Getintothis

Hot 8 Brass Band, Daddy: Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool

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Hot 8 Brass Band

Hot 8 Brass Band had the Invisible Wind Factory bouncing, Getintothis’ Amy Faith included.

Something about the Dock Road approach to the Invisible Wind Factory, especially in the dark makes us feel like we’re sneaking off to some sort of illegal hooch den, a speakeasy full of revellers and devilish jazz music, away from the bright city streets.

Well, if you minus the illegal hooch, the Hot 8 Brass band gig was pretty much that!

Invisible Wind Factory is always an exciting venue with its raw warehouse qualities and bizarre hanging art.

However, regardless of it’s thrilling possibilities, we’re not sure IWF was the best choice of venue for Hot 8.

Unlike the music, the venue was anything but “hot”. Instead it lived up to its windy moniker – blustery fans kept the fans of a music variety at a strangely low temperature for what we thought would have been a hot, sweaty and almost animalistic gig.

The night started quietly with attendees coyly sticking to the darkened edges of the venue as the support act, Daddy, appeared on stage. Decked out in 80’s shell suit jackets along with t shirts and baseball caps emblazoned with their band logo (note to crowd – check out the merch stand at the back).

They bust out some banging jazz numbers accompanied by melodic, and at times, synth-y piano and sexy guitar riffs.

Daddy switched easily from a smooth track that reminded us of a Film Noir scene, set in a down-and-out New York detectives office, to an up-tempo jive that could almost be categorised as psychedelic.

The wah-wah guitar pedal, used within their finale song, always reminds us of soft core 70s porn, so the band name, Daddy, started to make a bit of sense.

(Unfortunately the lead singer’s choice of footwear – an ugg-boot-cum-granny-slipper hybrid – put death to any impure thoughts.)

Finally the crowd were warmed up (as much as the jettisons of cool air would allow them anyway) and people slowly crept forward, the defiant Hot 8 fans claiming their places in front of the stage.

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Soon enough Hot 8 swaggered onto the stage, comically holding fingers to lips, pretending they weren’t there yet.

The crowd didn’t care as they erupted into whoops and cheers.

The band leader, Bennie “Big Peter” Pete, announced their arrival on stage by talking about their crazy journey so far on the Mardi Gras tour, all the way from New Orleans (cue more big cheers) and now in Liverpool, one of their last dates. (This is an important fact, remember this.)

They launched into a string of their well-known covers from 90s hip hop like Luniz I Got 5 On It straight into 70’s funk like Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music before hitting the crowd with some straight up, good old, New Orleans funeral melodies.

If you’re thinking “did she just say funeral melodies?”, you need to educate yourself by searching “New Orleans jazz funeral” on YouTube and you’ll be planning to get buried over there yourself. What a riot!

One of the big audience participation moments came towards the end where Hot 8 started batting out their big hitters.

Big Peter at one point wanted to see how in-tune the crowd were to their vibe by very strictly warning them that they mustn’t repeat his next words, but to follow him with the next line in the song. He launched into the famous bridge of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing with “Get up, get up, get up, get up” to which the predominantly white Liverpool crowd, without hesitation, loudly hit back with “LET’S MAKE LOVE TONIGHT”.

The crowd’s reactions and the band’s response showed that there is undoubtedly a congenital connection between our two cities, banded together by a historical, deep-seated, almost savage, lust for soulful music.

The second big audience participation moment came when Big Peter instructed everyone to get on the floor, something that the dedicated fans were obviously hoping for and almost writhed with pleasure when they realised it was happening at their own gig, and something the newer fans were delighted about being involved in.

Out came the lyrics “Engine engine, number 9…” with the crowd being encouraged to stay low before jumping up and dancing on the “PICK IT UP” line.

A single, joyous jump was had by all, but unfortunately no mini mosh pits formed in the strangely well-behaved audience.

Finishing their set with now cult status favourites The Specials’ Ghost Town and Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together, Hot 8 displayed their relentless talent for bouncing between musical genres without skipping a beat, proving why Liverpool brings them back and crushes them deep within our dirty bosom so often.

The crowd whistled and cheered until the band returned to the stage to finish out their encore to inevitable rapturous applause.

Returning to the earlier comment that Liverpool is one of the band’s last tour dates on a long European tour, combined with the cool airy environment of IWF and their obvious tour-tiredness, we couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

When we think “New Orleans hot jazz band”, we think of high energy dancing and sweaty dive venues, where the crowd is so close to the band they’re almost IN the band.

We suppose it doesn’t help matters that Liverpool keeps demolishing all the sweaty dive venues to make way for new flats…

While Hot 8 are undoubtedly incredibly talented at their art and gave everything that was expected of them, making everyone smile and raise their hands at the right moments, we’re afraid to say that the temperature must already be back in New Orleans.

Images by Getintothis’ Amy Faith.

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