Venue
Lineup
In 2023, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe celebrate their 25th anniversary as a band.
KDTU has electrified audiences around the world from the fields of Naeba in Japan at the infamous Fuji Rock Festival to the hallowed stage of Madison Square Garden where they previously joined the Dave Matthews Band and The Godfather of Soul, James Brown. From performing as Sexual Chocolate (Karl was in the original band in the movie Coming To America and its sequel) at the Outside Lands Music festival in San Francisco, to being the first late night act at the inaugural Bonnaroo festival, KDTU have been a dominating force in music for the past 25 years.
All-night, sold-out concerts during Jazzfest in New Orleans have featured sit ins by everyone from Lenny Kravitz & Steve Winwood (with whom Karl has recorded and toured) to avant garde luminaries Marc Ribot & Boyfriend. Chuck Leavell and Bernard Fowler (Karl's bandmates in The Rolling Stones where Karl replaced the great Bobby Keys as saxophonist in 2014) have joined onstage and on record, as have Lukas Nelson, John Oates, Michael Franti, Warren Haynes, Ivan Neville, Anders Osborne, Big Daddy Kane, Roy Hargrove, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Joshua Redman, Marcus King, and Bernie Worrell, among others.
Touring the country with the Allman Brothers, My Morning Jacket, D'Angelo, The Roots, Public Enemy, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, Parliament Funkadelic, Slightly Stoopid, Widespread Panic, very few concert goers have been untouched by the Tiny Universe live. In addition to KDTU, Karl Denson aka "Diesel" is a founding member of the seminal groove act The Greyboy Allstars.
KDTU brings the most creative, danceable and complex funky music available. The arrangements are intricate and the beats sublime. Add in Robert Randolph’s slide guitar and this was a night of music and fun that I will never forget.
Shouldn’t have been billed as a Beastie Boys tribute show. KDTU played at least half their set on their own music. All well and good, if all the advertising hadn’t solely made it seem like the focus would be recreating Beastie Boys music
After seeing Karl D live for 15 years, i had high expectations and was dissapointed not by his band but of the execution. Slightly Stoopid yelled raps on stage and their voiced drowned out the instramentals. They did a decent job impersonating AdRock, Mike D, MCA but the sound engineers butchered the sound. Also expected more intramentals with Slightly Stoopid playing instruments vs running around screeming lyrics. Could have been great but executed poorly. Karl- come back and play a smaller venue, its more your vibe. XO
DJ Z-Trips set was amazing and a “1 of A KIND”. Karl and the Tiny Universe super fun soulful and entered some deep funky grooves. All the musicians collaborated such a great tribute.
The set by DJ ZTrip blew us away with nostalgia, complexity and variety. From Hip Hop to Funk and even a dose of Metallica. He is a true crowd pleasing vinyl savant. We’d seen Karl D in Tokyo at the Blue note and a few times since and he’s even elevated his game. Loved the classics and the new release from the New Orleans sessions but when they started playing the Beastie Boys instrumentals I was in heaven. The brass, the keys the guitar and bad were phenomenal as expected but the dude on percussion was outstanding. Just as we thought it couldn’t get better, he introduced the Beastie Boys redux and they were on point with the tonal variation and did the originals justice! They were hilarious and provided an amazing mood to go along with my MDRN MOOD. Oh… and the Venue. Killer Venue! We were on the rail up on the balcony, so our experience was phenomenal. May have been different if we were standing shoulder to shoulder on the floor but no matter where you are in that place The Sound is sure to be a treat to the ears. The acoustics seemed perfect. Great show at a great price. Honored to be in Karl Densons Tiny Universe especially listening to him jam the timeless B Boys!
How we gonna kick it? We gonna kick it root down! Karl Denson's Tiny Universe with members of Slightly Stoopid and DJ Ztrip curated a mind-blowing and booty-shaking evening of break beat funky jazz hop, showcasing their take on classics from the Beastie Boys catalogue. Karl D never disappoints; he's a national treasure, golden son of San Diego, and intergalactic planetary saxophone god. See ya next time somewhere in this tiny universe.
We went expecting this to be a beastie boys tribute, which it was. But for about 45 mins Karl decides to play about 7 song off his new album. This isn’t what the crowd expected and the vibe that was vibing from z-trip was immediately killed. Kd music is not anything I’d ever listen to. Now, once Slightly Stupid got onstage as the B boys and KD went back to being the band for them (as they should have the entire show) things went crazy and it was an off the hook performance by Slightly Stoopid. Omg I wish the whole show had been them so we could have gotten more beastie songs in. Then I would give it 5 stars. Down to 3 due to karl playing his own songs WAY to long during a tribute to one of the greatest groups in history- the beastie boys!
I could see everyone on stage from the floor- standing room, but I could not hear anyone well. The speakers seemed to all be pointed to the balconies, leaving the floor area with muddy noise. I was disappointed, especially for such a nice venue, where I have seen bands before from the floor without issue, and because the the ticket price was hefty. I left dissatisfied with the venue.
The opening act was bizarre. There were not many Amy Winehouse songs. To be fair, we may have left before she sang more.Danielle Ponder has a beautiful voice and the band was great.
Karl Denson has invented a new genre of music. Fronck is the absolutely seamless unification of Funk and Rock. Denson is both its creator and its master. KTDU lives this genre and brings its audience into unparalleled heights of groove ecstasy, seasoning the sound with just the right amount of jazz intonations and psychedelic explorations. Denson is a national treasure.
