Lil’ Elephant brings in a new era of the Oakland sound to Barmel.

In December 2016, a couple weeks after 36 people perished in the Ghost Ship Fire, a devastating blaze in an Oakland warehouse, the newly formed Lil’ Elephant performed a benefit concert. On one song, a jazz fusion hodgepodge titled “About to Last,” lead singer/guitarist Adam Hughes sang, “Lost my dreams again, dreaming of things like I didn’t know the only thing worth living for is living/ Just to see another day’s light or a sparkle in her eye… ”

Hughes, who lost three close friends in the blaze, noticed several audience members break down as the foursome played through the tune. He considers it one of their most memorable performances.

“That’s a highlight for me – not because we made people sad, but the music was so visceral for them,” Hughes says. “[The fire] was something I cried over too. I like when pieces can move through emotional space.”

Lil’ Elephant plans on including “About to Last” on their next record.

Meanwhile, Hughes, Edwin Rhodes (keys, vocals), Connor Lonsdale (drums, vocals) and Kevin Goldberg (bass, vocals) are still riding the high of their full-length debut Electromagnetism, a conglomeration of many eras of funk and beyond. The seven-plus-minute “Pi” culminates at the apex of a universe where The Meters meet Jamiroquai – a weighty funk riff that can carry a football field size spacecraft through Louisiana’s thickest bayou follows.

“We want [the album] to invite people into the world that we want to create with the music that we make,” Hughes says.

Whatever that world that Lil’ Elephant creates looks like will be a world listeners will want to visit.

LIL’ ELEPHANT 7pm Thursday, July 26. Barmel, San Carlos between Seventh and Ocean, Carmel. No cover. 626-2095, lilelephunk.com.