When you see a line up of bands, sometimes the connection is obvious, particularly when they are aligned in an easily identified genre. Sometimes, the connection is less obvious, and you find out they are all on the same label, or have used the same producer. Sometimes, the connection isn’t obvious at all. On a Thursday night in late July over at Turf Club in Saint Paul, we had several different genres all connected with a hefty dose of brass, with Space Monkey Mafia in a headlining turn.

Kicking things off was Sunshine and The Night Walkers. A large band specializing in funk and blues, they have the 2022 album Born in the Basement. There were eight of them (vocals/guitar, vocals, guitar, bass, saxophone, saxophone, trombone, and drums) with six members filling the front line of the stage. Reach Your Hand Out was aggressively funky and had several key moments for the brass section. Frontman Sunshine Parker led in the next number with a funk guitar riff and the band picked up from there. Get a Ticket let Palmer hit the repeated lyric “ride!” with an effective staccato soul sound and we had band and audience bouncing along to the fun. Your Body may have been peak Sunshine and The Night Walkers, giving both individuals (what a sax solo) their moments, but also the band showing off their tight and full arrangements. Noting that they had released a single today, More of Us, which was in support of the Minnesota 15, who have been charged for anti-ICE protest activities on dubious at best conspiracy charges. The band played that number and the ending lyrics of “ain’t no doubt the people will win, take us down, another stands up” reverberated hard. Closing on Chase Funk, Sunshine and The Night Walkers closed a high flying yet efficient set.

Dsc01648 compressed — Sunshine and the Night Walkers

Left on Tenth is a band that originated in Bozeman, Montana, and is now based in Portland. Circling funk and rock, they have three albums including their newest, Croak, which came out in March 2026. The septet (vocals/guitar, bass, trumpet/guitar/vocals, keyboards/sax, sax/flute, percussion, and drums) started with a somewhat slower pace, but the pieces were all in place. I loved the way the band simply started the funky bass riff and drums for the next number while other members finished changing instruments or tuning. The flute showed up and the player was, in fact, also the lead singer for a somewhat sultry sounding number. I was blown away by the amount of dual instrument wielding going on with the band, with mid-number changes for keys and sax, as well as trumpet and guitar (and the guitarist and bassist had switched for the whole song!) A special guest was up on stage playing guitar and things were getting tight up there for the nearly jazzy funk instrumental. We got an intense, ska influenced song that flew in its final stretch and Left on Tenth had hit another gear in these heavier rock numbers in the middle of their set. Another switch of some instruments and tuning paused us for a moment, but just barely as they headed into the song San Diego as we also learned that this was the first time the band had performed in Minnesota. We got our third lead vocalist of the night as the trumpet player (now back on guitar) took lead. Mustache was a brand new song, and “it’s a bit of a cry for help”. After a late number that had a sax player running wild (while still playing) through the entirety of the Turf Club, Left on Tenth closed with a fourth(!) lead vocalist and all three brass members in a dance circle with the crowd. What a performance, and you should look for these guys as they continue their tour.

Headliner Space Monkey Mafia was last up. The Twin Cities based group is in its tenth year as a band, with several albums, including 2025’s Death of the Party. Self-describing as “rooted in the best parts of ’90s/’00s ska and punk”, the Turf Club veterans have an annual Skalloween show they help organize and play. On stage as a septet (vocals/sax, guitar/vocals, bass, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and drums) were off like a shot and that ska influence was undeniable from the first brass hits to the onstage dancing. The energy was infectious and the crowd was all in for the ride. A bit of a reggae song followed and this quickly became another blisteringly paced number. A negative call out of embattled Saint Paul Mayor Her for some recent actions mid-song was well played, and the band rumbled on. A song about “we’re all we got, and that’s not so bad actually”, had multiple vocalists both singing and screaming, and we had some harder rock guitars complementing the ska-based horns. A switch of lead vocalist gave us a different energy, and those dual harmonies were very effective. We got the brass section from Left on Tenth on stage for a song, and I’m pretty sure we had hit max capacity up there. It was also a full blast of sound with eight horns going all out and a complete round robin of solos. The near chaos of that finale brought out a vocal scat and close and the crowd went bezerk. This turned out to be the first of a run of guests, and Space Monkey Mafia was keeping things flying. It was a good set of ska backed covers, and Come Together was pretty brilliantly done. I’m not sure how the band still had the energy, but they plowed right into a horns heavy number that had a nearly menacing interlude. F**k ICE was their most recent number “and one of the most fun to play” and it certainly was catchy. The area in front of the stage had become a full out ska dance area and as they closed, Space Monkey Mafia had put a brassy exclamation point on a very fun evening.