Krakatoa saw a proper FUNK FEST of live music on Saturday night as Edinburgh’s funkiest band High Fade kick off their UK tour in the granite city.
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Local to Aberdeen they didn’t have to travel far for their set. A jazz inspired four piece with guitar, bass, drums and saxophone. The band are creative with their use of rhythm, throwing in some samba styles into the mix. Playing original material such a ‘Tiny Brick House’ and ‘Blue Lights’ which starts off sounding quite military, building into an impressive funk groove with cool sax and guitar riffs. I really enjoyed watching these guys, wasn’t sure quite what to expect as very little social media presence but sometimes not knowing makes it more interesting… a good opening set for what was to folow.
The Funky Red Pandas
They call themselves Aberdeen’s Funkiest Rockiest Funk Rock band! so I felt they had a lot to live up to. I’m unsure if I’ve ever seen a set like it; guitarist received a ‘High Fade‘ haircut whilst playing through the set, it was a first for me!
This band seemed to have had some week leading up to the show, sick singer, broken drummer and the bassist had just 24 hours before becoming a Dad (congratulations Stuart), yet they still pulled it out the bag!
A 5 piece band with a lot of energy (keys, drums, bass, guitar, vocals); mixing disco beats with classic funk makes for a Funky Red Panda set. The surprises kept on coming though as little did us gig goers know we had entered into a FRP pledge to a dance off; two dance trupes got down and funky. It was a great addition to the set as singer Stuart joined the audience on the dance floor. They artistically pulled off the Gloria Gaynor classic ‘I will survive’ with their own spin. My favourite track in their set was ‘Those Good Things’ ; a track playing tribute to all the good things we missed during lockdown. The Funky Red Panda’s leave it all on the stage; a perfectly placed support band to warm up the crowd.
Now that we were well and truly warmed up following our dance off, the crowd were so ready to see High Fade for their first ever visit to Aberdeen. Krakatoa was buzzing as chants of “Hear We F***ing Go” made its way around the room. Followed by the band double checking they hadn’t ended up in Glasgow by mistake. Definitely a Scottish crowd classic hype builder!
High Fade’s mission statement ;
On a three-man crusade to set dance floors alight with their inimitable brand of razor-sharp funk, this was delivered in abundance and some. The band energy and crowd energy were well matched and Krakatoa became a sweat box.
For a trio these guys have such a full sound, each member exceedingly talented in their own right but as a band they are something special. I’m unsure I’ve seen a band with such high energy, from start to finish these guys were jumping around the stage whilst playing technically challenging music and still interacting with the audience, showing they are having an absolute blast of a time on the stage. I left the venue satisified that not only had I seen some great music, I’d seen a show, that is somewhat rare these days to achieve both in a set.
High Fade’s set list was cleverly put together with old and new material, keeping us waiting for the tunes we all knew to sing along with Burnin, Burnt Toast and Coffee & Fur Coat all featured in the set along with their soon to be released new single which is wah wah guitar heavy and I LOVED it (won’t give any more spoilers).
We got to witness some impressive slap bass from Oli Sentanc, unique and crazy drum solo’s (even a section without even hitting a piece of kit) from Calvin Davidson and some super tasty guitar parts frp, Harry Valentino. In one song I actually felt transported to the scene in Cross Roads (The 1986 movie about Robert Johnstone not Britney Spears obviously) where Steve Vai and Eugene are having their guitar battle, Harry has some seriously impressive skills, it was amazing to watch.
Do you know what was most refreshing? Seeing so many younger audience members appreciating funk and disco. I always got a hard time for liking “older music” however, High Fade are a perfect example that if you market something right both musically and through social media, you can bring such genres back into style with a younger audience so we don’t ever let styles of music die.
High Fade come with high energy, high skill level and most certainly blew the roof off of Krakatoa in Aberdeen. I hope this showed that Aberdeen is worth the visit and shouldn’t be forgotten about for touring bands.
