and ’60s soul grooves better than those from
the Dynamites. |
Live, Nashville’s Dynamites are a sweaty bathtub of bubbling, wall-to-wall funk and James Brownian motion. Singer Walker doesn’t have the Godfather’s moves or his vocal range, but he can light city blocks with his groaning, howling, wailing, barking soul voice. Here, on the shakin’ “Own Thing” and the back-alley tough “Killin’ It,” he sounds like Wilson Pickett using a finer grade of sandpaper. And the rest of this 10-piece outfit are so funky, they travel to gigs in a garbage truck. Okay, maybe that’s too literal, and gross. But with Jackson Eppley’s pushing bass, Tyrone Dickerson’s laid-back organ textures, leader Leo Black’s Jimmy Nolen guitar chords, a two-man horn section that wails tough as four, and a wall of percussion, the Dynamites offer one of the better tributes to ’50s-’60s-style soul grooves in all of show business. And that’s saying something.
The Dynamites + DJ PJ + DJ Claudd Money | ZuZu, 474 Mass Ave, Cambridge | July 10 | 617.864.EAST
