On Friday, December 21, Kung Fu held its eighth annual Toys for Tots Celebration at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut. The funk-fusion act offered up a two-set show that was split between a set full of Kung Fu originals and one made up entirely of Stevie Wonder covers. The five-piece band welcomed a number of guests throughout the tribute set. Full show multi-camera video has been shared of the entire evening.
After a full set of their own material, the second set of the night found the quintet playing tribute to Stevie Wonder with the help of Lettuce’s Nigel Hall, Rob Volo of Deep Banana Blackout, Christine Tambakis of Baby Dynamite and Matt Jalbert and Isaac Teel from TAUK. “Higher Ground” from Inversions kicked off the festivities with Hall handling vocals. From there, the ad-hoc ensemble would mine Songs In The Key Of Life for the bulk of the material for the set. Kung Fu & Co. offered up takes on “Ordinary Pain,” “All Day Suck,” “Contusion,” “Black Man” and “As” on Wonder’s seminal 1976 double-album. Watch full show video captured by LiveMusic420 below:
Set One
Set Two
Setlist
Set I: (Original Fu): Cookie Monster, Gung Ho> Caught Up In A Mess, Scrabb, Daddy D> Chop Suey, The Getdown
Set 2 (Stevie Wonder): Higher Ground, Ordinary Pain, All Day Sucker, Signed Sealed Delivered, Contusion, Superstition, Master Blaster, Black Man, He’s Misstra Know It All, Do I Do, As
Encore: I Wish
Notes: Stevie Wonder Set featured special guests Nigel Hall, Rob Volo and Christine Tambakis, Contusion featured Matt Jalbert and AC Carter from TAUK, Superstition featured Matt Jalbert and Isaac Teel from TAUK
