Trombone Shorty: Knows How to Partay


Trombone Shorty
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA
December 31, 2012

Trombone Shorty:  Knows How to Partay

It’s been a while since I partayed hot and heavy on a New Year’s Eve.  When you’re a little rusty, it’s good to surround yourself with professionals.  And the crew that journeyed to the Fillmore with me last night were veterans.  They know how to get the job done, glowsticks and all. And the Master of Ceremonies, Trombone Shorty, made sure the job was done well.   Of course, the audience was more than ready to celebrate but TS brought the goods.  A very impressive performance for someone who is still only 26 years old.

Much of the NYE prelims involved discussions regarding transportation logistics - which eventually consisted of two trains and a bus - to get to the Lower Haight where the evening started with some tasty but greasy naan and curry at Indian Oven before a mad scramble to the magic bus that would take us to the show.  When we arrived, Papa Mali was midway through a set of psychedelic hardrock blues, a la Iron Butterfly or Deep Purple.  I felt transported back to the 1960s Fillmore though just about 4 decades after the wave had crashed.  But it was good enough to keep the night on track.

TS took the stage for an hour long set of high energy jams before an intermission.  It was all great fun but I was not anticipating the break.  In retrospect, it seems obvious that they needed time to prepare for the midnight hour.  About 5 minutes before midnight, a small mardi gras parade with TS blowing on his trombone passed though the middle of the crowd to the stage where they counted down to midnight and dropped hundreds of balloons on the excited crowd.  The pros and myself were directly under the drop and were drenched with a downpour of rainbow colored balloons.  TS played  a medley of James Brown licks during “Feel Like Funkin it Up” which followed Auld Lang Syne after midnight.  And also included a fun cover of the Isley Brother’s “Shout” which completed the party.

Trombone Shorty has appeared before on MV&R when I characterized him as kind of a New Orleans jazzy rocking jam band.  That still holds true except he was even more fun last night.  The evening had all the makings of a Good Time and TS delivered.    

Other highlights:  Hurricane Season, Something Beautiful, Shout.

Photo #3 by award-winning JSantel.  Vids from the evening below.


Final Vid tipped from Youtube rb1229.