The Motet with Pho- Turner Hall Ballroom, 12/29/16

Funk music, simply put, is good for the soul.  It's hard to argue that there is any other genre that can get people of all ages and backgrounds grooving and dancing easier than funk.  Funk is fun... the bright timbres of horns, deep bass grooves, and jazzy solos from band members are hard not to love.

To close out 2016, Colorado's funk collective The Motet played a show at Turner Hall with rising Midwestern funksters Pho from Minneapolis starting the party.

photo by Stephen Bloch

Consisting of musicians in their early twenties, Pho took the stage with a handful of patrons in the venue seated at cabaret tables.  About three songs in, the ever growing crowd was in front of the stage dancing.  Anchored by exceptional drumming and horn playing, the instrumental tracks from Pho were creative, engaging, and captivating, leaving the crowd guessing which surprises were coming next from the seven piece ensemble.  Their material showed influences of everyone from Sly and the Family Stone, to Galactic, to perhaps the most famous Midwestern funkster of them all, the late Prince.  To close their set, The Motet's charismatic front man, Lyle Divinsky came out to join the band for the only number that involved vocals, leaving the crowd up and grooving as the house lights came on.

photo by Stephen Bloch

photo by Stephen Bloch

photo by Stephen Bloch

The Motet took the stage a half hour later for their headlining performance.  The sextet played an energetic set which featured an array of solid instrumental tracks, as well as plenty of numbers which featured Lyle Divinksy's prolific vocal range.  Divinsky certainly is a talented front man, and did his very best to get the crowd engaged, on their feet, and grooving.  Declaring that, "We're gonna bring the dance party to Milwaukee," at the onset of their set, Divinsky and his band mates did their darnedest to entertain.   Highlights included "So High" and "The Truth," two tracks off of their most recent record Totem released earlier this year.  Like many similar jam funk acts, studio albums cannot capture the energy of the band nearly as well as seeing them live.  The Motet certainly brought a great amount of warm energy to entertain a large and eclectic Turner Hall crowd on a cold winter's eve.

photo by Stephen Bloch

photo by Stephen Bloch