Vancouver based funk band Five Alarm Funk plan to “Sweat” in support of their new album, when they drop the funk on Henderson Lake Park to celebrate Canada 150 festivities.
“It’s been 14 years and six albums. And this album is our most mature album yet. It’s opened a lot of doors for us,” said Tayo Branston, one of the two drummers in the funk fuelled behemoth which includes Gabe Boothroyd - Guitar; Oliver Gibson - Guitar; Jay Smith - Bass; Tom Towers - Congas; Ricki Valentine - Timbales; Eli Bennett - Sax and trumpet player Kent Wallace.
“We wanted to capture what it feels like to be at a concert. The last album “Abandon Earth’ was a concept album. It was almost a heavy metal album. On this album we went back to our roots of heavy funk, afrobeat and reggae,” Branston said, adding they are excited to play Canada Day in Lethbridge.
“Our live show is the best it’s ever been. We have new costumes and new props we’re breaking out. I don’t want to spoil things, but the gorilla and the sharks are our in full force. They’ve become a symbol for Five Alarm Funk. They’re big, powerful animals,” he said, promising a spectacle for Canada Day.
“We’re also working on new music which we’ll be playing which you won’t hear unless you’re at the concert,” he said, noting the band has been touring a lot in the United States and Canada since releasing the album in March. They played Follyfest in Fredericton on June 23 before flying back to Vancouver the Coastal Jazz Festival, which kicks off a big tour including Canadian and American dates.
“We’re excited to play Canada Day in Lethbridge. Lethbridge has always been good to us,” he said adding they usually play a Canada Day show somewhere, but missed it last year.
“We actually played an Ottawa show the day after Canada Day last year,” he said.
“We‘re also releasing a new video for ‘Widowmaker.’ We just finished the not so fun stuff like figuring out the numbers. The concept is dancers get destroyed by the intensity of a piece of music. So we]re excited to write the script and start filming it,” he enthused.
Five Alarm Funk are part of a busy Canada Day line up at Henderson lake, which begins at 11 a.m. with the Lethbridge Community Band. They will be followed at noon by the Dramatic Measures Choir, the Hibikaya drummers at 12:10, New West Theatre at 12:30 p.m., the Lethbridge Thai dancers at 1:10, Munya Maturuse at 1:30 p.m., the Troyanda Ukrainian Dancers at 2:20 p.m., local funk/R and B/disco collective Hippodrome at 2:50 and the opening ceremonies at 4 p.m..
After that, Lethbridge Native Dance performs at 4:30 p.m. local classic rock band Fast Times Follow at 4:50. Urban Beat dancers will perform at 5:40 p.m..
Saskatchewan country singer Blake Berglund performs at 6 p.m. followed by Mexican Sin Fronteras.
Local rock band Biloxi Parish are on at 7:10 p.m. followed by Gymfinity Aerial Circus at 8 p.m.
Five Alarm Funk play at 8:30, and as thing wind down, the Lethbridge Fire Spinners will be performing at 9:30 p.m. Saint Albert based, Alberta up and coming country musician Dan Davidson winds things down at 10 p.m. and lead the crowd to the fireworks at 11 p.m.
There is Canada Day music at Galt Gardens as well with a variety of DJs including DJ Streeter beginning at noon, DJ Fuze at 1 p.m.m Universal Fallout at 2 p.m., DJ Digiboo at 3, Freddy J at 4, Beach Season at 5, DEFunk at 6 and Slynk winding things up at 7 p.m.
