Republished from MOVE Magazine
If there was a remote control for the clapping hands of the Roots ‘N Blues ‘N BBQ crowd, Fitz and the Tantrums were apparently the ones holding it.
Throughout Saturday’s full day of music, dancing and pulled pork, the audience never seemed more obedient than when Michael Fitzpatrick asked them to clap or wave their hands.
The guitar-less band’s puppeteer-like crowd control was strengthened even more with covers of The Raconteurs’ “Steady, As She Goes” and the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).”
The group’s relentless retro reverberations merited many a happy foot during the set.
“I don’t know if y’all noticed, but in Fitz and the Tantrums, we like to get down,” Fitz said in the midst of “MoneyGrabber,” the final — and by far the most well received — song.
The crowd then proceeded to take it to the floor Cha Cha Slide-style, before rising for the radio-worthy chorus. Once the song came to its upbeat conclusion, the crowd broke into an uproarious cheer, clearly taken aback by the upstart Los Angeles band’s ever-energetic set.
The crowd was clearly hopeful that the group’s promise to return to Columbia was more than a throwaway compliment, as the audience packed the corner of Locust and Seventh, vivaciously dancing and clapping to what all signs deemed to be the favorite band of the festival.
Brandon Foster 