F.U....N.K. But seriously, funk. It was the theme of late night at The Fox Theatre, Monday, March 17^th. Coming all the way from Baltimore, Maryland, we had the honor of spending a night with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong on their twenty-five day tour, one of the funkiest, psychedelic, up and coming jam bands coming through this town.

Just as the full moon is infiltrating its way into the Bay Area, casting an illuminating white light over the Fillmore...Peeps await for the epic improvisational elements that seem to have a ripple effect from an  eclectic group who derived their name from Jack Kerouac's short story, "October In The Rain".

Most folks going out to see live music generally seek a familiar favorite band, or at the very least a certain style or genre implied. Rarely can an act draw interest based on anything without these qualities. Matt Butler’s Everyone Orchestra is the exception. Butler is a fantastic multi-instrumentalist (primarily a drummer) who decided to abolish all of the above qualifiers of what constitutes a traditional band.

Sometimes it’s cool to catch a concert in Boulder that isn’t at Boulder or Fox Theatres. We love both of those venues, but there are so many lesser-appreciated venue spaces attached to bars and restaurants primarily in the downtown area. I include Mountain Sun Brewery Restaurant & Pub, Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, Connor O’Neil’s Irish Pub, and Lazy Dog Saloon all in this category. Perhaps the most underappreciated venue space downtown in Shine Restaurant & Gathering Place.

We live in a time where plenty of incredibly entertaining funk acts with talented players are saturating the live music scene. Funk has almost become synonymous in meaning to being just a good times band with some soul. Digging back toward the true roots of the genre reveals a particular form and structure with certain places breading their own unique spin and history on it. New Orleans musicians are held in a high caliber for a reason. They don’t just learn to play in their own niche group; these stellar players are constantly collaborating and have been for decades.

After hanging out with Mike Gordon a bit the night before his show during the Toubab Krewe concert at the Fox Theater, I was more than ready to see his new lineup at the Boulder Theater. I pre-ordered his new album and enjoy listening to it especially on vinyl. Each time I have met him has been a peculiar, but enlightening experience.

The biggest blessing that jazz music has brought to the world is it’s ability to tie different cultures, places, and musical ideas, all bound together by one common unity; love. Guitarist John McLaughlin, a pioneer of the jazz-fusion movement and continuation lets his music thrive in a state of flexibility that had lead him to brilliant collaborations with other craft masters worldwide. McLaughlin’s impressive career reveals a pivotal purpose of exploration and always reaches for more questions rather than answering old ones.

Galactic is not just a band. They are a community. They are a party. They are a movement and a force that comes to town to bring an awakening or awareness that is deeply entrenched in a carnival type New Orleans experience. With Mardi Gras at our heels, Denver was still feeling the holiday spirit, and the circus was in town. I call Galactic a community because I have never really seen a band with more of an open family type jam spirit that welcomes so many different types of musicians depending on their latest albums or motives.

The greatest thing about The Travelin' McCourys, or Del’s Boys, is that they are so open to collaboration. They were bread in a family of musical versatility that never limited any possibility if they could do something interesting.

It’s felt like eons since David “Dawg” Grisman has played in Boulder. Not that is really been all too long, but since then residents have all sorts of jammy and traditional grass growing underneath them. Theater performances and community picks become increasingly popular and plentiful. A sort of roots resurgence has blossomed and a generation of newgrass players is inheriting while reinventing this tradition. Purists need to a look back a few generations to what Dawg music did for what was then current in bluegrass.