Woodstock, NY-based Soulive tore up the 9:30 Club Sunday evening at a show so hot it could’ve set fire to a wet brick wall.
For those unfamiliar with the trio, its fusion of soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop has been resonating in the music community since it recorded its first EP six years ago. Aptly titled Get Down!, the EP garnered Soulive critical acclaim and earned the group gigs with big names like Common, The Roots, and The Rolling Stones.
On Sunday evening the band showcased new material, including a set of fresh tunes written with frequent collaborator Reggie Watts, lead singer for the poppy and soulful Maktub. The new songs are as compelling and catchy as the first few written by Watts, which recently debuted on the group’s full-length Break Out. Despite the gradual evolution away from instrumentally-focused, frenetic soul, the core trio—brothers Alan and Neil Evans on drums and keys respectively, and Eric Krasno on guitar—is still as tight as a spandex jumpsuit.
Soulive glide from cascades of damp, dreamy chord progressions laced with Krasno’s venomous melody to extremely sharp, Tower of Power-esque funk arrangements. What’s more, they do it with enough grace to rival predecessors like Earth, Wind, & Fire and Sly & the Family Stone.
Though they were just the opening act for Jamaica’s famous reggae kings Toots and the Maytals, Soulive drew a substantial portion of the audience, made clear by the turnover between the acts. And it’s no surprise—the band’s vicious technical prowess is stunning, especially because its members are advanced in years. The Evans brothers have been weaving thick, convulsive grooves since before they could tie their shoes, and from the sound of it, guitarist Eric Krasno has been doing the same. The crowd was at fever-pitch during every single song of the trio’s short set. Fans danced maniacally and did their best to mimic Neal Evans’ dancing, whose funky moves behind his pile of old, analog keyboards has become a staple of the trio’s live set.
Despite the soul-searing goodness of each original composition, the most stunning moments of the show came with the final number, as Krasno created palpable waves of excitement in the crowd with the razor-sharp opening notes of Led Zeppelin’s “The Ocean.”
That these grandmasters of funk and soul can explore territory so utterly dissimilar to their own and do it with the panache of the genre’s most celebrated artists is a testament to their talent and potential—potential which, with any luck, will continue to detonate at show after show for years to come.
