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| MTAL Summer Camp Victor Wooten (credit: Brian Spady) |
A Review By: Troy Manley
Keller Williams is from Fredericksburg, Virginia and if
often described as a one-man jam-band because of his frequent use of live
looping and multiple instruments during performances. Williams hit the road for
a semi-national tour of the United States with his band, More Than A Little, in
support of their most recent album, FUNK.
Luckily for South Dakotans Keller made a pit stop on the "What The Funk Tour"
at The District. The District opened its doors to Sioux Falls residents in the
Fall of 2013, and has a capacity around 1,500. The venue is in the parking lot
of the Sioux Empire Mall - which happens to be the largest single story mall in
America - just off Interstate i-29. The District sports a fairly large standing
area with a balcony with some more general admission space and a couple VIP
booths. The stage is easily viewable from all parts of the floor; they
unfortunately had the balcony closed for the night.
Starting things off for the night was Minneapolis based
reggae, rock, and dub band with definite jam and EDM influences, Jon Wayne and
the Pain. The group maintains a unique psychedelic reggae sound in their self-described
"Reggae-Tronic Dub" by blending traditional styles of reggae-rock
with bass heavy sections of electronic dub. This trio has played an average of 20 shows a
month over the past 4 years, playing venues and festivals across the country in
support of their three full length albums. While living the dream may sound
like a cake-walk, these guys poured their heart and soul into their performance
at the District and the crowd was doing the same right back. Highly recommend
checking these dudes out if they come anywhere remotely close to you in the
future!
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| Jon Wayne and The Pain |
Once the set break concluded and I had time to put the
pieces of my brain back together, Keller came on for a brief 45-minute solo set
consisting of looping and sampling for the handful of instruments that
accompanied him on stage. After playing through a majority of his set, he
invited Gerard Johnson to come on stage and take over the keyboards, he was followed
by DJ Shaw on bass, Toby Fairchild on drums, and Tonya Lazenby Jackson and
Sugah Davis helping out with vocals. Once they were on stage, Keller
disappeared for a couple minutes only to reappear having ditched his casual
attire for a suit and tie.
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| MTAL (credit: Roger Gupta) |
The group
played through a majority of their album, FUNK,
which consists of 10 songs; 6 of which are covers ranging from Rick James to
the Grateful Dead, from Talking Heads to Flight of the Conchords. In an
interview with hottesttune, Keller said the name of the band "came from
the feelings he got the first time he played with this group. He was more than
a little happy, more than a little inspired. And of course, the group is 'more
than a little funky.'" Down-right funky is how I would describe the events
that transpired on stage that magical night at The District. Keller & More
Than a Little played with the utmost precision throughout the night as Williams
was directing members of the band to play extended jams with each other while
effortlessly moving between tracks. Gospel infused funk turned The District
into a church of heavenly tunes for all those down with the get down to get
down. Hands down one of the best funk
shows I have ever seen, I cannot encourage all you beautiful people enough to
make it to a stop on this tour. Pick up FUNK through Keller's site, HERE.
All Photos of MTAL taken from Keller William's official website gallery, HERE.
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