I was first exposed to the significant funkiness of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on Elvis Costello’s Spike, a sprawling and diverse record where Elvis dips his toe into a lot of different styles, but most of the tracks are firmly rooted in the Crescent City.  On the best tracks, Elvis is backed by New Orleans musicians like the late, great Allen Toussaint on piano, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the latter of whom have been getting after it for 40+ years now.   Maybe my favorite Elvis Costello track of all time (and there are so many to choose from!) is Deep Dark Truthful Mirror, on which the DDB just shine.  It’s Elvis’ song, but the band owns it.

The band is on a 40th-ish anniversary tour and they rolled into town on Sunday night to play a “Mardi Gras” date at The Sinclair in Harvard Square with opener Cha Wa.  Mardi Gras masks and beads for everyone!  Both bands just smoked it last night.  The DDB drew upon their deep catalog to keep the crowd moving, and played a couple of numbers that were almost jam-band length!  Laissez les bons temps rouler, indeed. 

Dirty Dozen Brass Band, bringing the funk

But a few words about the opener, Cha Wa: these guys just brought it.  Now, opening acts have a steady hill to climb.  Nobody barely knows them, and often times people are looking at their watches or heading to the loo or the bar before the headliner comes on, so it’s hard to get the crowd’s attention.  From the first downbeat, the band (a subset from the sprawling group that records in the studio) had the crowd up and dancing.  They effortlessly moved from song to song from their great CD Spyboy, and by the end, everyone in the room knew who they were.  I met them at the merch table after their set, and they clearly felt as good about their performance as we did.  A bunch of nice and talented guys worth keeping an eye on (check out their CD Spyboy, which was nominated for a Grammy!)

Cha Wa, with J’Wan Boudreaux on lead vox