Dance Party Supreme with Future Vintage and Holey Miss Moley!
It was a Friday night (March 16th), and it was time to get down. All the way down. Fortunately, Future Vintage and Holey Miss Holey had us covered at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa. It was a busy weekend musically around the Bay area, but the Skipperdome was still full of the usual suspects and a few new ones as well.
And what a fabulous night it was!
St. Petersburg’s jamtronic kings Future Vintage were up first to get the party started with their non-stop dance fest. The opened with a jam that twisted itself into “Supernova,” one of the band’s great originals. Drummer Eric Layana was grinning ear to ear as he propelled the band through the bouncing set, abetted by Trevor McDannel, funking everything up on bass and bass synth.
More originals kept the party going with “Boogie On Down” and “Tell Everybody.” Next up was a song written by Reed Skahill, singer and guitarist for Ajeva, an oft-collaborator with FV (you may recall seeing them together at Orange Blossom Jamboree or at Hometeam New Year’s Rally). This version was instrumental. Keyboard wizard Matt Giancola told us, “Here’s a tune you may know,” steering the band into “PYT” with Giancola handling vocals on talk box, and that let to a massive jam.
The highlight of the set had to be a brilliant 16-minute workout on “Do It,” one of the best of the band’s compositions. The jam was huge, and then Giancola sat down at his electric piano to deliver a magnificent jazz solo, following that up with an amazing solo on his newest synthesizer, the Arturia MatrixBrute. It was a dance marathon. And they closed their set with the complex Ole,” giving each member ample room to show his stuff.
[FV: Jam, Supernova, Boogie On Down, Tell Everybody, Reed’s Tune, PYT > Jam, Do It, Ole]
I’ve had the pleasure of Holey Miss Moley’s company on many occasions (three dozen, at least), and this was tops. Every member of the eleven-person juggernaut seemed to be on top of his or her game, though none more so than chanteuse Miss Robyn Alleman, whose numerous features throughout the set were simply deluxe. Alleman has blossomed into a powerful, confidant vocalist, and it was all on display this evening.
They launched with the familiar notes of “Bermuda Triangle,” Danny Clemmons on lead vocals. Miss Alleman took over for a fine cover of Orgone’s “Don’t Stop” before handing it back to Clemmons for “Do Ya.” Christian Ryan, the multi-instrumental reed player, unveiled his newest toy: a soprano saxophone. Let me say this, as a witness to more than 70 performances by Ryan: the soprano is already my favorite of his arsenal. It is the perfect funk horn, and he played it like the master that he is.
Alleman retook the reins for a really bluesy “Be Easy,” with superb backing vocals on her leads from Ellie McCaw. Ryan showed off the soprano again on “Naugatuck,” another great band composition. Then they plunged into a gem from their P-Funk tribute, “You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks,” more soprano and Alleman and Clemmons batting the lead back and forth. Guitarist Jacob Cox has always excelled at channeling the late Eddie Hazel and his successor, Michael Hampton, and he was spectacular here.
Mikey Guzman showed off great keyboard skills on another funk feature from Alleman. And then Cox called out the birthday boy Dan for the band’s signature “Devil Funk.” Filling in on the drumkit, Mike ‘Thunderfoot’ Garrie took a spin, then Guzman, Ryan on alto sax, and Kenny ‘Bonesaw’ Harvey on bass. And Cox with that wicked chunky funky guitar.
Ryan switched to tenor for “Big Bad Wolf,” with Alleman and Clemmons doing that “wolf thing” with their hands above their heads (ears? fangs? claws?), and “Shake It with Me > Afroshaft” simply blistered. Jen Peacock’s trumpet was heard to best advantage on this tune, but her horn adds greatly to the overall sound. The two bad boys on percussion, Vernon Suber and Antonio Morales, really blew it out on this one.
After a quick break and curfew looming, they reprised two of the tunes that Holey Miss Holey has performed as part of their Rick James tribute: “Sucker for Your Love” (Alleman) and “Standing on the Top” (McCaw totally owned this). The night ended with a fine cover of the Lettuce tune “Only You” with Eric Layana on kit.
Expectations for the evening were high, but everyone would agree that we had all once again underestimated: THIS WAS A FABULOUS NIGHT!
And kudos once again to the sound engineer from Skipper’s for near-perfect sound for the entire four hours. BRAVO!
[HMM ONE: Bermuda Triangle, Don’t Stop, Do Ya, Be Easy, Naugatuck, You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks, ?RA, Dan birthday shoutout, Devil Funk, Big Bad Wolf, Shake It With Me > Afro-thing?; TWO: Sucker for Your Love, Standing On the Top, Only You]