It’s hard to believe that, as close as I hold music dear to my heart, I’ve never been to a show in my nineteen years and four months of life. So, of course you can imagine how special it was to go to my first—even more so given that I got in for free. These were my thoughts on Saturday, September 19 as I ascended the NoMa metro escalator. The outside breeze siphoned into the station, rushing through my hair and animating my clothes like a waving flag. It was as though the strong current of the NoMa wind was foreshadowing the excitement I’d feel later that night. As I walked a few blocks to Songbyrd, each step I took was a tick of excitement, slowly brewing at my core. When I arrived, I spilled out my thoughts into my notepad, had a lovely conversation with the members of the Funky Breakfast (in which I learned from Potter, the fiddle player, that Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” can be best described as the “Free Bird” for fiddle players), and before long, it was showtime.
The first opener, and my very first introduction to concerts, was Keegan Del Rio. It was then, at the second I heard them play, that I knew I was about to experience something great. The riffs from Keegan electrified the venue, revamping the atmosphere among Songbyrd into pure liveliness. As each reverberation of the guitar sent shockwaves into the crowd, the ground shook with enthusiasm. Overcome with my very first experience at a concert, I felt as though I was baptized in decibels, my soul fulfilled with music. Keegan’s music was just how I like it—loud. After all, rocking until your ears bleed is the best way to rock. The room sent in frenzy with excitement, Keegan delivered his last song with unfaltering strength, wrapping up the performance in a nice bow.
After a short intermission, the second opener, Miss Moon, came on stage. With the garage-y stoner-rock and psychedelic-rock of Keegan Del Rio, a lovely contrast of jazzy pop-rock flooded the venue. The energy was different; while Keegan delivered thrashing blow after blow, Miss Moon provided softer music—though that is not to discount the bursts of harder rock played throughout their performance. With the spotlights on them in the otherwise dark room, it was as if the moon shined its light upon them, illuminating them with its blessing. In tandem with the heavenly voice of lead singer Miranda, the guitarist, Brenden, struck the late night with terrific melodies, enchanting the audience as they broke out in dance, singing along as though they were a pack of wolves worshipping the full moon. The delight Miss Moon had to be performing for everyone was tremendously apparent through Miranda’s continuous smile and dancing, controlling the mood of the venue and injecting a sense of happiness, excitement, and energy into the care-free audience.
After the last break between bands, the stage was all set; Alex Alavi & the Funky Breakfast, dressed all in white button-ups, looked throughout the amassed crowd. The Funky Breakfast begins their album-release with “Praying Mantis Man,” which invoked a roar throughout the crowd as everyone sang the chorus, “I don’t wanna be your praying mantis man.” The next song was “Copacetic,” turning the dial up on the rock; couples and friends begin to dance with each other, photographers light up the faces of the band with flash after flash, everyone’s having a phenomenal time experiencing this magnificent performance. After several songs off the new album “The Good, the Bad, & The Breakfast,” the Funky Breakfast reach the final act of their performance, starting by singing a cover of Britney Spears’s “…One More Time,” in which, at the chorus, the audience produced a deafening “hit me baby one more time” that shook the building. With equal response to the next tracks “I’m An Elephant” and “I’m Going To Sell You To The Werewolves,” the Funky Breakfast arrived at seemingly their final track of the night—a cover of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes off You.” In a post-show interview, when asked why this song in particular was chosen for the end, Alex said, “It’s such a good song, we’ve ended off on it before. People love it, I love it, it gets people moving […] and also there’s a prominent part for the keyboard, there’s also a prominent horn part which Potter can do on fiddle, so [we could] get everyone back on stage for it and it’ll sound not overcrowded.” But upon the end of this extraordinary rendition of the song, the Funky Breakfast were met with a lonesome voice shouting “ONE. MORE. SONG.” A few more chants later and he was joined by a small handful of more voices, then many more voices, and eventually, the whole venue was demanding an extension to the performance. The band acquiesced, not once but twice, playing two additional songs upon the loud requests of their audience. When asked how it felt to be surrounded by all that cheer and love by their fans, Alex said, “[It was] very surreal […] I mean it just gives me so much energy and it makes all of us feel really good. It’s surreal that people are asking for [more songs]. I didn’t expect there to be such big, overwhelming support.”
As the show ended and the audience began to clear out, I went to the merchandise table and bought a cassette for “The Good, The Bad, & The Breakfast,” as well as a shirt for Miss Moon. A bit later I had my post-show interview with Alex, and asking my final question, I wanted to know what was next for the band. Alex responds, “Capitol Hill Porch Fest, and then we’re playing at The Pocket on October 24 for their halloween festival. We’re doing a Beatles set, but we’re gonna make it our own.” Excited and hopeful to experience their upcoming shows, I thanked the Funky Breakfast for an amazing performance and said my farewell, walking off into the dark sea of the NoMa night, playing back their show in my head as I retraced my steps back to the Metro station.
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