Spotlight Series: Five Alarm Funk

Five Alarm FunkReady for monster horns, shredding guitars and songs about giant robots?

Tonight, the Canadian rockers Five Alarm Funk will bring more than funk to the Levitt AMP Bellingham Music SeriesPrepare to experience an eclectic mix of gypsy rock, Latin, ska and progressive metal by this nine-piece Vancouver-based band, which brings an intense dance party wherever it performs!

Want to learn more about Five Alarm Funk? Check out some band trivia!

Five Fun Facts about Five Alarm Funk

1. The band came together after a number of chance encounters. Some were friends in high school in Vancouver. Others met at a house party advertised on Craigslist. To this day, none of the band members have figured out who created the Craigslist ad that brought them together.

2. When the band’s repertoire became more vocal heavy following the 2012 release of the album Rock the Sky, drummer and vocalist Tayo Branston feared the possibility of straining and wrecking his voice. A fellow band member recommended cloves as a way to protect his vocal cords, so Branston chewed on cloves for the first three weeks on tour. He never lost his voice that summer. Aspiring vocalists, take note!

3. Timbale player Carl Julig dislocated his shoulder twice while performing: first, when he decided to stand up on the inflatable couch he was using to crowd surf the audience, and again while flapping his arms to imitate the mythological muse of the Five Alarm song “The Iron Pegasus.”

4. The band’s first jam had a percussion section that consisted of one cowbell and a snare drum without its bottom skin. Since then, the percussion section has grown to include a standard drum kit (with each of its drums fully intact), congas and timbales—all of which help to create Five Alarm’s unique sound.

5. We weren’t kidding about those giant robots! Five Alarm Funk’s latest LP is a hard rocking concept album that narrates a journey to the center of the Earth and the arrival of a villainous robot. Like the band’s 2010 and 2012 albums, Anything is Possible and Rock the Sky respectively, Abandon Earth was nominated for Instrumental Recording of the Year at this year’s West Canada Music Awards. Five Alarm meets the album’s evil robot in their latest music video, a collaborative project with Vancouver’s Atomic Cartoons.


Come experience Five Alarm Funk’s wild dance party tonight as part of the Levitt AMP Bellingham Music Series, presented by the Downtown Bellingham Partnership!

And for folks in AnchorageBethlehemBellinghamDenisonFrederickLafayetteLos AngelesMemphisSheboygan or Westport, check out the other free concerts happening this week at the Levitt!

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