On Friday we had the chance to catch up with LA-based funksters Orgone at their second NYC gig this fall at Sullivan Hall. We got the opportunity to see Orgone at moe.down the weekend prior and were thoroughly impressed with all three of their sets at the festival. You can imagine our excitement when we went home after the festival to download some of their music just to see that they would be playing two shows in NYC over the next few days, the first at Brooklyn Bowl and then a headlining set at Sullivan Hall.

In addition to the excellence of being able to jam out with Orgone another two times in one week, we were treated to a set by opening act Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, who also blew us away at moe.down. Throw in a horn-driven set by supporting act Ikebe Shakedown and we had a floor vibrating, booty shaking, butt-checking evening.

Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds opened up with a sultry version of the Bill Withers classic “Use Me,” and then followed it up with 45 minutes of original tunes. Once again, sexy frontwoman Arleigh Kincheloe took matters into her own hands on stage, dancing with moves that fit somewhere in between belly dancing and Jim Morrison-esque staggers. It was wild. Bathed in dim blue lights behind Sister Sparrow were the Dirty Birds, the “Softcore Horn” section featuring Jackson Kincheloe on harmonica, Ryan Snow on trombone, JJ Bayers on alto saxophone, Johnny Butler on baritone sax and Cole Kamen-Green on trumpet. Drummer Bram Kincheloe and bassist Aidan Carroll round out the rhythm section, while string-busting Sasha Brown holds it down on guitar, even if he does break an entire pack of strings in one set. Despite some on-stage sound issues, the Birds romped through a tight set and they were a great lead into our headliners for the night, Orgone.

After an extended break following the Birds set, giving fans just enough time to hit the bar and grab a smoke outside, Orgone hit the stage. As the nine-piece slowly saddled up to their respective places on stage, it was apparent Orgone has been hardcore gigging since January and is thoroughly road-tested – guitarist Sergio Rios sauntered on stage in such a relaxed way it seemed like he was getting ready to play to a group of friends at a graduation party rather than a packed house in a sweaty NYC club. The rest of the band took the stage with the same swagger: Dan Hastie on keys, Sean O’Shea on drums, bassist Ethan Phillips, percussionist Stewart Killen, trombone player Darren Cardoza – who successfully manages to rock a ten gallon cowboy hat at each gig – Devin Williams on trumpet and Joel Bowers on saxophone. Each of them stinking of funky confidence, and most of them cradling a few beers. 

Opening with an instrumental tune that seemed primed for a roadhouse bar, the band immediately sent the crowd into a dance frenzy. But it wasn’t until singer Fanny Franklin entered the scene that the crowd erupted with cheers. She smiled, tried (and failed) to graciously deny a shot of whiskey given to her from a fan, and then jumped into get-the-party-started tune “It’s Time Tonight” off their latest release, Cali Fever. Franklin also lent her pipes to strong covers of the Meter’s “Ain’t No Use,” and “Funky Nassau.” Typical of an Orgone gig, they felt out the crowd and knew exactly when to hold Franklin back for a few tunes while the rest of the band just exploded on stage with instrumental funk tunes laced with elements of R&B and a heavy dose of guitar and keyboard-driven jams one would expect to find at a Tea Leaf Green show. After about an hour and a half of non-stop playing, sweat dripping off the foreheads of every single soul in the club, Orgone left the stage. Two minutes later, after a rowdy demand for an encore, they were back to deliver one more song, this time a speedier version of George McCrae’s “I Get Lifted,” which left the crowd, well, lifted.

Of course, this is but one stop for Orgone, who have been relentlessly touring behind their latest studio release, Cali Love, and a just-cut all instrumental LP called Killion Vaults, since January. Since the turn of the New Year, Orgone have hit mega festivals such as Bonnaroo and High Sierra Music Festival as well as sweaty club shows across the country. We got the chance to sit down with guitarist Sergio Rios, keyboardist Dan Hastie and drummer Sean O’Shea to chat with them about how they maintain sanity on the road, who snores the most, their favorite Arrested Development characters, and of course, whether or not any of them own an Orgone Accumulater. Click here to check out dates for the rest of their fall tour.

You guys are on a maissive tour, on the road often. How’s it going?

