Colorado band The Motet are geared up for this year’s Halloween shows where the band will cover the music of Parliament Funkadelic. The Motet’s holiday shows are wildly popular with their local fans and the Boulder Theater show is already sold out. This Saturday’s show at The Ogden in Denver is also already sold out and it is no wonder with the band staging a 14 member band including vocalist and keyboardist Nigel Hall who only last year performed with The Warren Haynes Band on Halloween in Denver.
We recently caught up with the band at one of their rehearsal studios preparing for the shows. The Motet’s Dave Watts. Joey Porter and Garrett Sayers talk with Times-Call, Prairie Mountain Media reporter Quentin Young before a rehearsal. Band members also videoed Ryan Jalbert, Gabe Mervine, Matt Pitts, Dan Schwindt and Kimberly Dawson Produced by Alan Crandall. For ticket information visit www.themotet.net
Friday night members of the Motet and Big Gigantic assembled and brought their tribute to Herbie Hancock to the Boulder Theater. Band members included, Dominic Lalli, Dave Watts, Joey Porter, Garrett Sayers, Dan Schwindt & Matt Grunstad put on quite the performance. It was great seeing so many people groove to Hancock’s music.
I was estimating maybe 30 to 50 people in the Boulder Theater before the concert began and while listening to
Joey Porter
the DJ Raw Russ lay down some cool hip hop dance mixes. Then, like magic, when the Hancock’s music filled the theater the fan floodgates opened and by the end of the second song the theater was packed with an exuberant audience.
Joey Porter explained to the audience that they wanted to share their love for Hancock’s music. Herbie Hancock, a legendary Jazz man “was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace music synthesizers and funk music (characterized by syncopated drum beats),” according to Wikipedia. This makes his music perfect for the stylings of this tribute band. The band was tight and grooved through long melodic-rhythmic songs keeping the crowd dancing and entertained. If you get a chance to check out this combination of musicians perform a tribute to Herbie Hancock… I recommend it! The Motet will perform this weekend at the LoHi Music Festival in Denver, for more information visit www.themotet.net.
You know those time a friend tells you, “You really should check out this band?” And you
Nigel Hall
go… and have a great time! I get the feeling that Joey Porter’s Shady Business, held at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom last Saturday, was that kind of show. Shady Business is a great band in the one time pairing of the bulk of The Motet with the band Juno What, Nigel Hall and the Shady Horns. Motet keyboardist Joey Porter was celebrating his 40th birthday party and the concert turned into a big funky birthday celebration. Shady Business was a diamond in the rough at a concert that seemed more like a fan-filled party.
Now in my opinion… if you ever hear of JunoWhat! or most of the members of the Motet playing together… or Nigel Hall or the Shady Horns …well actually, if you hear of any of the members of the Motet playing… you need to check it out. It is always a good time.
Joey Porter
After the Monophonics played a great warm up set, Shady Business took the stage with members Nigel Hall, Joey Porter, Dave Watts, Garrett Sayers, Ryan Jalbert, Jans Ingber, Steve Watkins & Kim Dawson and The Shady Horns. The stage was packed with artists with three keyboard setups. “Funk is Dead” Motet vocalist Kimberly Dawson even joined in for a few songs. It was a fantastic show with Porter and Hall trading rifts and keyboards throughout the show and Hall taking lead vocals on songs like “What is Hip”
At Set break the birthday portion of the show kicked into full gear with birthday boy Joey Porter being seated center stage, presented with a cake that looked like a Hammond organ and a big present that was rolled to the front of the stage. Then a beautiful dancing girl (Jacque Porter) dressed in a green burlesque corset and black top hat popped out of the present and offered a grinning Joey a birthday dance, hug and a kiss.
This was a very cool night at Cervantes even the Other Side was hopping with national touring act, The Heavy Pets. I will post some Heavy Pets Photos next, for now check out this cool party and next time a friend says hey some of those Motet guys are performing… go to the show.
Check out this clip half way through “What is Hip” where Garrett Sayers plays a sick solo and lays down the funky bass rifts.
Lafayette resident Jaden Carlson is working on her next project and needs your help. Carlson, who performs simply as “Jaden” or with The Motet’s Scott Messersmith and Garrett Sayers as the “Jaden Carlson Trio” is a dynamic and talented ten-year-old that is looking to record her third album, in this case an EP with Garrett and Scott. She has teamed up with Kickstarter.com to help launch this project. Kickstarter.com is a cool program that helps artists raise funds for projects with a set goal and within a predetermined time. Jaden’s goal is to raise $2000 to
Jaden Carlson
help her launch this new project. Supporters that provide seed money in return receive various items based on the level of their support.
There are only 8 days left to offer up your support as her Kickstarer.com program ends on Feb. 22, Jaden’s eleventh birthday! Take a second and check it out… if you support the arts, this program might be your win-win situation.
At 10 years old Jaden has two CDs to her credit. And she has played at multiple festivals, including: Power to the Peaceful, Doug Fest, Desert Rocks, Telluride Blue and Brews, the Telluride Jazz Festival, Harmony fest, Knock the Blues out of Hunger and NedFest.
By Alan Crandall, previously published at dailycamera.com The Motet is heading back out on the road. I am not talking about shows in Breckenridge or Carbondale like they did the last two nights. No, I am not talking about tonight’s Best of Halloween show at the Aggie Theater where the Motet select the best of their prior Halloween tribute shows covering bands like Jamiroquai, Talking Heads, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Sly Stone, Earth, Wind and Fire and the Grateful Dead. I am not even talking about tomorrow night’s New Year’s eve show at the Aggie with the Motet and Euforquestra. Playing local, affordable and dynamic shows, this is the Motet I know; this is the Motet I love. No, The Motet are going much bigger, I am talking coast to coast, nationwide and to other countries even.
The Motet recently announced that they are taking their most recent project, “Funk is Dead” on tour with a west coast and 4 east coast dates. Motet founder and percussionist Dave Watt’s explains, “We are hitting the east coast and San Francisco as well, having this Funk is Dead set under our belt people have gotten really excited about it, so it looks like we will be able to make it happen in some really great venues we never played at before.” Watts elaborated, “We love playing the material and it’s great to have three or four hours worth of new material and we are definitely excited about the new arrangements and feel we came up with.”
The new material alone may have not sent the band on tour, “we would have not just gone out on tour with such a big band without there being some real excitement from the promoters out east and in San Francisco,” said Watts. It turns out that AEG has been promoting their Ogden Theater shows and “AEG’s offices in New York decided to put us in four great theaters on the east coast.”
Dave Watts
The band plans on gigging in other countries also, “We do have some cool variations to next year’s tour schedule, we are being paid to play a private party in Costa Rica so we are going to add some club dates,” said Watts.
Included in the new Tour dates recently announced are a couple of Cervantes shows in January. This is not the only news for the Motet; they also revamped their website www. themotet.net. “We just decided to step up the whole functionality with the website before it was just basic information now the possibilities are endless,” said Watts.
Joey Porter
Over ten years old, the Motet has played in most every type of venue from bars to large concert halls. They stage a large band of talented musicians and continue to grow their fan base. Now, with the new Funk is Dead material going from coast to coast, a much larger audience is going to be exposed to their music and they too will find out that when the Motet plays, you have to dance.
Check out this cool video from the Motet’s Halloween “Funk is Dead” concert at the Ogden by SuperVideoBros on Youtube.
