Every generation has an identity all its own. It has its own culture, and it always has its own music.

For a band to transcend the generational gap and reach an audience with no limit to age or cultural preference is a rarity. It takes a band that can multitask. A band that talks about sex and drugs, but references Lancelot and Guinevere, as well.

Sophistafunk’s keyboardist Adam Gold noticed the variety of the crowd members before him as he and his two band mates spewed out driving funk beats until well after midnight on Thursday.

“Some of those cats were in their late 30s,” said Gold as he reflected back on the show’s audience. “There was a woman in her 50s. There were kids that were 16.”

Gold is not just a member of Sophistafunk, along with fellow musicians Emmanuel Washington and Jack Brown. He is also the owner of the venue itself: Funk n’ Waffles. Gold, a 2006 Syracuse University alumnus of S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, chose the restaurant name as a result of nicknames given to the house parties he threw as an undergrad.

It was at Funk n’ Waffles that Gold first met Washington, when Washington’s band at the time came in to play and Gold sat in, back in 2007.

“I found Emmanuel, who’s a gospel drummer, who had all this fat groove, pocket, they call it, he’s just the man,” Gold said.

The two started playing together regularly and soon met Brown, a vocalist and rapper, through a mutual friend. The trio have been writing and playing together ever since.

The groove described by Gold was evident throughout the night. Sophistafunk took the stage after opening act Sub Soil started at 9:30 p.m. with an hour-long set. Sub Soil, a Rochester band led by two rapping emcees, featured extremely fast hip-hop lyricism over hard, furniture-thumping reggae beats.

The witty hip-hop showcased by Sub Soil was also incorporated into Sophistafunk’s music. But where Sub Soil had strong reggae roots, Sophistafunk’s sound was exactly what its name promised- all funk.

The mixture of synthesizer and keyboard, played by Gold, called back to past decades. While Brown’s well-articulated and cleverly written rap lyrics featured in every song, several also featured crooning riffs from Gold. His voice seemed as though it was borrowed from the soundtrack of a 1970’s adult film.

The crowd’s energy remained potent during each song, though it took a different shape with every number. Several songs, where the lyrics talked about women the lead singer had pursued, got the hips of every female audience member swinging wildly.

Some of the harder numbers, on the other hand, triggered the hands of every member of the crowd to fly in the air while jumping up and down furiously. “Give Me Some Space,” one of the last songs of the set, received this rock show reaction, especially towards the end of Washington’s drum solo.

“Renegades of Funk,” a song paying homage to the likes of Eminem, Jay-Z, George Clinton and Erykah Badu, did as well.

Dylan Lobdell, who was at his first Sophistafunk concert, liked what he saw. The references to artists past were not lost on him.

“It’s old school,” said Lobdell, a rising junior at Onondaga Community College. “The keyboard and drums were good. I liked them a lot.”

Another audience member, Ryan Carroll, was far from a first timer. A friend of the band, he still couldn’t help be impressed by this particular set.

Carroll noticed how much the crowd danced along to the music. He talked about how much he enjoyed “Give Me Some Space.” But mostly, he talked about the harmonious bond between the group’s members.

“I like the tightness they have, the connection that all of three of them have,” Carroll said. “It’s almost hard to describe without just watching it and seeing the reaction of the dancing audience. It’s just alive.”

The song “Give Me Some Space,” a definite crowd pleaser, had been played by the band before. The first five or six songs Sophistafunk played were being performed for the first time.

Gold was surprised by the large turn out the venue received and was elated with the outcome of both the concert and the new songs in particular.

“They came out really well. I was really excited,” Gold said. “And it’s always fun to play in my own club.”

Published on July 13, 2012 at 12:43 pm

Contact Chelsea: cedebais@syr.edu | @CDeBaise124