Me'Shell and co were definitely in full effect last night at The Parish. Yours truly was there from start to finish.

Chris DeGruy, the open act, left a little to be desired, but was amusing none the less. He did very little to warm up the crowd.

Jahi Sundance came out and killed it on the 1's and 2's for about half an hour before Me'Shell, Chris Dave, Michael Cain, Peck Almond, and Ron Blake literally snuck onto the stage.

Prior to the rest of the band's entrance, Jahi announced that the night's set would consist soley of instrumental music. The Spirit Sextet set consisted of about 6 or 7 cuts, including the encore. All of them were designed to groove you, but the base of the mix was very eclectic. One cut has seemed to have a reggae basis, while others seemed to be based in a latin bottom. By the time the Sextet got to the third or fourth cut, most of the hardcore fan crowd was still in tact. The early departers, who obviously were not there for the music, just gave the rest of us more space to peep the talented, yet diminutive bass player and her crew throwing down.

The only time Me'Shell spoke was to thank the crowd for our collective openness to the new sound, and to introduce the members of the band. Chris Dave was wickedly insane on drums. Ron Blake ripped through his sax parts. And Michael Cain and Peck Almond both came correct with their respective contributions.

After all the hard work I went through to get to this concert, and the huge let down that was the rain out for Friday's perfomance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, I can honestly say that all the stress was 110% worth it. I wouldn't have, couldn't have missed it for the world. I sincerely hope she comes back again soon. I've often had people tell me the live experience for a given artist is in stark contrast to the recorded experience. When it's good, it's fantastic. When it's bad, it's really bad. Now I can say I finally get it. There are no other words to describe the experience. If you get a chance, you absolutely MUST check out The Spirit Music Sextet live and in person. You won't regret it.

...nice review. sounds like it was great. thanks very much for posting!

I have to agree that the show was amazing. I got there in time to get my usual front row spot and enjoyed every minute of the show. I couldn't tell how many people were there, but it sounded like a decent crowd. There was one guy who yelled out about the amount of money paid for the ticket vs the length of the set. I told him "then go home". He shut up after that. He was really about to mess up my high (off of the music).

I was really into the way that Me'shell and Chris played off of each other. DJ Jahi was entertaining as usual especially when he played I can't remember how many songs in so many seconds. It was straight hip hop and rap (old and new).

I have seen her perform at least 5 times before this last show and she never ceases to amaze me with her talent. It was nice to get a entire set of her bass playing. I thought that I might miss her vocals, but since she was singing through her bass, it filled that void.