3 PEAS -
Funk in the Trunk By Elliott Johnston
It’s tough not to feel like a proud parent with a quivery bottom lip as local funk/jazz trio 3 Peas loads up the bus for their first ever out-of-state tour. The vocal-less group — comprised of bassist Joe Prinzivalli, keyboardist Vincent Denis and drummer Evan Carroll — have provided Fort Collins and Front-Range venues with consistently danceable and technically impressive improvisational sounds since 2002. Truly, it’s just good science to suppose that if you’ve shaken your booty at a downtown venue over the past four years, the 3 Peas were responsible for it.
The group went on hiatus a few years back, though, as Denis recovered from cancer at home in France and the remaining Peas kept on with The Members. Since they’ve reconnected, the 3 Peas have released their first album, Breathing Room, signed with promotions company Phunk Stylee and booked the first tour.
Their itinerary includes Midwestern cities Chicago, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, as well as Madison, Fargo and Cedar Rapids. Prinzivalli relays that the trio has 40 tunes ready on any given night. Depending on the venue and the crowd, the Peas can sculpt their set accordingly, no matter how the concert-goers choose to get sloshed.
“We can do wine music and beer music,” he says. “If we get to a place and there are tablecloths and an older crowd, we can do a jazz set. If there are younger [folks there], we go dancier.”
Prinzivalli says the group’s tenure as a strictly local band has been positive because of the number of enthusiastic live-music supporters in town. But he’s been disappointed of late with the closings of local venues The Mishawaka, The Starlight and Conor O’Neill’s.
“There are not enough places to play in town,” he says.
So now, the highway beckons.
“We are really, really excited to get out,” he says, of the tour. “We are finally breaking out of the shell.”
