The Budos Band

My wife and I have been big fans of the Budos Band and have everything on vinyl. This past Saturday was our first time seeing them live and OMGoodness!!! What a great experience that was! The live show was a little different than the studio stuff. These guys party! I know the Atlanta show was their third night in a row and the energy level was still alive and well. We danced every song and I lost my voice about half the way through. I'm 60 and I've seen more than my fair share of shows. This one ranks high on my list.
Every single artist on the stage from the guitar player to the bongo player was absolutely amazing. That bari sax player is balls to the wall as well as the two trumpet players. Their sound is pure raw power. The bass player is a powerhouse as well. He torchered that SG bass. I kept waiting for him to change instruments because I just knew one wouldn't hold up to his ability to just play the tee-total hell out of it. He was shooting from the hip! The two drummers, the kit and bongo players were just pure power as well. Very tight! The guitar player was focused and pure business. Together they represented Staten Island and worked hard as a band to bring a unique sound that is so much of what I have become to know as that Staten Island, Dap Tone Records sound. We loved every second of it. It was indeed a blast partying with these fellers. I hope us Atlanta fans encouraged them enough that we'll see them more often in the future.

Some people struggle to understand the appeal of going to see a purely instrumental band perform live, those people have clearly never seen New York outfit the Budos Band. A decade into their career, this collective has performed at some of the world's most renowned musical events and seem to only get stronger with each performance.

Although they don't have vocalists, the saxophone and rich brass section facing microphones seem to be like a musical version of a vocal and they all interact together. With deep funk, soul and afrobeat influences acknowledging their five studio albums, the music changes and evolves over the space of the concert. The audience remains enthusiastic and receptive throughout as they applaud and cheer at the finale of every single song played. They perform an unusual cover of Led Zepplin's 'Immigrant Song' before finishing on a triumphant crescendo of 'Turkish'. It is a brilliant night of music with some of the best instrumentalists you are likely to see performing on the circuit.

I would give this show a mixed review. I dig this group's albums, but I don't tend to find their more extensive, jam filled versions of their instrumental too interesting and I get restless. For me, at least, only a few artists can pull that off. The grooves on their songs are what gets me going, and there were plenty of those, which is why I generally enjoyed the evening. Also, that version of LZ's Immigrant Song was excellent and a great way to close the show.

One thing, though; one member of the band led a "sing along" in which ever third work was profane. Cursing doesn't typically bother me, but this was not exactly dialog from a Martin Scorsese movie. Most people in the audience seemed to dig it, so it seems I'm in the minority, there.