 SR: Pretty great. We’ve just been breaking into a lot of new markets and we’ve had a good reaction.

How do you guys feel about playing in New York?

 SR: Great. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do and now we’re here. It’s our first time and it’s been great. We’re really excited that we have people here who want to see us.

 Let’s talk about moe.down.

 SR: That was pretty much a blessed opportunity for us. I mean, we had three sets, three opportunities to win people over. It was so much fun, a really great festival.

So how are you guys getting around on the road?

 SR: We’re in a Sprinter Van, sleeping in hotels. Basically staying wherever we can, wherever we go.

Who snores the most?

 SR: That would definitely be Devin.

DH: Oh, shit, yes. Devin for sure.

 I imagine you guys get to know each other really well living in a cramped situation like that.

 SR: Yeah, and we’ve already known each other for a very long time. Over ten years.

How do you guys keep yourselves occupied on the road?

 SR: We’re lucky with the Sprinter Van, because we have an Xbox on board and we can play movies, video games. Also, now everyone can also kind of zone out, get locked into their phones.

What movies are you guys watching?

 DH: A lot of Arrested Development Season Two.

 Who are your favorite characters? Mine’s Buster.

 DH: Job is pretty great. And Michael Cera is genius.

 SR: Yeah, that’s a tough question. They’re all so good.

Ok, well I won’t put you on the spot. How about video games? Who’s the gamer on the bus?

 SO: Once again, that would be Devin. He’s got like a hundred different games that he travels with. But as far as a group effort is concerned, there’s a lot of Skate 2 going on.

Do you guys have any funny or exciting tour stories?

 SR: We were at the awesome music festival in California called High Sierra. It was a stop that just gave us so much life and exposure in Northern California, lots of fun. We had some dorms were staying at about two miles from there, and we were there for about four days from Thursday until Monday morning. Well, when I got to the festival, I never made it back to the dorms. I just walked around for four days, didn’t see the dorms once.

DH: One of our coolest moments was when we played on top of an RV.

 SR: Oh yeah, it was also at the High Sierra Festival. We got the gig from a promoter we know from Tahoe, and it was all sanctioned and everything but on the last day we set up on top of a RV. It was our third set at the festival and it was really great because it kind of just created this crowd right there in the middle of a walkway.

DH: Yeah it was great. All the sudden there were like 1500 people in front of us.

 You guys all fit on top of an RV?

 SR; Haha, yeah. It was pretty precarious. The drum kit was about three inches from the side and it looked like were going to bail, but we fit.

So there is some danger involved on your tour?

 DH: Always some danger.

 So you guys have hit a bunch of festivals along the way, right?

 SR: Yeah, we did Bonnaroo, Jazz Fest, High Sierra, moe.down, we’re hitting Big Bear Creek in October. We’ve done a lot of Concerts in the Park series, which have proven to be really great for us. It’s great, it feels like the whole city comes down to check you out when you play in their parks.

Do you guys prefer festival shows over club shows?

 SR: No preference really. A good, sweaty club show is always great.

DH: I almost prefer a sweaty club show. We were just up at Middle East in Cambridge and that was so much fun. We had a great set, and a whole bunch of moe.down people were there.

 SR: This whole week since moe.down has been great. We’ve had people come from as far as Burlington, Vermont to check us out. All these people who caught us at moe.down are now catching our smaller club shows.

DH: The thing with festivals is that you’re in the open air, and all the sudden a sea of people are out in front of you. It’s great.

 Do any of you own or plan on building an Orgone Accumulator?

SO: I thought about it.

SR: You know, we didn’t really take our name that seriously. It was just kind of a joke at first. We discovered the name while watching the Discovery Channel. It was some documentary on sexual revolution and all the sudden there’s the Orgone Accumulator, just this box that people had built to masturbate in and we thought, “that’s a great name for a band.”

SR: So were about half decided on the name, and about two weeks later we were up in Fresno playing this really strange gig to nobody and staying in a really dodgy Fresno motel that was about two blocks from the prison. So one of us went down to the pool to have a cigarette and low and behold, right there on one of the tables by the pool was a hardcover copy of the book on the theory of Orgone energy. And that sealed the deal, just the book sitting there, no one around. We got our band name.