FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS – PAVILION THEATRE, WORTHING 07.03.19
Friends Huey Morgan, Brian “Fast” Leiser and Steve Borgovini formed the Fun Lovin’ Criminals in 1993. They are a wildly eclectic American alternative rock band that draws influence from hip-hop, funk, jazz and blues, hailing from New York City, New York, U.S.
Fun Lovin’ Criminals’ debut album ‘Come Find Yourself’ was released in mid-1996. The album however found a lot more favour with European audiences than at home in the USA. It was especially well received in the UK, where the album peaked at No. 7 and spent an impressive 97 weeks on the UK Albums Chart.
It was a tongue-in-cheek record that made fun of Italian-American mafia circles and wannabe gangsters, and drew influence from the genres of funk, blues, soul, and hip-hop-and contained the legendary ‘Scooby Snacks’, ‘The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’, ‘King Of New York’ and ‘Coney Island Girl’.
The studio album ‘100% Colombian’ arrived in 1998 and hit the Top 3 in the UK Album Charts and was led by the singles ‘Korean Bodega’, the Barry White tribute ‘Love Unlimited’ and the groovemeister ‘Up On The Hill’.
A collection of B-sides, rarities and remixes were released on an album entitled ‘Mimosa’, which just about dented the UK Top 40 at number 37, appeared in 1999 and featured lounge covers of existing songs. Two years later in 2001, the guys dropped their third studio album ‘Loco’, which hit the Top 5 and that’s where I dropped out…
Fast forward 18 years …
After the celebrated shows in 2016 celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut ‘Come Find Yourself’, the multi-platinum New York trio, now of frontman Huey, “Fast” and new drummer Frankie announced the release of their new album ‘Another Mimosa’ (released 18th January 2019), as well as a European tour…which arrived in Worthing last night.
It’s a while since I last saw them, in fact, probably 10 years, or more, so it was with some trepidation that I grooved on down to the Pavilion to take a look…and I was relieved to find that the band is still a force on stage, even with Huey, nursing a broken foot, playing the whole set reclining on a red leather chair!
Seeing them live is a relaxed ride through all creative periods of the bands back catalogue…with the above mentioned ‘Scooby Snacks’ bringing the best reaction from the crowd.
That said ‘Up On The Hill’, ‘Love Unlimited’, ‘Bombing the L’, ‘Smoke ‘Em’, and ‘Loco all went down well. My personal fave was a rip roaring run through ‘King Of New York’.
The band were their usual nonchalant selves and I was particularly impressed by the drumming of Frankie, who kept it all tight.
There was much banter between the band, and band and crowd, and this appeared strained at times. It probably led to the long break between the end of the set and encore…
By the time they returned to the stage, most of the crowd had left…missing the groove fest of ‘Fun Lovin’ Criminal’.
Hey Ho…an evening well spent and I was pleasantly surprised by the Pavilion too which appeared to have turned itself into a good venue to play host to a gig.
For more information on the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, visit www.funlovincriminals.co
