Event

Five Alarm Funk

Some bands want to change the world. Five Alarm Funks goal is much simpler.

They want you to sweat.

Thats been the idea since the first time drummer Tayo Branston, guitarist Gabe Boothroyd and the original Five Alarm bassist Neil Towers met at a Vancouver house party in 2003. Since that night, the temperature in their leafy green hometown began to rise. Other musicians started showing up to jam. The parties led to gigs locally, which led a few years later to grinding bus tours across Canada and into the States. The crowds grew. The grooves burned. A horn section jumped onboard to punch the beat harder. Percussion cranked it up even more. EPs and albums followed, as studios and gear melted down from the sheer intensity these guys unleashed.

No wonder they called their last album Sweat.

But believe it or not, Five Alarm Funk is just warming up.

To get the full picture, go back to when the future rhythm section first played together. Vancouver was definitely a musical town then, though among its grunge, alternative, indie and even jazz players one genre was conspicuous in its absence. A few young cats were aware of this but didnt know how to correct the situation until some mysterious force pulled them into the same room at the same time.

We all loved heavy funk like James Brown and Tower of Power Branston explains. But we were also inspired by everything from Tito Puente to Antibalas to Frank Zappa. Their fantastic musicianship and the amount of fun they had was incredible. We wanted that for ourselves too but it just wasnt going on in Vancouver at that time.