Friday, Aug. 23, 2024 at 11 p.m.on KPBS TV / Stream now with the PBS app
San Diego has long been known as a hotbed of great musical talent. What’s more, San Diego is home to one of the best music venues on the West Coast. Since 1974, the Belly Up has been featuring great local bands from the Cedros Design District. This episode features performances by The Heavy Guilt and The Earful:
THE HEAVY GUILT
The Heavy Guilt is as much Americana as it is avant-garde garage, as much folk blues as it is psychedelic indie stomp and rock 'n' roll. The songs from early in the band have a campfire feel to them while the more recent songs balances the set with foot stomping blues, fevered crescendos and tasteful experimentation. Songwriter and percussionist Alfred Howard is the wild card to the band, he adds new, unusual and untamed sounds to the band's traditional guitar, bass, drums and keys lineup. He is a volcanic pocket of contagious energy on stage. He plays found objects like chains, wooden boxes, bottle caps, bells, a shortwave and circuit bent radio, sheet metal, boxes of rice and sand paper to make the sounds that give the band a signature almost as unique as a vocalist would.
Keeping that in mind Erik Canzona with his old soul road weary and powerful voice, he is the first ingredient that draws you in while listening. His voice inspires the band to sculpt the perfect bed of sound to try to contain it, it can be delicate, fragile and volatile or it can be a thunderous tempest.
On this episode, the band is joined by special guest Greg Peters of Dead Feather Moon on lap steel guitar. Over these last two years band has matured, learned how to hold an audience captive and braided their influences into their own brand of unrelenting soulful rock music sharing the stage at the Belly Up with acts such as Charles Bradley, The Greyboy Allstars, Dead Feather Moon, and others.
THE EARFUL
The Earful is a high powered, carpet cutting machine that delivers funk in the spirit of New Orleans just right. The band, nominated for Best Jazz Artist at the 2013 San Diego Music Awards, touches on various styles of the funk in all of its forms and pays tribute to the masters. Having shared the Belly Up stage with amazing talent such as Soulive, Level 42, Groundation, Orgone, The Aggrolites and Les Nubians, they bring a barn burning intensity that is unforgettable. The iconic sound of the Hammond Organ, funky bass and drum rhythms, and the stabbing brass hits of this 7-piece group are sure to get your rump bumpin'. On this episode The Earful is joined by guest rapper Pigeon John, guest vocalist Mark Aston and guest percussionist Zak Najor.
WATCH ON YOUR SCHEDULE: LIVE AT THE BELLY UP is available to stream with the PBS app.
Belly Up brings the best in new, up-and-coming artists as well as established legends in genres ranging from alternative rock, rock, reggae, and hip-hop to blues, folk, jazz, Latin & more! Visit their online calendar of shows.
Belly Up is on Facebook, Instagram, @BellyUpMusic on X
