Live at the Market — Saturday Nights Downtown
Iowa City Ped Mall, across from Bread Garden Market & Bakery — Saturdays at 7:00 p.m.
Live at the Market — Saturday Nights Downtown is bringing the funk to the Ped Mall this Saturday night at 7 p.m. This is the third week for the free summer music series hosted by Bread Garden Market & Bakery and the Iowa City Downtown District, and this week’s band is FunkDaddies.
Like most of the acts that play Live at the Market, FunkDaddies is a local band. A funk band that also performs R&B, soul and other dance music, it was formed by band member Ken Duncan and the late Larry Weldon, who passed away in 2007. “We decided to honor him by continuing what he helped start,” Duncan said in an email to Little Village.
Duncan plays drums and helps out on lead vocals. Other band members include Alicia Monee on lead vocals, Craig Erickson on guitar, keyboard and lead vocals, Ken Fullard on bass and vocals, Skeeter Louis on saxophone and lead vocals and Rachel Duncan who is in charge of mixing, recording, and back-up vocals.
“We are fortunate to have joined together some of the Midwest’s finest musicians with decades of performance, recording and touring experience. We love to be inspired by each other at all our performances, which brings a higher level of performance and a more exciting show,” Duncan said.
Some of their most popular performance pieces include material from Earth, Wind and Fire, Chaka Khan, Steely Dan and Stevie Wonder. FunkDaddies has events booked throughout the summer, including a performance at the New Bo City Market in Cedar Rapids on Friday, June 22.
Live at the Market features a wide-range of music, from jazz to funk to steel drums, performing on the Ped Mall across from the Bread Garden’s patio. “We try to have a variety of artists come down so we can please all crowds,” said Marie Berhow, a Bread Garden manager, who helps coordinate the series.
Bread Garden has been hosting a music series for five years, and it’s been known as “Live at the Market” for the past three years. “It really just brings people together” Berhow said. “We like to be a part of our community.”
According to Berhow, seating on Bread Garden’s patio starts to fill up around 6:30 p.m. so attendees should get there early to snag a seat or bring their own chairs. The series, which is free and open to the public, runs through August and will concluded with a special Friday night encore performance on Sept. 7 by FunkDaddies.
