On Friday night, following Colorado’s daytime festivities for the high holy day, 4/20, fans flocked to Denver’s Cervantes’ Other Side to keep the celebration going. Andy Frasco and the U.N. headlined the sold-out, 500-person venue, with support from The Broadcast and Kory Montgomery Band, making for a truly wild end to the evening.
After The Broadcast’s soulful opening set, which was closed out by a truly powerful rendition of Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post” led by the band’s charismatic songstress, Caitlin Krisko, Andy Frasco and the U.N. took the stage. Appropriately, given the date, the band’s set opened with “Smoking Dope and Rock ‘n’ Roll”, and Frasco gave the audience the first taste of his ridiculous stage demeanor by throwing dozens of pre-rolled joints out into crowd, laughing then proudly declaring, “I feel like Oprah! You get a joint, and you get a joint!”
From the beginning of the show onward, Frasco and company showcased their immense ability to command a room, combining tight musicianship with the frontman’s penchant for captivating, if not ridiculous antics—during the second song of the night, he poured a tallboy of PBR all over himself to cheers from the crowd. With a bottle of Jameson perched on top of the piano at the center of the stage at all times, the group is open about their desire for each show to be a party, inviting and advocating for the crowd to get wild with them; despite this, their music never suffers or gets sloppy, a feat that speaks to the group’s songwriting ability and is, quite frankly, miraculous in and of itself.
Showcasing their diversity with a slower and slinky ballad housing a more progressive rock jam, the band landed in “Fuck The Taxman”. After a sultry sax solo from Ernie Chang, Frasco took center stage, diving into an extended, hilarious monologue about gaining weight after stopping doing cocaine before giving a shout out to Jam Cruise and declaring that after the five-day musical excursion in January, he feels “like a changed man.” With the declaration that because it’s 4/20, “I’m gonna get dirty,” Andy Frasco and the U.N. moved into their crowd-pleasing tune, “Main Squeeze”.
After the “Hava Nagila”-esque open to “It’s Been A Struggle”, Frasco and Chang exchanged the lead in a quick musical battle before the song ended in an instrument switch, with the drummer, Andee Avila, coming out and playing the guitar from behind the group’s guitarist, Shawn Eckels, to close out the tune. After a feel-good cover of Johnnie Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love (To Your Old Lady)”, the band immediately dropped into the next tune, which was used as a vehicle for Frasco to ratchet up the crowd’s involvement in his performance.
After an inspirational monologue—”Life is short. Whatever is holding back in your head, promise me, stop worrying about tomorrow and what happened yesterday. Life is too short to not celebrate it like every day is 4/20.”—Frasco jumped into the audience, carving a line out in the middle of the packed crowd and starting a soul train line before returning to the stage. From there, he grabbed a bottle of Jameson and had the crowd pass it to the back of the room, then crowd surfed all the way to the bottle at the back, took a swig, and bottle-in-hand, crowd-surfed back to the front, with his arrival back to the stage welcomed by huge cheers from the crowd.
During the next song, a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On”, the band welcomed a guest guitarist to the stage. Next, the group performed “Love Is A Waiting Game”, which featured a huge sax solo and a percussive transition into Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” for a moment, before tight a capella harmonies closed out the initial song. After, the band added another member to the U.N., inviting out yet another guest, this time a surprise keyboardist.
With an augmented band lineup, the group performed a ’50s rock-esque song. With Andy Frasco and the U.N. known to invite out guest musicians from wherever they’re performing (hence the band’s name, “The U.N.”), during this song, Frasco hosted a guitar battle, with The U.N.’s Shwan Eckels going head to head with the new guest guitarist. With multiple rounds and silly commentary from Frasco throughout, the song closed by landing into AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” with both guitarists going off to close out the tune.
Frasco paused the show and then invited Eckels’ girlfriend to the stage, explaining it was his birthday and sitting her down center stage. After a number of jokes from Frasco about various members of the band dry-fucking her (questionable as a mood-setter), the band’s guitarist got down on one knee and proposed to her (she said yes), and the rest of the band launched into the beginning of Geoge Michael’s iconic “Careless Whisper”. In honor of the special occasion, Frasco noted they’d play a bunch of 90’s hip-hop tunes, and the group hit a medley of Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”, Naughty by Nature’s “O.P.P.”, and Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz’ “Get Low”.
From there, after a high-energy performance of “Mature as Fuck”, the band accelerated to the extended one-set show’s close, with Frasco entering the crowd once again. During this new song, after playing “Freeze Dance” with the crowd, he had audience members pick him up in a chair, Horah style, and invited the crowd to circle around him before leading the house in a guided dance to the left and the right. Following this up with his “most poetic song”, Frasco and the U.N. performed “Blame It On The Pussy”, which saw each of the group’s respective members get time to solo and Frasco, the drummer, and guitarist switching off on vocals. With Frasco perched atop the keys, the band ended the set with a high-octane cover of Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name”.
After seemingly the shortest encore break ever, the band walked off stage briefly before returning to the stage. Frasco introduced the first song of the encore, noting, “I’ve been on this micro-dosing mushroom thing for eight months now. We wrote a Mexican mariachi song, and if it sucks, pretend it never happened.” Featuring bountiful vocal harmonies about “not letting the haters get you down” and ornamental guitar riffs at the end of each phrase, the number warmed up the crowd before the band’s final song, a crowd-pleasing take on Talking Head’s “Our House”.
“Don’t Let The Haters” (New Mariachi Song)
Andy Frasco and the U.N. consistently prove themselves to be a can’t-miss show. After grinding away for years, Frasco and company have perfected their song catalog and live shows, cemented by the group’s ridiculous stage antics and charismatic stage presence. Crowds are immediately drawn in by their fun performances, and their willingness to not hold back on stage sets the mood for unforgettable performances. Even Method Man and Redman, who were on the connected ballroom side of Cervantes’ on Friday evening, gave Frasco and the U.N. a shout out during their show after hearing the reaction from the crowd during a pause in their set. Andy Frasco and the U.N. are not be missed; do yourself a favor, check them out, and get to know why the hype is real.