PREVIEW
Funk the Halls featuring the Funk Hunters with Dirty Radio, Astrocolor, and the Funkee Wadd (Friday) and Pigeon Hole, Astrocolor, and Mt. Doyle (Saturday)
When: Friday and Saturday, 9 p.m. (doors at 8)
Where: Sugar nightclub
Tickets: $25 at Lyle’s Place and ticketfly.com
The Funk Hunters upped their commitment to the road in 2016, and secured in the process some of the biggest achievements of their eight years as a group.
The Vancouver-based DJ and production duo of Nick Middleton and Duncan Smith appeared in several key U.S. markets this year, thanks to a groundbreaking tour with Jurassic 5 rapper Chali 2na. The Funk Hunters also made their debut at Coachella and turned in a buzzed-about Daft Punk tribute set at Burning Man, two high-profile festival appearances that put the group before hordes of dance-happy fans and netted a write-up in the industry bible, Billboard.
“It has been a really crazy year for us,” Smith said this week from his home in Vancouver. “Really crazy.”
The exposure south of the border was a relatively new development, but Middleton and Smith have always had a firm grip on Western Canada, thanks to constant touring and high-profile bookings at the Pemberton, Rifflandia and Shambhala festivals. The longtime friends are giving back to those core fans with the Funk the Halls, a run of seasonal-themed dates that got underway Wednesday with the first of two sold-out shows in Cumberland.
“We toured more extensively than ever before this year, so this is a nice way to finish 2016 surrounded by our friends and family,” Smith said. “This is our hometown fanbase. It’s where we put in most of our touring in the last few years, and it’s our favourite place to play, and it always feels like home when we’re in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary or towns like Nelson and Kelowna.”
Vancouver is where Smith and Middleton base their operation, but the Vancouver Island area is the band’s unofficial home. Smith (who grew up on Galiano Island) and Middleton (who is from Nanaimo) met as students at Galiano Island’s Gulf Islands Film and Television School, and in 2008 they played their first show as the Funk Hunters in Victoria.
Fittingly, it was at Halloween party at a house near Elk Lake, which the ever-active duo rocked resolutely.
“Victoria has such a great culture,” Smith said. “The shows there have always had such a good vibe.”
The group progressed with baby steps in Victoria — dates at Hush, Lucky Bar and the Sunset Room — before moving to bigger venues. The group is firmly ensconced as a staple at some of the city’s best-known events, and delivers the party-rocking goods each and every time. Organizers expect the duo’s shows at Sugar nightclub Friday and Saturday to reach capacity come showtime.
Funk the Halls is a culmination of everything the group does well. The Funk Hunters have always put a premium on visuals and sonics, and a series of shows around the Christmas holidays enables Smith and Middleton to indulge in facets well beyond their standard four-turntable, two-mixer stage plot.
The stage at each show will be crowded. In addition to members of their touring unit, which includes Tonye Aganaba (vocals), Steven Beddall (guitar) and Cole Graham (trumpet), Smith and Middleton will be joined by a rotating list of guest performers at each stop on the tour. Chali 2na, DiRTY RADiO, Pigeon Hole, Astrocolor, Mt. Doyle, and the Funkee Wadd, among others, have been announced for some dates, but Smith said surprise guests should also be expected.
“Depending on the show, depending on the tour, depending on who’s available, and what we can do, we always bring something different. For us, it keeps it fun.”
The idea for a year-capping Christmas concert — complete with faux hearth and fireplace, Christmas tree, Santa-and-snowflake visuals, and matching fleece onesies for Smith and Middleton — was originally just a one-off show at the Commodore Ballroom last year. That quickly sold out, Smith said, so they added another. That sold out, too. This year’s Funk the Halls run has stretched to 10 dates in seven cities, many of which have sold out in advance.
Splurging on audio-visual elements has never struck Smith as odd, despite the costs. While other electronic-music acts are happy to think small to curb expenditures, the bill for production at a Funk Hunters show is never light, Smith said.
“A lot of people are under the misconception that if you get booked for a show, the promoter is paying for everything. And that’s just not how it works. You’re given a flat fee, and you decide how to spend it. When we bring extra people, it’s at our expense.”
Courtenay’s Wax Candy Visuals will handle video mapping and stage design at the Vancouver Island dates, and Victoria’s PK Sound will deliver the ultra-heavy bass — just some of the many collaborators Smith and Middleton are happy to bring on board for Funk the Halls. The more the merrier is the theme on these dates, Smith said.
“It has always been our goal to set ourselves apart and be a little unique. It should be the goal for any artist these days, especially in electronic music. It’s hard to set yourself apart, but we have consistently challenged ourselves to do things a little differently.”