Mac McDonald has reported on Monterey County music for 22 years, so it may be a strange sight to see him on the other side of the fence, actually making the music happen. But when it comes down to it, there are few – or, more likely, none – more qualified to help curate the Peninsula’s live music scene.
The new performance series Mac About Town Presents debuts Friday at Bay of Pines Restaurant with “Mac is Back! Deep Soul Dance Party” featuring Bay Area supergroup Marc & The Casuals.
Marc & The Casuals is programmed to keep a crowd in a perpetual motion, like a second coming of the Wrecking Crew.
Founder/singer Marc Capelle, who’s been embedded in the San Francisco music scene for nearly two decades, describes the group’s birth as a happy accident – just several longtime friends jamming on deep soul cuts late one night a few years ago. The assemblage of talent was no accident: Capelle has worked with several dozen acts over the years, including The Fresh & Onlys, Plastic Ono Band and John Doe.
Many of his friends are accomplished musicians, including the six players that make up The Casuals: singer/guitarist Bart Davenport (Persephone’s Bees, the Loved Ones), drummer Todd Roper (Cake, Chuck Prophet), percussionist Alfredo Ortiz (Beastie Boys, Los Lobos), trombonist Carroll Ashby (Rodriguez, The Kinetics), singer/keyboardist Brigid Dawson (Thee Oh Sees, The Inciters) and bassist Pete Strauss (American Music Club, The Dwarves).
From the get-go, the band decided it would strictly adhere to a diet of re-outfitted soul, gospel, funk and R&B classics – with Gil Scott Heron’s “Lady Day, John Coltrane,” Wilson Pickett & The Falcons’ “I Found A Love” and Booker T. & the M.G.’s “The Letter” representing a handful of 100-plus – accented by an emphasis on unexpected deep cuts and largely forgotten B-sides.
Though the outfit doesn’t perform any original compositions, deeming it a cover band wouldn’t be quite accurate.
“We try to have the sophistication that a good DJ would have in picking the songs,” Capelle says. “Then we make the songs our own and apply our personalities to them.”
Dylan Stokes Band, with its mix of folk-pop and fingerpicking, opens.
MAC IS BACK! DEEP SOUL DANCE PARTY happens 7pm Friday, May 16, at Bay of Pines Restaurant, 150 Del Monte Ave. (at Tyler Street), Monterey. $10/$20 VIP.
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