Friday night, Boulder-based band The Motet kicked off CU’s homecoming weekend with a rousing concert of Prince, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson covers.
Denver-based band Filthy Children opened the show with a lively performance of their own brand of jazzy funk.
The show, which also served as a warm-up for the band’s annual Halloween shows, attracted a good-sized crowd that was thrilled by the performance.
“They were really good. CU should do stuff like this more often,” Chrissy Rogel, a junior English major, said after the show.
The band kicked off the show with “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Wonder and jammed it into Prince’s “Kiss.” They took the song in a funky electronica direction, working in a little Herbie Hancock along the way. The crowd responded to the music, twirling around and working themselves into a dancing frenzy as the bass and drums turned the jam into a Rhumba version of another the Prince song, “When Doves Cry.”
When the band started into the Jackson song, “Pretty Young Thing,” they led the crowd in a chant of “let’s go buffaloes” in honor of homecoming. The Tower of Power song “What is Hip?” followed before the band busted into the Jackson classic, “Thriller.” The song was jammed out in exciting dance hall fashion.
“‘Thriller’ left me speechless,” CU alumnus Joshua Finklestein said.
The band finished off the night with two more Jackson songs: “I Want You Back” and “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough.” Both songs left the crowd happy and energetic as the concert ended.
“I feel drained because I was moving around so much from all the bobbing and weaving,” said David Youngberg, a student at CU-Denver who made the trek to Boulder for the show.
Catch The Motet’s Halloween shows at the Fox Theatre on Oct. 27 and 28, where they will be performing the music of Madonna.
