It’s mid-September, Lake Tahoe’s shoulder season, and shoulders will be shaking on Friday at the Crystal Bay Casino when Afrolicious returns to the Crown Room for a free concert.
“We are fired up to be back in Tahoe this weekend at Crystal Bay Casino,” the Bay Area band announced on its website. “Hope to see our Tahoe family out there.”
The Red Room after-party will be conducted by another familiar artist, Gene Evaro Jr., who played this year at the High Sierra Music Festival, Commons Beach and Guitarfish.
Afrolicious band leader Joe Cheo “Pleasuremaker” McGuire told Tahoe Onstage what it feels like for him.
“It’s an electrical charge,” he said. “Time freezes, you feel weightlessness and you have total awareness. You are definitely entering the spiritual realm.”
The band formed out of a Thursday night Afrolicious party in the Elbo Room in the Mission District. After three years, band members began to write original material. The size of the group varies and sometimes has as many as 12 members.
Good times are had by all at an Afrolicious show. “It’s a higher calling type of thing when you know you are doing the thing you love the most in the world and other people are loving it, too,” Pleasuremaker said.
Gene Evaro Jr. was listed among the Top 5 Performances at the High Sierra Music Festival. Tahoe Onstage’s Spencer Kilpatrick wrote: “I saw them Day 1 of the festival at the Vaudeville stage and was blown away. They were both heavy and dancey, poppy and heady. Drummer Ben Kennedy, percussionist Mitchell Arganda and bassist Piper Robison were an exciting, rhythm section that never strayed from what the song needed. And while the guitar playing was a little to John Mayer-esque at times, Evaro never overplayed. The group’s cover of The Cure’s “Love Song” was a festival standout.”
- Afrolicious
When: 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16
Where: Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room
Cover: free
Red Room after-party: Gene Evaro Jr.