Photos / Video / Setlist / Recap | Joe Marcinek's Dead Funk Summit @ Martyrs' 12/9/17

Photos: John 'Nunu' Zomot

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Guitarist Joe Marcinek is the chef who is always cooking up something special with whatever ingredients are on hand.

As luck would have it, the cupboard happened to have a little from two separate camps for a December run.  Melvin Seals, the longtime Jerry Garcia Band organist was available for this swing.  And a couple of returning Marcinek All-stars, bassist Tony Hall (of New Orleans' super-funky Dumpstaphunk) and drummer Alan Evans (Soulive), must have also had some free dates on the calendar.

Hence, the Dead Funk Summit was born.

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And Marcinek's fretwork plays beautifully in both camps.  While the collective dipped into funk, rock and Grateful Dead-related material throughout their long set and encore Saturday night at Martyrs', Joe also included a couple of his original compositions that feel right at home at the Summit.

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It made for an impressive, and danceable evening for the sold-out crowd.

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Check out some of the Dead fireworks on the classic "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire On The Mountain" pairing.

Local blues keyboardist Marty Sammon and his band opened the show and stuck around for some jamming near the end.

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And the happy crowd also got the count the candles on Tony Hall's cake as he celebrated the best way he knows -- through the power of music.

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He's obviously in great spirits taking lead vocals on the show-closing "Shakedown Street".

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