Denver Comes Alive will return to the Mile High City for a two-day music marathon at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom and Cervantes’ Other Side on Friday, January 17th and Saturday, January 18th. Presented by Live For Live Music, the 2025 edition of the unique event will feature two stages for the first time, with fans invited to move between the venue’s two rooms at will throughout the weekend to witness performances featuring more than 30 well-known musicians including members of The Meters, Dumpstaphunk, The String Cheese Incident, Soulive, Lettuce, Galactic, The New Mastersounds, Circles Around The Sun, Big Gigantic, The Motet, and many more [get tickets].
Both Denver Comes Alive and its East Coast predecessor, Brooklyn Comes Alive, were inspired by the fleeting magic of New Orleans Jazz Fest by dark, when the main festival Fair Grounds go dark but music fills rooms around the city, allowing revelers and musicians alike to drift between venues to take part in unusual and memorable live moments. As such, the Denver Comes Alive lineup is not your average list of bands: While the individual artist names on the bill may be familiar to many fans, the mix-and-match bands with which they’re due to perform are predominantly rare and unusual.
The opening night of Denver Comes Alive on Friday, January 17th will appropriately be headlined by Poppa Funk & The Night Tripper, a “to heroes, by heroes” homage to a pair of New Orleans music legends lost in 2019: The Meters’ Art Neville (also known as “Poppa Funk”) and Dr. John (who performed under the moniker “Dr. John The Night Tripper”). The dual tribute project made its debut at the inaugural Denver Comes Alive in 2020 and later made its way home to New Orleans, where it has become a semi-regular tradition during Jazz Fest, taking over storied NOLA venues like the Civic Theatre. The project’s return to Denver Comes Alive will serve as a testament to the lasting impact of these two funk giants more than half a decade on from their passing.
At Denver Comes Alive 2025, the Poppa Funk & The Night Tripper band lineup will feature a mix of all-star musicians from New Orleans and beyond with a range of ties to the foundational music of The Meters and Dr. John—from original band members to blood relatives to collaborators to contemporary funk and soul torchbearers. Players include pioneering The Meters bassist George Porter Jr., decorated guitarist/vocalist Eric Krasno (Soulive), lauded NOLA piano man Jon Cleary, Crescent City soul singer Erica Falls, trumpeter Eric “Benny” Bloom (Lettuce), and saxophonist Nate Miller in addition to five members of contemporary NOLA funk powerhouse Dumpstaphunk: keyboardist/vocalist Ivan Neville, bassist/vocalist Tony Hall, guitarist Ian Neville, drummer Deven Trusclair, and trombonist Alex Wasily. Read a full recap of the Jazz Fest 2023 edition of Poppa Funk & The Night Tripper here.
Both Art Neville (also known as “Poppa Funk”) and Dr. John (who performed under the moniker “Dr. John The Night Tripper”) exerted outsized influence on musicians and music fans in the Big Easy and beyond. Art Neville, a three-time Grammy Award winner, was a founding member of the quintessential New Orleans funk band, The Meters, was a co-founder of The Neville Brothers, and later served in the Meters spin-off act, The funky METERS. In addition to his towering presence in the world of New Orleans music, Poppa Funk went on to record with many of the top rock, pop, and soul artists of his era.
Six-time Grammy winner Malcolm “Mac” John Rebennack Jr., a.k.a. Dr. John, is one of the most recognizable characters ever to emerge from the New Orleans music scene. Heavily influenced by the theatrics and aesthetic of his early mentor, Professor Longhair, Rebennack adopted a flamboyant style on stage that stuck with him for the entirety of his career. Following a stint in Los Angeles in the mid-’60s as a member of the famed studio band known as the Wrecking Crew, Rebennack returned to New Orleans, took on the “Dr. John The Night Tripper” persona, and launched a legendary solo career centered around the combination of NOLA funk, psychedelic rock, and jazz.
Dr. John w/ The Meters – “Such A Night” (1973)
[Video: slydogmania]
Get excited for Poppa Funk & The Night Tripper at Denver Comes Alive 2025 by revisiting our recap the project’s sold-out 2023 gig at NOLA’s Civic Theatre here or watching a full video of the all-star outfit’s 2022 show during Jazz Fest below.
Grab your tickets to Denver Comes Alive on January 17th and 18th, 2025 at Cervantes’ here. Scroll down to the full lineup and scroll through the individual artist cards for the event. Find details on each of the bands on the lineup here.
Poppa Funk & The Night Tripper – 5/7/22 – Full Set
[Video: FunkItBlog]
Denver Comes Alive 2025 Artists
George Porter Jr.
Eric Krasno
Ivan Neville
Jon Cleary
Tony Hall
Ian Neville
Deven Trusclair
Erica Falls
Alex Wasily
Nate Miller
Eric Benny Bloom
Skerik
Stanton Moore
Wil Blades
Robert Walter
Eddie Roberts
Adam Deitch
Bill Nershi
Ross James
Jeremy Salken
Adam MacDougall
Garrett Sayers
Drew Sayers
Matt Jalbert
Jeff Franca
Joey Porter
Isaac Sinclair
Jimkata
