Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The Floozies @ Magic Stick Detroit with Russ Liquid, Filibusta & Special Guest GRiZ (3-1-15) [Review]

Reviewed by Hippy Flipped

This past Sunday, The Magic Stick of Detroit had the pleasure of hosting two Kansas soul brothers, Mark (Drums) and Matt (Guitar and Production) Hill, more commonly known as The Floozies. Doors opened at 8pm and the music promptly began with Filibusta’s live band, which included Troy Probst, Max Pohlmann a.k.a Kaisah (Trumpet) and Mike Fitz a.k.a Goodness Gracious (Guitar). One of the first things that I noticed upon my arrival, was tons of people dancing, which I almost never see so close to doors opening at a show. Not just a handful here and there, but a full floor of dancing shoes the entire night! I went up to the super friendly bar staff to get a drink and met tons of good vibin’ people on their way into the venue. So much energy and love was in the air.

Filibusta kept the music flowing while the melodic harmonies of the horn and guitar danced over top of his grooves. As the set was nearing the end I began to hear excited chatter amongst the crowd about Russ Liquid. This was my first time hearing any of Russ Liquid’s music and, after the set he played, I’m not sure how that is even possible! He had some of the saxiest feels and smoothest transitions I have ever heard, especially while continuously going back and forth between the controls and the horn; a most excellent execution. Russ Liquid connected with the crowd like separated friends at a music festival who reconnected hours later at the most bumpin’ set of the night. His energy never let up and he put the crowd in just the right place for The Floozies to take the stage.


The last time I saw The Floozies perform was during their funkalicious set at the Sherwood Stage of Electric Forest 2014, but hearing them in such an intimate setting was a whole new musical experience. Every note that they played was personal, every smile seemed aimed at you and every dance move that they busted was always right in step with the crowd. This show was one of the most connected shows I have been to.

Speaking of connections, towards the end of the evening The Floozies brought two folks consecutively to the stage. First, they brought back Russ Liquid and his horns to jam it out for a bit longer. The versatility of all of these musicians was definitely both an audibly and visually entertaining performance with Russ Liquid bouncing between saxophone and trumpet and Matt Hill bouncing between controls, guitar and bass. Once Russ Liquid had left the stage after a riveting encore performance, the moment that everyone in the crowd had been talking about happened… Home grown, Detroit favorite GRiZ took the stage with the first band to be signed to his label All Good Records (formerly Liberated Music), The Floozies. The feet seemed to pound harder than the subwoofers as the crowd roared with praise! If you can imagine George Clinton mixed with Prince mixed with the sweet sound of sizzling bacon, that is how magnificent this sound was. That Purple Rain mash-up was particularly dank.

After a long night of grooving, the once strange crowd fizzled out with five times as many friends as they walked in with. I left with new mates, tired feet, a smiling face and a camera full of memories. I would like to thank The Floozies for having me out to cover such a wonderful event. Kaisah’s manager AudisBliss was nice enough to invite me on stage to grab some snaps during the Filibusta set, so a big thanks to him as well. It’s always soul warming to attend such a positively energized show when it’s so cold in the D. You can catch The Floozies March 4 at Cosmic Charlie’s in Lexington, KY next!



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