Last night was another fantastic night at The Funky Biscuit, one of my favorite venues in South Florida. They had Suenalo as the band for the evening. These guys are a band that hails all the way from Miami and they are certainly one of Miami’s best. These guys not only have cool Latin sounds like many other Miami bands, but they also have flavors of Hip Hop, as well as a great funk sound to them. Last night though was the first time I had actually seen them headline a show. Up until last night I’d seen these guys play music festivals and clubs, but they were never the headliner. They have certainly gained a following over in south Florida, as well as in the festival scene. They’ve played festivals, such as WMNF’s Tropical Heatwave, as well as now getting on board with the Grassroots festivals.
Last night tey played two sets worth of material and I was real impressed because I knew they had enough original material, but I thought in order for them to play two sets they would have to play every track off of their three albums that they have out. This, thankfully turned out not to be be the case. They played two ses and did do many songs off of their albums, especially off of their most recent relase, but they did not play every single song off of evry single album. What they did manage to do was pull out some things that I hadn’t really heard them ever do before, such as “Midnight” and another track called “It’s My Life”. “It’s My Life’ is an original of theirs and is not that awful John Bon Jovi song. “Midnight was really cool because when the band’s lead singer, Mish Elle was singing the chorus she would hit a low note on one word and then the next word she sang would be a higher not, then the following word would be a low note, so the pattern and the phrasing of the chorus made the osng really cool to listen to from a vocal standpoint. The parts that the band was playting during this song was cool to listen to as well, but the way it was sung was the thing that made the song sound unique and different. Now “it’s My Life” was cool as well. Elle really showed her vocal ability on this one, as well as on many other songs as the night went on. Elle has got some really big vocal chops as well as some really nice control. Now also withing the band’s first set was “Gravity”, a tune off of their most recent album called “Keep It Groovin'”. This tune is one of the ones that showcases the band’s funk sounds really well. The horns really shine through when the band is playind the melody of the song inbetween the songs verses and rap portion. There was even a cover in the first set that was written by Nina Simone, one of the world’s premiere gospel/pop singers. It’s great that the band chose to do a cover by her because simone is an artist that not many bands do covers of and I personally love bands that do covers by artsts who have passed on and may have been forgotten about by the general public.
The Second set killed as well with the band pulling out tracks like “Cone Home” off of their second release, which is a live album. This tune is great because it’s a song that is completely different from many of their other songs because it has such a New Orleans sound to it. Abner Torres, the band’s drummer has this really sweet drum roll throughout the entire song that just emphasizes the New Orleans sound that the band has given the song. There was another cover in the second set, which was none other than Steve Miller’s “Fly Like An Eagle”. This song is probably the best thing that Steve Miller has ever put out and these guys did a really nice job with it. It was even mentioned that last night was the first time the horn section had ever really attempted to play that song with the band and they did a really nice job with it. They didn’t completely loose the rest of the band or anything like that, which was absolutely fantastic. The band’s keyboard player, Adrian Gonzalez really did a nice job with the song’s psychodelic piano parts. Then, to end out the night the band ended with “Brand New Day” and “305”. 305 is also on the band’s latest release, but unfortunately “Brand New Day” is not. These two songs are both uptempo numbers, which is great because it brings all the dancers out and really lifts the audiences spirits and reminds them why this band is so fantastic. Besides this Elle’s vocal abilities are shown very nicely, again, in both of these songs. What a show and what a great thing for me to watch a band that I’ve seen about a half a dozen times get a big headlining spot at the biscuit.
