The Floozies rage in the New Year with a dance party at the Bottleneck!

A Happy New Year was guaranteed for all the folks partying with The Floozies at the Bottleneck last night. The night got exponentially wilder, with a wide array of music from jazzy funk, to electronic dub, finishing with The Floozies' slick style of electric funk, a.k.a. Alien Disco.

Beans & Cornbread, an eight-piece jazzy funk band threw down with a diverse set of instruments and well-practiced harmonies between the various band members. The sounds of trumpet, trombone and saxophone blared sheer energy, backed up by a brilliant guitarist, bassist and drummer, all working in harmony alongside smooth vocals. Surprisingly the Topeka-based band has never played in Lawrence before, but gave the Bottleneck a shocking first impression. The bar filled up early, with an eager crowd torn between conserving their energy for the midnight hour and dancing their socks off from start to finish. While Beans & Cornbread warmed the bar up, there were not many people braving the dance floor, but not for lack of good tunes. The band deserved a better audience, but they made up for it with their own energy. For the finale, the horns came down off the stage and stood in front of the audience on the dance floor, giving the crowd an up-close dose of funk.

Beans & Cornbread were a tough act to follow, but rather than setting up another full band, inflect came up with his laptop to do a one-man-act of electronica and IDM. To his credit, inflect had some invigorating, bass-heavy beats that drew out the crowd. Despite the reasonably well-lit venue, it started to feel like a rave in the Bottleneck for parts of this thumping techno set. Even if folks were too drunk or shy to dance much, the music was pleasing and charged up the audience like a bolt of lightning. When The Floozies came on stage it became clear the party has only just begun.

The Hill brothers, Matt and Mark have an uncanny ability to work together through improvisational jams, bouncing off each others beats and melodies. They also play fun, funky covers of songs so different from the original that they are like new songs themselves. The creative juices were positively pouring off the stage as The Floozies churned out funky tunes from 11:30 to 12:30 p.m. in their first set. The crowd adored the hip rhythms and clever harmonies. The only thing that could top The Floozies first set, was their second. Dropping hot beats, whipping the crowd into a dancing frenzy, The Floozies ended the night on a high note, but the everyone would have kept going if they could have. Sadly the bar had to close at the usual time. Thankfully The Floozies' fans are just as cool as the band itself, so there were plenty of great after-parties around town to keep the night going.

If you missed this show, you may have missed the best New Years Eve party in town, but have heart; The Floozies will be playing around the Midwest the next two months. They have a new album, "Under Another Sun" being released on their website for download the 11th, that's 1/11/11. Most exciting of all, they announced today that they will be playing at Wakarusa this summer!