Andy Frasco brought his party to Columbus, OH to celebrate Halloween Sunday at the Woodlands Backyard. Getting a little of what to expect from his social media posts about the indoor beach party, approaching the venue you’re filled with quite the spectacle of a big bubble that’s normally used for indoor sand volleyball which sets the scene for this Halloween Bash.
Plenty of costumes were out in the crowd from Fear and Loathing references, to light up cat masks as well as plenty of Afros and Lakers jerseys. Since this tour had actual Halloween night off and stayed in Columbus before making the trip to their next spot on the tour, you could feel this show was going to be special especially as Andy stated later that this is their 4th time playing in Columbus this year and definitely their largest crowd. But first the crowd got treated to the feel good and hyped performance from the duo of Little Stranger.
After a few false starts due to mic troubles, Little Stranger got the party kicked off right with 1969 from their 2018 EP Styles & Dynamics. This helped set the tone for this psychedelic hip hop and R&B set that was about to happen for those that weren’t familiar with Little Stranger and also to please long time fans. You get a sense of what all they’re able to musically achieve with John sitting and playing guitar, working drum machine and electronics while singing more soulful parts while Kevin spits “like he has no taste.”
The stage was clearly set up and ready to go for when Andy takes the stage in an hour and a half. His keyboard was a main barrier between Kevin and John on the stage as Kevin says he missed John from being so far away on the other side of the stage. You can tell their music is much more intimate being created by them solely and especially when they share the mic. They launched into one of their more recent popular songs Coffee & A Joint and then these Philly guys who are now based out of Charleston, SC went into one of their more reggae influenced cuts that is featured on their newest album Trip Around Saturn which can be found on all streaming platforms and can be purchased on their website on physical formats as well including a green translucent vinyl. The song I’m Fine features The Elovaters on the studio version but live the has those parts sampled.
Fittingly enough this bubble with a sand floor that we were all in had the appeal for a weird situation which John brought up the idea of how much some mushrooms would enhance the situation. This idea was a great segue into their song Brain Fog which has the lyrics “I’ve been vibin’ high on psilocybin wonderin’ how high I go.” John talked about how cool it would be to eat some mushrooms in their bubble and went into Brain Fog which features Del The Funky Homosapien on the studio version.
The 3rd time this night John alluded to the microphone issues before they started the set. He mentioned they had a game plan for the set but now they were just calling audibles which even though it was Football Sunday, the NFL battle for Ohio between the Browns and the Bengals wasn’t until the next night for Monday Night Football. Their friend TobyRaps knew this as they brought him to the stage all decked out in his Browns gear to try to bring them good luck. He picked up a verse and was scatting out “give me the beat give me the give me the give me the rhythm.”
Before paying tribute to one of their biggest inspirations the Gorillaz and covering Clint Eastwood they performed the 1st song they ever wrote together Rosewater from their 2015 album Buddha the Beast. Kevin adds flavor to the songs he contributes the melodica on and they give their tour manager Dan Snell the spotlight with his performing the harmonica.
As they have gotten the crowd pumped on some of their more popular songs and a few classics they were ready for a crowd favorite as they both took the mics for Red Rover to end the set. They had the crowd pumped up so hard they came back on for one more song with Me & You.
When the intro music is Dolly doing 9-5 and Andy Frasco comes out with his band and says “we’re at the Bahamas baby,” you know you’re in for a treat as he gets it going with The Walk. Walking “a little taller” is definitely easy to do when he even has a platform on his keyboard so he can stand on it and let the fog machine and light coming from underneath pinpoint him as the life of the party exactly at this moment. Key to Andy’s band leadership is when he has the rest of the band get a little extra quiet and instructs the crowd to get down as long as they can. Once the band picks up and he gets everyone to get up and jump, the beach balls went flying into the crowds and the beach party was definitely commencing.
After getting high on their “own supply” they played a couple of new songs and he said he felt like Oprah “you get a new song, you get a new song.” In typical Frasco live performances of teasing a chorus and/or a verse as well, they went to some Queen with I Want To Break Free and then back into pleading the case of “love all of me.” It was time to start bringing out his friends as Dan came back out to play harmonica and then Andy was feeling extra frisky with NIN Animal where they picked up the tempo and had some synchronized jumps.
It was now time to get on the stage “L – I Double T – L – E Stranger at which point Andy got them to take their shirts off and kiss each other on the mouth as he said “since you’re the opening band I can get you to do whatever” he says. They performed together from his album Keep On Keepin’ On the song None of Those Things because “happiness will keep us free.” Contradictory to the setting and atmosphere he had us believing that “this ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around on the Talking Heads cover of Life During Wartime which features guitarist Shawn Eckels taking over on vocals.
He next confesses that he takes “Viagra in the morning and a Red Bull at 3 AM” on hard bopping tune Mature As Fuck which he had the band slow down into a nice reggae vibe. The diversity that Andy and his band showcase is sometimes overshadowed by the party atmosphere they provide but he knows what to do to keep his shows interesting on the aptly titled song Change of Pace which starts with a country flavor that picks up to a honky took in the sand to the remarkable talent of the guitar and Ernie Chang on the saxophone doing synchronized solos and going back and forth.
Covering Led Zeppelin’s Ramble On, they change the lyrics to “he eats a lot of mushrooms every day” and the Shawn really slays the solo. Playing a medley of songs and jamming out it was time for some beach games as he had the crowd part the seas, hippy mosh, do a Soul Train “Macarena” and changing the lyrics of Funky Town to “Mushroom Town” and then doing the Dosey Doe. Sticking with the party jams and medley of Talk About It all kinds of antics pursued with Shawn sitting on Andy’s lap for a verse and doing Truckin’ but changing all the lyrics to have to do with “Fuckin’” in the raunchy and hilarious Frasco styling.
As per usual they switched instruments jamming out a blues number while Andy said “watch out Goose we’re jamming. We’re officially a jam band” and then giving a spit out to Ambien.
He had 3 requests at his funeral before going into a crowd favorite Dance Around My Grave. 1. Feed his mother mushrooms. 2. Have fun. 3. Bring Eddie George (might as well since we’re near OSU right?). To “celebrate what we have” with Kevin back on stage they started with the Jameson bottle held up by an innocent patron in the crowd with Andy crowd surfing to the bottle, chugging it, crowd surfing back to the stage only to tag Kevin into the crowd surf to do the same. They played Struggle and covered Slow Ride.
The encore brought Little Stranger back out for the song they wrote together Oh, What A Life and ending with Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff. With Halloween off you can catch the tour with Little Stranger in Washington D.C. on Tuesday November 1st then to Boston, Philly, and Brooklyn. Don’t miss this fun tour.
