The Revivalists and Fantastic Negrito

It’s not every day that you see a mainstream 7-piece jam band complete with trumpet and saxophone hit the road, but similar to the likes of Moon Taxi and The Wild Feathers, the New Orleans based Revivalists deliver the enthusiastic twang of a southern alt rock band playing with a genuine and undeniably innate sense of rhythm.

For such a big outfit, the guys are close yet comfortable on stage, each ingratiating himself inconspicuously before coming together as a group both mentally and musically for the drop. Vocalist David Shaw’s rough yet rich delivery is at times reminiscent of Ray LaMontage’s husky but passionate tone (especially when he’s stripped down with only a guitar). Shaw not only genuinely inflects his commitment to the song using his powerful voice, but also through his onstage presence, fumblingly calculatedly around onstage while continuously encouraging the crowd and interacting with the front row die-hards.

The unrelenting saxophone, along with the trumpet, pierce the melody, adding to the highly energetic and involving performance; it’s exactly what you’d expect from a 7-piece jam band.

With an EP and two albums under their belt, including a 2014 re-release of the two-disc City of Sound, The Revivalists offer a grand, one-of-a-kind musical experience, continuously touring North America with the entire band in tow.

Fantastic Negrito lived up to his moniker on Wednesday. He came out with an old-fashioned soul intro, naming off the band members while they laid down a rolling, building jam. From the minute they went into their first actual song, neither he nor the four-piece behind him let up. There wasn’t a minute of stage time wasted as Xavier Dphrepaulezz rolled his body to the beat, jived, and belted his words. “Don’t give up,” he repeated over and over after finishing standout “It’s a Long Long Road”. He delivered positive, gospel-level banter like that throughout, even when talking about taking flack for writing his song “An Honest Man”. Coupled with the insanely feel-good nature of the songs (and their equally feel-good delivery), Dphrepaulezz connected with a crowd who likely had little idea who he was. (He’d earned his spot on the bill by winning a contest through NPR Little Desk.) That, alongside the lyrics’ relative simplicity and empowering message, allowed him to teach the words to the audience with ease. “Sunshine, let it down on me,” they sang at one point, and on a gorgeous Austin day with the fabulous Fantastic Negrito on stage, it certainly came down bright. –Ben Kaye