Dance party kicks off Hancher season
Today is a pretty big day for John Gros, a member of the band Papa Grows Funk. It's his birthday, his favorite NFL team, the New Orleans Saints, will kick off the season, and he'll perform with his band at the New Orleans Dance Party — Hancher Auditorium's season-opener.
"Plain and simple, our sound is booty-shakin' party music," he said.
The Hancher event will begin at 10 p.m. today in the IMU Main Ballroom. Tickets range from $10 for students to $22 for others.
Papa Grows Funk, whose name was coined by one of the members during a brainstorming session, has been jamming together for around 10 years. The band came together in April 2000 and soon began to gain fame around the United States and internationally, especially in Japan.
Although the group has traveled the world, today's event will be the group's first performance in Iowa.
"It's going to be neat to watch and see how people take to us," Gros said. "We'll just start doing our thing and let the music do the talking for us. If all goes well, people will be movin', dancin', shaking, and sweatin'."
Jacob Yarrow, the Hancher programming director, has close ties to the band — he's been friends with the saxophone player since the early 1990s. Yarrow is also the producer of the Virginia Blues and Jazz Festival in Hot Springs, Va. So booking Papa Grows Funk for Hancher only seemed right for him.
"It's a band that I really believe in," he said. "It's a band that I'd like to share with people. [Its] live show is incredible."
While the Louisiana-based band is looking forward to an exciting performance in Iowa City, Gros can't help but look back when times were uncertain. For the founding member, that time came after Hurricane Katrina changed everything.
"It really solidified us as a band because we were completely dependent on each other to keep our families together and keep our bills paid," Gros said. "We had lost so much work."
Despite the hardships that Papa Grows Funk had to overcome — the members were dispersed across four states — its music encouraged the members to remain hopeful.
"We're very close friends as a band outside of the music," Gros said. "Being together and playing music was good therapy for us all."
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