Jack Johnson, the White Stripes and the Black Keys all might owe a thing or two to G. Love and Special Sauce.
Back in the ’90s the Philly outfit was making a type of semi-gritty rap-inflected soul-rock with lots of guitars jangling and slashing in front of cracking backbeats. (And a fair bit of what some like to now call cultural appropriation.) Part Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, part Beastie Boys, since their 1994 debut G. Love and crew have been pioneering their own brand of rickety funk, often fixated on the satisfying of the appetites. And not specifically the carnal appetites. Food and drink are a recurring theme. Their breakthrough hit was “Cold Beverage,” an ode to refrigeration and liquid refreshment.
Later they recorded what might be a rejoinder to that initial success, a song called “Hot Cookin.” They’ve also made songs like “Sugar,” “Deep Fried” and “Washing Dishes.” Of course, feeding one’s hunger is maybe just a metaphor for deeper kinds of body satisfaction, in the bedroom or on the dancefloor.
See G. Love and Special Sauce at Fairfield Theater Company’s Warehouse, 70 Sanford St., Fairfield, Sunday, Aug. 20, at 8 p.m. $28. 203-259-1036 and fairfieldtheatre.org.
