Soulive’s six-night residency at Brooklyn Bowl kept on rolling Friday night, with the jazz-funk trio offering the second installment of Bowlive VIII in continuing celebration of 20 years since their forming and 10 years of Brooklyn Bowl. The evening featured announced special guest bassist Oteil Burbridge for the entire second set and encore, plus surprise guest vocalists in both sets.

As with all Bowlive offerings, guitarist Eric Krasno, drummer Alan Evans and keyboardist Neal Evans kicked off last night’s performance with a run of trio-only tunes, including set opener “El Ron,” “Alladin” (during which a crew member came on stage to do some tune-up work on Neal’s keyboard rig as he was playing), “Azucar,” “Outrage,” and “Waves,” the first cut from Soulive’s most recent EP, Cinematics Vol. 1, that has been played at this Bowlive. After “Fire Eater,” the band welcomed out vocalist Elliott Skinner, who led the band on a cover of The Beatles Abbey Road classic “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” to close the set.

Soulive brought out Burbridge to start out the second set, and the bassist added a unique facet to the band for the rest of the night, taking over the low-end duties that Neal usually handles and providing several moments of impressive bass solos and some crowd-pleasing bass-and-vocal scatting. The set kicked off with Burbridge’s own “Butter Biscuit,” followed by Soulive’s “Hat Trick” and a cover of Bob Marley’s “Natural Mystic.” After “Backwards Jack,” the collective brought out Skinner again, along with 20-year-old Spanish-American vocalist Victoria Canal, who took lead on a cover of Aretha Franklin’s classic “Natural Woman.” The quartet then wrapped up the set with high-energy takes on two staple Soulive covers, The Beatles’ “Get Back” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression.” Later, Burbridge joined the trio again for an encore of the Grateful Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain,” with the Dead & Company bassist taking lead vocal duties.

Check out the full setlist below, along with pro-shot video of the entire show via The Relix Channel’s free stream. Soulive return to Brooklyn Bowl tonight for round three of Bowlive VIII, featuring guest guitarist John Scofield.

Soulive
Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY

Set I: El Ron, Alladin, Azucar, Outrage, Waves, Fire Eater, I Want You (She’s So Heavy^

Set II: Butter Biscuit*, Hat Trick*, Natural Mystic*, Backwards Jack*, Natural Woman*+, Get Back*, Manic Depression*

Enc: Fire on the Mountain*

Notes: ^ w/ Elliott Skinner
* w/ Oteil Burbridge
+ w/ Victoria Canal and Elliott Skinner