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Bohemian Caverns is a D.C. institution. Founded in 1926, it’s been a jazz bastion of the U Street corridor pretty much ever since. Saturday night, its smaller upstairs nightclub Liv played host to the Pimps of Joytime, a six-member band based in Brooklyn. And the Pimps definitely brought out the funk on an unseasonably mild evening in the nation’s capital.

Instrumentally live, there’s three keyboards on stage (plus points in my book) and one of them is a Moog (bonus points!), saxophone, and conga drums, in addition to the normal rock band-required set up of guitar, bass, and drums. So their sound could be described as soul and jazz with a funk foundation, tinged with a bit of Latin.

Brian J, guitarist, keyboardist, and essentially frontman of the group, bears a striking resemblance to Eagle-Eye Cherry and but he sure doesn’t play like him. He introduced the band with “we’re Pimps of Joytime. We invite you to make yourselves comfortable, and we’re going to have a little party.” Delighted shouts of “woohoo!” could be heard from the floor, which started out a bit empty but started to fill in as the band played on. “Street Sound,” dedicated to the band’s fellow musicians in New York City, was a highlight, and like the other tunes they played, turned into a raucous jam that got people cutting a rug to their funky beats. Brian J also commented that he was a big fan of Washington and of Chuck Brown, the godfather of go-go and one of our city’s most beloved music figures.

Their far too short set was punctuated by the superb “Joytime Radio.” Oh, if only real radio could be as joyous! By the end, the band had won everyone over, with people whining loudly that the show was over (especially those that had arrived too late). The Pimps of Joytime are a pleasure to see live. Definitely catch them at a venue near you if you can. They’ve only got a couple dates scheduled for Connecticut and New York for the rest of the year, but I hope they’ll be touring more extensively in 2010.

Tour dates
Nov 25 – Toad’s Place / New Haven, CT
Nov 28 – Field Restaurant and Bar / Bridgeport, CT
Dec 04 – Brooklyn Bowl / Brooklyn, NY
Dec 05 – Red Square / Albany, NY
Dec 08 – Vassar College / Albany, NY

The Pimps of Joytime: myspace