Extended-squad news; live in ATX this Sunday
Happy Friday, fans and friends and family!
First up, the core Austin crew will be returning to the Half Step in Austin this Sunday, September 15, at 8:00pm Central time. We have the whole night so we’ll be busting out some deep cuts, stretching, getting weird, and having an all-around excellent time. The Half Step is a good friend of ours since it was home to the PhotoFunktion jam – probably the closest-related entity to Progger in the universe – for a couple years, but it’ll be the first time we’ve played there as Progger since 2022! It shall be fun. Come on out if you’re in ATX and need to unleash some rage, I know we do.
Secondly, I’ve finally… finally… gotten around to editing some audio and video from our livestream at Monks Jazz Club this past June. The first video, our performance of “Oba-Bow,” is here on YouTube. We’ll drip more out over the next few months, as free time permits.
Finally, I thought I’d share some cool bits of news from our extended squad, who have been up to some fantastic things! Our founding bassist, Nick Clark, has been a busy man indeed, traveling all creation playing with the brilliant Jon Batiste. (Check out this performance from the Grammy awards.) And if you squint real hard you can find him in this Vanity Fair article about the upcoming SNL film. I can confidently say that this is the first appearance of a Progger family member in that particular publication.
Additionally, our beloved guitar-god-homey Akira Ishiguro recently released a smashing solo record with some serious heroes on it, including the great Chris Potter. Make sure to give it a listen!
Many of you are already aware, but several members of our illustrious community, including myself and some of my old Snarky Puppy chums, were tapped by Bruno Mars earlier this year to essentially be the house band for his new club, the Pinky Ring, in Las Vegas. It’s been an unexpected and wonderful experience, and along with the boss himself (who’s really quite excellent at everything he does), we’ve met and played with a slew of other legends from the history of soul and RnB. Phones and cameras are forbidden in the club, so you’ll have to see it in person to hear what we do there, but you’ll find some of us in powder-pink tuxes if you scroll through the official Instagram account.
We have more exciting news that we’re sitting on for the moment, but we’ll be able to spill the beans in a few months. The teaser version is that we have a very exciting 2025 in store. We’ll see our Austin people this Sunday and the rest of you as soon as possible, physically or virtually!
Brian and Progger