The story that packed a concert

Photo by Skip.

Here's my advance for the Mummies. It was the only real publicity the concert received. And it was packed. These guys need someone to do some publicity for them.  The piece appeared in a local newspaper.

It’s billed as “terrifying funk from beyond the grave.” Here Come The Mummies, a quadruple entendre Nashville-based 12-some will bring its horn-heavy brand of mortified music to downtown Punta Gorda this weekend when it headlines Funk Fest II at the Charlotte Harbor Event Center.

The Mummies, an anonymous-by-necessity mixture of studio musicians who wrap themselves in gauze, tape and the kind of secrecy usually reserved for the witness protection program, are best known for their regular appearances on the nationally syndicated “Bob and Tom” radio show.

They’re also best known for being dead. At least that’s their story. The band, as legend and their press kit have it, was supposedly unearthed by archeologists in 1922 at a dig in the desert south of Tunis after a 5,000 year hiatus from the Bronze Age club scene.

Elvis sightings aside, death usually isn’t viewed as great career move. But “Here Come the Mummies” have found new life in the afterlife.

Woven throughout the band’s tight Memphis-style of R&B and raw funk is a theme pretty much focused on, well, let’s just say the band’s most recent CD is entitled “Carnal Carnival.”

It’s the Mummies second appearance in Punta Gorda, after a gig at Funk Fest I in November. And event promoter Nick Nemec readily admits the band likely isn’t a candidate for The Disney Channel lineup.

“Their lyrics are a little controversial,” he said of the group. “We’re putting a disclaimer out there,” says Nemec. “Adult content.” And while the band’s humor is definitely R-rated, it treads that delicate line between amusingly lewd and having the FBI crash through the door.

But it’s the music – the solid arrangements and compact blendings of a murderous horn section not seen since James Brown disbanded the Flames – that is getting the band noticed. It’s what you’d expect from seasoned studio musicians (there are three Grammy winners in the group) forced to use Ace bandages to hide their true identities. The mummy thing gives them the cover – literally – that allows them to make public appearances.

“A couple of the guys are locked up in studio contracts where they can’t publicly tour,” Nemec says. “The mummy shtick wound up being a good thing for them, but hiding their identities – it’s something they legally need to do.” And the official lineup isn’t much help: Mummy Cass, Java Mummy, Eddie Mummy, Oozie Mummy, Mummy Spaz, K.W. Tutt – you get the idea. Even their spokesman is “Spokesman Mummy.” And he’s not talking. Figures.

Tickets for Funk Fest II are $20 at the door, $15 if purchased in advance at herecomethemummies.com. A VIP table of eight goes for $600 and Nemec says this includes premium seating and unlimited adult beverages. Individual VIP tickets are $80 and come with the same perks.

The outdoor concert’s gates open at 5 p.m. with a 90-minute “buy one, get one free” beer and wine drink special. Local favorites “Those Guys” get the music started, followed at 7:30 p.m. by The Crashers, a Port Charlotte R&B fusion band. The Mummies two-hour set begins at 9 p.m.