Before Funk? NO! After Funk!
One of Toronto’s greatest exports is… funk! Need proof? Check out After Funk, a superb quintet in the midst of their current tour. Tonight (Friday, April 14th), they hit the Crowbar in Tampa. They play the 1904 Music Hall in Jacksonville Saturday before heading up the East Coast to Raleigh, Roanoke, Bethesda and points north.
Toward the end of May, the festival bug bites. Colordance Festival in Pomeroy OH is first, followed by the return of The Upstate Boogie (Marion NY) after a five-year hiatus. They also plan to blow up Disc Jam Music Festival, the Mad Tea Party Jam and more.
After Funk are: Yanick Allwood, keys/vocals; Jaime Rosenberg, drums; Justin Bontje, bass; and Phil Tessis, guitar. The band’s light designer is Eric Harrington. We first encountered them recently at Hometeam New Year’s Rally, where they blew up sets over two days.
About day one, we said:
Toronto’s After Funk made the most of this trip with two sets at Hometeam and a number of other shows in Florida as well. This first set was all Hendrix. There are two ways you can approach a cover set: either try to copy closely or interpret. They wisely chose to interpret, and it paid great dividends, as tunes got funky, jazzy and soulful, and of course they rocked out as well. They opened with a great take on “Who Knows” and let it grow from there, including “Little Wing” and “Bold as Love.” “Crosstown Traffic” turned into a jazz tune, followed by a great “Spanish Castle Magic” and a brilliant “All Along the Watchtower,” alternately funky and jazzy. After “Red House,” “Foxy Lady” swerved into Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein,” and they encored with “Fire.” Hell, yes.
Then day two. The deeper into a festival you get, the more “confused” you get:
After Funk then threw down a fine set of originals and a couple of covers. My notes are indecipherable, but Yanick Allwood was really engaging on vocals and keyboards, a dynamic frontman. Guitarist Phil Tessis again played a great set (he did really well with the Hendrix set, too).
Canadian funk? You bet!
After Funk:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube