A quarter-century ago, guitarist Eddie Roberts joined forces in Leeds (that’s a city in the U.K., my friends) with drummer Simon Allen, bassist Pete Shand, and keyboardist Bob Birch. Birch was replaced by Joe Tatton in 2007, and Tatton remains in the band to this day. Now, with over a dozen studio albums under their collective belts, the mostly-instrumental jazz-funk quartet is on tour to celebrate their new record, the not-ironically named “Old School.”

Often resembling a real-life musical snow globe in the California’s high Sierra, the eighth annual WinterWonderGrass-Tahoe, April 5 to 7, brought a hardy bunch of musicians – and resilient attendees – to Palisades Tahoe ski resort, in the midst of the Olympic Village that hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics.

They met at NYU as students with one common goal: to make every gig feel like a party and to keep everyone dancing. Several years and many rooftop gigs later, Stolen Gin lived up to this mantra at their biggest show yet last Saturday, April 13, 2024, at the legendary Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY. Fans raged into the night as this quintet delivered a strong funk-pop vibe coupled with well-placed jazz and rock improvisation.