Funk That

"We're putting together a real show and that's something that very few people do [in Santa Fe]," vocalist Amy Lindquist says. "It's like a full performance without the dinner."

And within that bumpin' show, the six-piece band featuring Lindquist, Peter Williams, Jeff Nelson, Katy Kidd, Joie Flare and Richard Reed have cultivated one seriously high-energy event. They cover all the bases any music fan could want from incredibly tight instrumentation, gorgeous vocal melodies, outstanding musicianship and, almost most importantly, great fun. It's always exciting when a band can make you unaware that you're watching a group of people making loosely related sounds. Within a set from The Sticky, the concept that you're attending a concert slowly slips away and is replaced with one irrefutable fact; you're having a great time whether or not you knew you loved funk. Think of The Sticky as a great intro to the genre that is completely accessible, but could rub shoulders with the titans of the genre no problem. The one thing that could make this band better would be a horn section, but this is Santa Fe and we're lucky to have a non- Americana band at all.

The Sticky first blasted into Santa Fe's musical consciousness a with a brief residency at recently closed, DJ-heavy nightclub Rouge Cat a couple years back.

"We were the first and only band, band to play at Rouge Cat," says Lindquist.

Certainly the club hosted live music from time to time, but there was always an emphasis toward electronic music, and The Sticky shows opened up opportunity for both the band and the club alike. Eventually, however, audiences dwindled and the relationship between the club and the band wouldn't last. Luckily for you the bonds formed within the band would.

This is in no small part thanks to the members' change in instruments. When original member Ross Hamlin left to focus on the jazzy jams of müShi Trio, Williams would pick up the guitar and Flare would move to bass. Williams is an absolute guitar monster who is often stationed on bass in bands like Love Gun, and while his four-string skills are nothing to slouch at, his new position brings both focus and, we'll say it, a healthy dose of sexiness to the show. Flare's bass work is tremendous as well, and it seems The Sticky has settled into the perfect formation.

The sex factor is certainly heightened by Flare, Lindquist and Kidd, but the band says the idea that they're some kind of sex performance has proven a hindrance.

"There was this idea that formed when we played at Rouge Cat that we were some kind of live sex show," Lindquist says. "Which is, of course, not true."

The Sticky was told they were too risqué to perform at 2013's Summer Bandstand, and that's a real shame. Yes, there are sexily dressed babes prancing about onstage at their shows, but to assume this is the band's selling point is to miss out on some of the best local musicianship there is. As of now, they're waiting to hear about the status of their 2014 Bandstand application and I would urge organizers to make it happen.

"This is legit funk, but people want to keep talking about our clothes," Flare says. "But turn on MTV and most of these people are far more scantily clad than us…we're badass funk [and] it's more about the music than the outfits."

In the meantime, The Sticky plays unplugged alongside a showing of Purple Rain at the Jean Cocteau Cinema on Friday, Feb. 28.

THE STICKY: UNPLUGGED
10:30 pm Friday, Feb. 28. $7
Jean Cocteau Cinema
418 Montezuma Ave.,
466-5528

Santa Fe Reporter