On Saturday night, nine-piece funk powerhouse Turkuaz made their highly-awaited Brooklyn homecoming with support from Buffalo-native quartet Aqueous at Brooklyn Steel.
Aqueous kicked off the night’s festivities, beginning their set with fan-favorite “Random Company” followed by the newer “Say It Again”, which they debuted last summer. Next, Aqueous called up the Turkuaz Horns to assist them on a very special rendition of “Weight of the Word”. While the band has played the Color Wheel track live several times, this marked the first rendition of “Weight of the Word” to include the Turkuaz Horns, who are featured on the studio version of the track. Following the sit-in, Aqueous closed out their opening set with a seamless “Skyway” > “Timmy’s Blades” > “Second Sight” segment. You can watch crowd-shot footage of “Weight of the Word” featuring the Turkuaz Horns below:
Aqueous w/ The Turkuaz Horns – “Weight of the Word”
[Video: Zak Radick]
With the crowd now primed and ready for a hometown throwdown, Turkuaz took the stage to a roar of applause and opened the show with “20 Dollar Bill”. The band went on mix a number of tracks from their most recent studio release, 2018’s Life In The City, with a selection of favorites from throughout their catalog. As always, their characteristic brand of high-energy, colorful funk kept the packed crowd moving throughout their 2-hour headlining performance.
Toward the end of Turkuaz’s set, the band welcomed Aqueous guitarist Mike Gantzer to the stage to add some extra guitar firepower to a cover of David Byrne‘s “Big Business”. As Gantzer finally left the stage, guitarist/vocalist Dave Brandwein remarked jokingly that Gantzer sounded “pretty good”, the still-stunned crowd taking pleasure in his tongue-in-cheek understatement. With the core nine members remaining, the band worked through excellent versions of “Life in the City”, “Chatte Lunatique”, “Take it Slow”, and “Back to Normal” to close the show before encoring with “Coast To Coast”. You can watch crowd-shot footage of Mike Gantzer’s sit-in with Turkuaz below:
Turkuaz w/ Mike Gantzer (Aqueous) – “Big Business” [David Byrne cover]
[Video: Zak Radick]
Following a show on Thursday, April 11th at Ithaca, NY’s The Haunt, Turkuaz and Aqueous will join back up for their fourth and final joint show at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club on Friday, April 12th. For a full list of Turkuaz’s upcoming tour dates, head here. For a list of Aqueous’ upcoming dates, head here.
Below, you can check out a beautiful gallery of photos from the show courtesy of photographer Kevin Cole.
Setlist: Turkuaz | Brooklyn Steel | Brooklyn, NY | 4/6/19
Set: 20 Dollar Bill, E.Y.E., If I Ever Fall Asleep, The One and Lonely, Holy Ghost, Tiptoe Through the Crypto, Gremlins, Make You Famous, Electric Habitat, European Festivity Nightmare, Superstatic, The Question, Big Business/Murder Face (with Mike Gantzer), Life in the City, Chatte Lunatique, Take it Slow, Back to Normal
Encore: Coast to Coast
Setlist: Aqueous | Brooklyn Steel | Brooklyn, NY | 4/6/19
Set: Random Company, Say It Again, Weight of the Word*, Skyway> Timmy’s Blades > Second Sight
*With Turkuaz horns, debut of Color Wheel album version