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DEEP BANANA BLACKOUT
Aggie Theater | Fort Collins, CO | 04.25.02
It was great to walk into a club where this funk powerhouse was playing and see it empty. I don’t mean to say it was good for the band, but the club was half-way filled and the band put out one hell of show for my 12th time seeing them. Having only seen Deep Banana Blackout with Jen Durkin, this was my first Hope show, so I had some nervous feelings. But with new singer Hope, I knew there was to be an extra horn and some needed funk with her soulful voice. Having seen her with Baba Seeth, I knew what she was about but did not think she had the true funk of this band. But with both sets, she impressed me far more than Jen did at any show, and with all the new tunes from Feel the Peel, we were greeted with one of the better shows I have seen from them.
Having traveled more than 400 miles to see this band in the past, I had high expectations for my first Colorado DBB show. This band has always impressed me with their powerful vocals and their beautiful prowess on improv. The first song to open the first set was off the new album. “Universal Song” was a great funk powerhouse to open the show. Hope and Rob’s vocals were perfect with Cy’s keys. The song was pretty short but went into a great “B-Fast.” The first real jam of the night came from the first cover of the night, which was perfect to me. The acoustic opening to “Se A Cabo De” was a fantastic jam for the funk that ensued. The band, including Hope on vocals and flute, were perfect, but Fuzz had my attention for the entire jam. This man needs to jam with Santana just once because they seem so complimentary. The rest of the set was a melting pot of beautiful funk, jazz, and R&B jams. All into each other, “Hear My > Scream > Talking,” was the perfect match of solos by each member of the band. “Here” produced the beautiful vocals of Hope while giving us the tenor beauty of Rob. His solo in this song was one of the most beautiful jams of the night and gave me confidence that this band was ready to play while being a mile high up. The next two songs gave me my true first vision of Hope jamming with this band. She played with so much passion with this band that she did not have with Baba Seeth. The first band was more of a reggae/world beat band as opposed to the straight funk which DBB puts out. The last jam of the fist set that really impressed me, because of her, was “Getchall.” Everyone in this song had it going on but I give props to Rob and Bryan, who had amazing solo on his trombone that almost had me screaming “Where’s Fred?” The first set ended and we all needed a smoke and a good drink to get us into a hell of a funky second set.
After a couple of smokes in the front (the venue is half smoking), and a shot of Jagermeister, I was off and running. Getting up on the right side of the front row, it was time for a smoking second set by these East coast masters. The Herbie classic “Watermelon Man” opened the set. This was a perfect jam of the classic, and it had a huge solo by Fuzz, which gave me goose bumps on my arms. “Everybody > Rasberry,” gave us all the first true glimpse into the new sound of DBB. “Everybody” gave the crowd that Latin funk that many bands are getting into their set lists. The next was my favorite song of the set: “Raspberry” is the best song of the new album. With Rob’s vocals and the backup of Hope and Fuzz, this song is hot. The song had a great following by Cy and the horn section between vocals. Rob proved himself as a great jam vocalist in this version. With Hope on vocals, this song was perfect on the vocal side. Fuzz was great in all of this song, and it made me wish that I had met this guitar genius a long time before in Chicago. The next tunes were the highlight of my night because they were new, and I love that with a band whose great songs I have already seen.
The rest of the set went pretty smoothly. “Fashion > Release” was a beautiful transition of sounds that included a sick solo by Fuzz and Rob in each song. “Open Sesame” was a new song that had Hope bringing us beautiful vocals the entire song. But what really impressed me was her flute playing, which she had done earlier, but she had me going with this song. She is one of the best flute players on the scene and clearly can take on Karl and Cheme. “The Hassle” was the last song off the new album, but was my favorite of the night. The horns, with Hope’s vocals, were a perfect blend of this jam. “Homo > Bringing Up” gave the new and the old a great last sight of this funk classic. The first was the first true jam on the keys with Cy, which had me up in front of him, growing off every key he hit. The second gave us Cy again but flowing with Ben Lefavre on bass for the perfect beat. The encore was just one song, but perfect for the evening. “Fire It Up,” which is the last song of the album, gave everyone a reason to get up and get their last drink. This was a great tribute of old and new by the great East coast funksters.
I took two years off from seeing this band and don’t really know why. But I was glad that DBB played so close to my house on a quiet Thursday night. They put on a fabulous show in such a random place. Thank you again guys, and take care… See you on the flip side.
Dallas Kuykendall
JamBase | Colorado
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