Our pre-Christmas gig at On the Roxx was a crrrrazy good time! It was our second gig with guest bassist Tom Westcott, and we were obviously feeling, well, groovy, and ready to party… And ended up playing several songs that were not on our set list and that we had never even rehearsed….
We hit the ground running, but things really heated up when Mo went into his red-hot rendition of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get it On. Then, soon after, during a guitar change, Tom started thumping the beat from Rapper’s Delight. Some folks in the crowd starting singing Another One Bites the Dust, which has a very similar bass line. But Dana recognized it for what it was (it’s a longtime favorite of hers) and jumped on the mic with “I said a hip, hop, hippy to the hippity hip hip a hop…”, and the rest of the band jumped right in as well. When we saw the immediate, enthusiastic crowd reaction, we ran with it, and ended up doing most of the song (well, the radio edit, anyway!) The people in the other room who had been rocking in their seats at the bar all night were suddenly up on their feet, and joined the rest of the crowd in the room where we were playing… in what looked like a fair amount of shock, to see us pulling off a rap song! Good times, people!
The crowd kept asking for “something Christmas-y”, and weren’t placated by Dana’s attempt at selling Folsom Prison as a Christmas tune (though there was some fun banter about a very, very naughty Santa!), so we finally gave ’em what they were asking for and went into an impromptu version of Feliz Navidad. The next surprise came during our jam at the end of I Shot the Sheriff. We love jamming at the end of that song, and it’s different every time, but it must be said that this time it was “more different” than ever…. The band seemed to still be in the R&B vibe from Dana’s earlier foray into rap, as the reggae jam took quite the funky turn all of a sudden. Mo realized that what we were playing was compatible with the song Poison by Bell, Biv, Devoe, and started singing it, and once again Tom was right there and all over it! But we weren’t done yet! Clearly inspired by the evening’s events, Mo next busted out with a Heavy D rap! (Somebody for Me.) Yes, all still in the context of the I Shot the Sheriff jam. So. Much. Fun!
This blog post would not be complete without a mention of one awesome group of girls–friends of Mo’s–who were rockin’ and a-rollin’ with us all night. They brought some seriously fun energy to the gig, and we loved it!
Voodoo Highway 