Noah sez:
As a long-time Galactic fan who has observed the band's sound progression over the years, I was excited to hear their newest “hip-hop” flavor at their concert at the Showbox Market. I got a taste of what to expect earlier in the night when the Crown City Rockers opened the show. The flavor? The good kind. It has been a while since I’ve seen them live, but Galactic is still very much as I remember them: consistently able to rock the crowd straight into to the encore. Their mellow, laid-back beats of the past have given way to a more intense and furious soul/rock that has a belly full of fire and an ass full of funk. I did miss the melodies of their old singer Theryl deClouet, but the two guest horn players from New Orleans made up for it. Galactic has never been afraid to have guests up on stage, and I must say the two horn players were good company. Speaking of guests, Galactic’s newest album, From the Corner to the Block is full of some of the best hip-hop artists around. That makes two albums in a row that have been more experimental than their past. Galactic still manages to hold onto the same basic funky framework that I remember, while at the same time they manage to change it up enough to keep me interested. Galactic certainly isn’t afraid to try new things and I think that is why they will be around for many years to come.
Tighe sez:
Astutely put. I had only seen Galactic once . . . and I was drunk as shit . . . but I remember them being somewhat entertaining. One thing they weren’t, though, was exciting. With the addition of the aforementioned brass musicians, they have surpassed exciting and gone straight for enthralling. The drops were heavy, the solos were abstract, the breakdowns had more heavy grooves than Rainier Avenue South. And holy shit, were they tight. I am fairly intolerant of concert fuckups and trust me, the only fuckup the whole night was an equipment malfunction which was most likely the venue or roadies’ fault. The air was thick with admiration as Galactic took the Showbox Market to a higher state of consciousness. This show would have been an excellent time to take psychedelic drugs . . . even pot would have been great because as you journeyed through their catalogue of New Orleans funk, you were sometimes blindsided by time-honored covers. I expected them to drop Herbie Hancock’s "Chameleon" but instead was pleasantly surprised and treated to "Rockit." I was even surprised by their, somewhat absurd, rendition of Rage Against the Machine’s "People of the Sun." Imagine Tom Morello being replaced by a brass section. Quite entertaining.
Conclusion: You will like a Galactic show if you are at least one of the following:
1. High
2. A fan of Classic 70s funk music
3. A person who wears patchouli in lieu of bathing
