Ivan Neville returns to Red Rocks for Mountainside Mardi Gras Fest
B. Dutch Seyfarth
Posted On August 6, 2009
The last few years Ivan Neville has led his own self described “paint
peeling” New Orleans funk band, Dumpstaphunk, which comes to Red Rocks
this Saturday August 8th for the Mountainside Mardi Gras Fest along
with Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and headliners Dr. John and the Lower
911. If the name Ivan Neville rings a bell, congratulations, you
obviously haven’t been living under a rock. New Orleans funkateer Ivan
Neville, son of famous R&B crooner Aaron Neville has graced many of
the world’s biggest stages earning his cheddar the last 30 years as a
sideman to Bonnie Raitt, Dave Mathews Band, Sonia Dada, and even with
the Rolling Stones but since 2002 has concentrated on the role of
bandleader to bring his own musical recipes to the party.
Certainly a musician of Ivan Neville’s pedigree and career has some
stories to tell about playing in our Rocky Mountain backyard. So I
asked him. “A few years back, I sat in with Dave Mathews Band at Red
Rock for the Hurricane Katrina benefit which was a great time. Going
back a bunch of years before that I was playing keyboards at Red Rocks
with Sonia Dada opening for Blue Traveler. After we were done playing
our opener set for Blues Traveler, I walked up the steps towards the
top to watch Blues Traveler with everybody else. I watched the band
and the fireworks – what a time, and what a view. You could see all
the way out there!”
When asked what to expect from Ivan’s new band this weekend at Red
Rocks he took a deep breath and exclaimed “we just been doin it. We
gots lot of stuff, funky shit, real funky. We got some serious vocals
goin on too, we have 4 guys that really sing, its an all around fun
time playing some real paint peeling funk!”
Based on the deep fried booty shaking grooves from Dumpaphunk’s new
batch of songs, one can expect a one hell of a Mardi Gras party this
weekend. No Depression readers can get into the party spirit by checking out
Dumpstaphunk in action below performing Sympathy for the Devil below. Enjoy!
