Although it came to a rainy close, the two acts we *were* able to catch at Musikfest Day 6 were at the top of their game.
First up was the Boogie Wonder Band. Yes, there are other bands that play funk covers, but they’re not as fun as these guys. With crazy, matching costumes on, the stage filled up with ten musicians who were dancing, and singing, and movin’ to the gro…sorry, sorry. But seriously, they killed it. All of them were full of moves and they sounded great. Even better? They’re coming back to the Musikfest Café on January 17th.
Afterwards we wandered around the festival ground, only to find that they were fairly barren compared to other days. Grey skies and threats of storms apparently kept everyone at bay, even though the rain didn’t start until much later in the evening.
Stop looking at me swan, I’ll enjoy Musikfest even if no one else is.
We then went down to Gangstagrass, a favorite from last year, who incorporate hip hop and rap elements into bluegrass songs. The band’s music, somewhat surprisingly, brought in a very generationally diverse crowd (or at least kept them around from the previous acts). They played a set that featured tracks off of their previous albums, as well as debuted a new song. After an hour and a half, the band played what they seemed to think was their last song, with rapper Rench jumping in the crowd and leading a sing-along. It was then that they realized they still had a half an hour left in their set and proceeded to freestyle for the rest of the time. Although the beat got old (the entire thing was basically a very extended reprise of their song “Trouble Everywhere I Go”), the fiddle and banjo solos, and particularly the rap freestyles, kept the crowd entertained and were impressive to boot.
Later on we went down to the South Side, but at that point it started to rain and lightning, cutting short our plans to check out Access Royale, and that was that. Check back again tomorrow for more picks, photos, and reviews of Day 7!