Club Notes: Maceo Parker brings the funk (VIDEO)

This is a busy week for concerts in Boulder and Denver, as everyone from Maceo Parker to Boombox's playing town.

Here's some picks of the week:

Maceo Parker

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom is aiming to bring bigger and better acts to Denver, and the venue's kicking things off with Friday night's Maceo Parker concert.

Parker has performed with everyone from the Dave Matthews Band to Ani DiFranco, and he used to regularly pack Boulder venues. The funk and jazz artist hasn't visited the metro area for awhile, so jam and groove fans are anxiously awaiting tonight's concert.

"I decided that I was going to have one brand of music and that it was going to be funky," bandleader/sax player Parker said. "We still get a good response to this kind of music and funky music still has a place. The band's music is raw and honest, and it just creates a mood and a feel for dancing.

"We're really excited to play Colorado. I was over in France, and a fan told me that the first time he saw me was in Boulder. I'm really excited to be coming back to Colorado."

Parker's last CD was called Roots & Grooves and

it came out in 2007. The funkmaster spent the last few years working on Prince's records, but he's now ready to create a new project of his own.

"I'm starting to get my ideas in a row," Parker said. "I think my new CD will be a collaboration of stuff. I've been throwing some ideas out, but its still in the very early stages.

"I still love and enjoy what I do -- and I love playing for people. It's really important for me to be on stage, create a good show for the people and make them feel good."

Boombox

Boombox is a two-man electro act that fuses up a mixture of rock, disco house and psychedelic sounds.

Friday night, Boombox brings its live electro showcase to the Fox Theatre.

The group's based out of Muscle Shoals, Ala., and features Zion Godchaux (the son of Grateful Dead players Donna and Keith Godchaux) and Russ Randolph.

"I'd been playing in different bands over the years, but I got burnt out on traditional groups," Godchaux said. "I was getting more into house music, DJs and electronic dance formats. I thought it would be good to add live instrumentation and make that the foundation."

Godchaux joined forces with drummer/producer Randolph and they forged ahead with the Boombox project.

"We do our own thing with the music and it's very improvised," Godchaux said. "It's really just a dance party with soul. We'll be playing old and new material at the Fox -- we just see what the crowd's mood is like and improvise.

"We have a new CD called Downriverelectric. We've been working really hard on the road for the past four years, so the record's just a continuation of what we've been doing."

Mighty Tiger

The members of Mighty Tiger all have real day jobs, but this Seattle band's taking time off to hit the road.

Monday, Mighty Tiger plays Denver's hi-dive, and the band plans to show off its very catchy blend of indie, pop and crunk sounds.

"I'm still in grad school and I'm working on medical research," guitarist/vocalist Alex Vaughan said. "Other people in the band are IT professionals or Web page designers, but we all wanted to play together in this band.

"I found myself having more and more free time, so I decided to try something artistic. School is very interesting, but it's very left-brain."

Mighty Tiger has been rocking Seattle for the past few years, but the band does take time to hit the road.

"We play indie, pop and crunk music," Vaughan said. "We're very interested in making catchy accessible melodies, but we're not into Top 40 music. We just try to do something more interesting in that framework.

"We don't like to confine our lyrics or instrumentation, and to we try add things like horns and strings to our sounds. We try to make as big a sound as we can with only five people. We're just going to see how it goes."