San Francisco Music News

I go through phases. In ninth grade I was really into the whole “rave” thing. I listened to Moby and wore plastic beaded bracelets that glowed in the dark. Sophomore year of college I went through a short-lived mostly-embarrassing “pop” phase when I would defend Britney until the sun came up. Last fall I was a glamaholic and even went as Ziggy Stardust for Halloween. Sometimes I try to predict what my next phase will be. For a while I thought post-punk, but it just never manifested. Now stick with me, I’m getting to the point. After seeing Honeycut tonight at the Independent, I realized what my next phase is going to be. One word: Funk.

The Honeycut show was so fun and so funky that I found myself itching to build my Parliament Funkadelic collection and bid on some orange bell-bottoms on EBay. But really, that is beside the point. The point is that Honeycut’s music and stage performance were not only fun to watch, but inspiring. When I first showed up, I heard some reggae-rock vocals booming as I walked down the hall into the venue. When I turned the corner, I must admit I was slightly surprised that such Sean Paul-esque vocals were coming from a muscular, white, bald man. Self-proclaimed “one man band”, Kid Beyond’s blend of beatboxing, sound layering, and singing created an intoxicating electro-reggae-pop soundtrack that you had better have your dancing shoes on for. Before the show, I had heard Honeycut compared to everyone from Gnarles Barkley to George Michael to Mick Jagger. I read that their sound was past, present, and future… all at the same time. It seemed like a jumbled mix of nonsense to me, but after the first song, “Hard Times”, it all made sense (well, maybe not the George Michael part). Lead singer Bart Davenport, clad in white bell-bottoms and a pink shirt stitched with a zodiac sign, had a pout and swagger to rival Mick Jagger’s, and a voice so funky it had to have been created in the seventies. Keyboardist and sampler, RV Salters, busted out B-boy dance moves while simultaneously playing the coolest synth-keyboard solos I have ever heard. As they blew through their set of “future funk” songs like “Exodus Honey” (featured in an iMac ad) and “Shadows” (my personal favorite), they did not break their performance personas once. In between songs, Davenport stared out at the audience as if we were an alien breed he had never seen before but was intensely fascinated by. Even when encouraging fans to purchase CDs at the merch table, the frontman put one foot atop his amp, leaned in and said “Our album might have only made it to #500 on the Billboard charts… But you can make it #1 tonight”.

Honeycut seemed to exist in their own funky little world. Having a sneak peek into that world for the evening was quite a trip. A trip full of booty-shaking and clapping, that is. If you ever have a chance to experience it, I promise you won’t regret it. In fact, you may even emerge wanting orange bell-bottoms.