is of course Sharon Jones, who was also present this evening—disappointingly to us—as only a spectator.
The opener The Phenomenal Handclap Band entered the stage a little after 10pm, and sought to dramatically wow the audience in their head-to-toe white linen and polyester ensembles. Although one part psychedelic, two parts funk, and two parts classic rock sounds like the potential for a dynamic (or in the least interesting) get-up, they might have relied too heavily on the novelty portion of their recipe, which ended up being their biggest downfall. Their sound was void of a good horn section, and the vocals were flat at best. Those were notably the greatest flaws of an otherwise good band. The highlight of this performance was when the band played a song with a guest vocalist and guest trombone player, which proved to be their grooviest song of the evening.
The Menahan Street Band played nothing short of an amazing set. Although somewhat conservative in their approach, there is little less than perfected clarity, and seamless arrangements to be expected from this band, and that is exactly what they delivered. The icing on the cake was Charles Bradley’s dynamite guest performance accompanied by back up vocalists, including his full body belting of “The Word” that brought audiences to their knees. He not only tore the house down, he set it on fire, and audience members had to stomp and clap it out for the remainder of the night—secretly—or not so secretly wishing that there was more to come. The set itself (including an encore) was no more than 45 minutes, which was the biggest complaint of the evening.
-Boyuan Gao
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