Photo by Allison Murphy

Nigel Hall was the emcee for Night 2 of Bowlive, Soulive’s ten night residency at Brooklyn Bowl. The evening opened with a set from solo acoustic guitarist/hip hop vocalist WAX. Soulive came next and drummer Alan Evans told the crowd that it was their twelfth birthday today, and in honor of their birthday they would be treating the audience to most of their first release Get Ready. Ryan Zoidis joined in on sax for the last song, “Cannonball,” blaring over Soulive to bring this song to its peak.

Lettuce concluded the evening with a total of 13 members on the stage, including four horn players. Neal Evans was on fire throughout, at times his Hammond sounded like a trumpet, on other occasions he played with his forearm instead of his fingers. His exchanges with bassist E.D. Coombes were impressive as well, as they challenged and pushed each other. Then, Nigel Hall introduced Pharoahe Monch, who stepped out with two stirring backup singers, who both separately and independently sound like a cross between Aretha and Mary J. Blige. Hall then joined for the last few songs of the set, and then after the initialed encore, Talib Kweli came out for “Move Somethin” and “Gotta Get By.”

All in all was a way funky Wednesday night in Brooklyn, with this evening’s installment of Bowlive offering a Tribute to Parliament theme with confirmed appearances by Bernie Worrell, Corey Glover and a Questlove DJ Set.