Eggy on Saturday returned to a sold-out Brooklyn Bowl for the second time in just over four months. The performance, which featured an extended sit-in by The Funky Dawgz Horns and a surprise appearance by vocalist Sammi Garett (Cool Cool Cool), was the sixth straight sellout by the red-hot quartet following stops in Burlington, VT (x2) and Portland, ME last weekend and gigs in Washington D.C. and the Philadelphia area on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

So, why was this night different from all other nights? (Sorry, wrong holiday.) This night was Purim, an annual tradition marked by festive costumes and rowdy revelry that the Jewish people have been celebrating for thousands of years. For Eggy, it marked the first installment in a new tradition.

As Jake Brownstein (guitar, vocals) explained to Live For Live Music of the concept last year, “Everyone’s doing Halloween, everyone’s doing New Year’s. … We don’t always have to compete for the special day. Let’s make a special day. Purim is the time that everyone gets to party in Judaism. … To create this kind of weird environment where people are like, ‘Why am I dressing up in March?’ will be cool.”

The band bestowed a theme upon the party ahead of time, “Reelin’ in the Years,” advertised somewhat vaguely as a retrospective of music from different decades, and the hundreds of fans who packed the Bowl followed the assignment with creative costumes and curious anticipation.

Related: Eggy Releases First-Ever Vinyl Record, The Relix Sessions

Brownstein, Dani Battat (keys, vocals), Mike Goodman (bass, vocals), and Alex Bailey (drums, vocals) charged forth without acknowledging the occasion, serving up a mix of well-received originals throughout their first of two sets. The newer vintage of the first-set songs seemed to underscore the band’s forward-thinking ethos (“Shadow”, “Apology”, “Zugzwang”, and “Rosetta Stone” all debuted in the last five years; “You” got its first live reading last summer; “What I Know” made its initial appearance last month; “Atomic Age” just arrived on its first setlist at the tail end of last week).

When they returned for set two, however, they had gotten in costume themselves. Goodman channeled the aesthetic of the late ’50s and early ’60s with his black leather jacket and slicked-back hair. Battat’s groovy disco threads called back to the ’70s. Bailey’s Rugrats-reminiscent prints nodded to the ’90s. Brownstein’s outfit, perhaps the most specific of the bunch, was borrowed from ’80s cinematic classic Back to the Future and its time-traveling protagonist, Marty McFly.

“Brooklyyyyyn…” Battat said in an ominous drone as the band settled in under blue lights. “Are you ready to turn back time? All these years… Many, many, many years… Let’s go together.” Wasting no time, Mike Goodman led the band on vocals with grit and gusto on The Rolling Stones‘ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, the first of six (!) first-time-played covers that would populate much of the rest of the setlist.

Another selection from late-’60s pantheon, The Beatles Revolver classic “Tomorrow Never Knows”, glitched and throbbed as it floated down Eggy’s stream for the first time. The festivities moved into the ’70s from there with Electric Light Orchestra favorite “Mr. Blue Sky” featuring Battat doing his best Jeff Lynne impression on lead vocals—and, of course, on the track’s iconic vocoder segment.

After the three-piece Funky Dawgz Horns took the stage for the set’s first original song, an impactful “Sweaters For Strawmen”, Sammi Garett joined the party to log Diana Ross duty on the musical retrospective’s disco entry, “I’m Coming Out”, famously written and produced by Chic‘s Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and recorded in the first weeks of the 1980s.

Once Garett took her leave, the band offered up one of its newer songs, upbeat rocker “Laurel”, to the horns for some added yacht rock glimmer, then kept working up the timeline with a track from one of the most celebrated albums of the ’90s, Radiohead‘s OK Computer. Alex Bailey nailed Thom Yorke‘s gentle but gripping vocal timbre on this standout “Subterranean Homesick Alien” debut as the whole group contributed subtle yet crucial embellishments to the breath-like swells and contractions of the composition. The Funky Dawgz Horns elevated the homage even further, providing a fresh sonic layer to the source material even as Eggy made the song its own with dissonant tension and release.

After the set finally came to an end with a horn-assisted “Golden Gate Dancer”—a reliably climactic closer as old as the band itself—Brooklyn Bowl owner Peter Shapiro took the stage to address the buzzing crowd. “A lot of times,” he reflected, “People say, ‘Oh, I was at that show’ or, ‘I was at this show,’ but I think in like ten, fifteen years… You guys all look at your friends next to you, ’cause you’ll remember: We were at this f—in’ show. Eggy. March 23rd, 2024. We’re all gonna remember this one for a long time. We all were here tonight.”

With that, the band returned and Sammi Garett once again joined in to help tie a bow on the trip through time with Steely Dan‘s “Reelin’ in the Years”.

Dani Battat was feeling nostalgic as he addressed how far the band had come before the evening’s final song. “Doing a show on Purim has been a dream of ours for a while and we really appreciate you guys all embracing this night with us,” he explained. “It really feels full circle, especially to have the … horns here. The last time we ever played ‘Golden Gate Dancer’ with a horn section was 13 years ago when Jake and I played it at our high school talent show.”

“Looked a lot different than this, I’ll tell ya,” Brownstein added, cracking a grin.

That smile spread into the crowd as Eggy and The Funky Dawgz horns dug in on 2023 original “Smile”, a still-unreleased song that’s quickly becoming a fan-favorite at live shows. The brilliant rendition served as a meaningful exclamation point for both the Purim retrospective and band as a whole: While it’s satisfying to look back, to bring relics of the past into the present and make them new again, it’s even more satisfying to be able to follow the echoes of history into the future—and for Eggy, the future has never looked brighter.

As Marty McFly himself liked to say, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” We just might need a bigger room.

Eggy’s tour resumes in early April with a headlining slot at Crawfish For A Cause Presents: Mental Awakening in Atlanta, GA. For a complete list of upcoming Eggy tour dates, head here.

Check out a full, pro-shot video, setlist, and photos from Eggy Presents Purim: Reelin’ in the Years at Brooklyn Bowl on March 24th, 2023 below. Listen to full live recordings from Eggy’s past and current tours via nugs.net.

Eggy — Brooklyn Bowl — Brooklyn, NY — 3/23/24 — Full Video

 

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Setlist [via thecarton.net]: Eggy | Brooklyn Bowl | Brooklyn, NY | 3/23/24
Set One: Shadow, Apology > Zugzwang, Atomic Age, Rosetta Stone, What I Know, You
Set Two: Jumpin’ Jack Flash[1], Tomorrow Never Knows[2] > Mr. Blue Sky[3], Sweaters for Strawmen[4], I’m Coming Out[5], Laurel[4], Subterranean Homesick Alien[6], Golden Gate Dancer[4]
Encore: Reelin’ In The Years[7], Smile[4]

Footnotes:
[1] FTP, The Rolling Stones
[2] FTP, The Beatles
[3] FTP, Electric Light Orchestra
[4] With The Funky Dawgz Horns
[5] FTP, Diana Ross, with Sammi Garrett on vocals and The Funky Dawgz Horns
[6] FTP, Radiohead, with The Funky Dawgz Horns
[7] FTP, Steely Dan, with Sammi Garrett on vocals
Show Notes: This show was the band’s first-ever Purim celebration. The theme for the show was ‘Reelin’ in the Years’. The band came out for the second set dressed in decade-specific costumes: Mike (50s), Alex (90s), Jake (80s) and Dani (70s).